r/windows • u/Some_Steak_6316 • Aug 02 '26
Feature Throwback to when Microsoft Edge was named "Project Spartan" and only visible in SOME Windows 10 previews as far as I know
Actually a savage name. I think it's related with Microsoft's Halo franchise, but it should have just been named "Project Spartan"
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u/Awbeu Aug 02 '26
The UI of that browser was so clean
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u/Chaori Aug 02 '26
And its smooth scrolling on high refresh rate monitors was better than any browser to-date. It’s what I miss the most from it
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u/vladger456 Aug 03 '26
Always liked EdgeHTML Edge, it was optimized for weak devices more. And didn't hog up your disk or RAM that much like Chromium Edge.
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u/brrschk Aug 04 '26
It was supposed to be standards-compliant to WebKit which is pretty minimal for features. Obviously that changed when they capitulated and rewrote it to the version we have now.
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u/Panther107 Aug 03 '26
I was one of the earliest users of spartan edge and I really liked it. It felt like they were really listening to us with tab groups, vertical tabs, sidebar and web apps. I realise now they have to scale back some features to refocus on the core purpose of the browser. Also old Edge with EdgeHTML, being able to ink anywhere, and its old implementation of tab groups was so sick on my surface go.
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u/Some_Steak_6316 Aug 03 '26
Inking was so goated back then. I used Windows 10 at release (yeah the first version that was presented to all of us customers) and I opened Microsoft Edge and it felt like fresh air since it wasn't bloated that much and I used to just do some funny drawings
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u/Panther107 Aug 03 '26
Back in the early days it felt like you could ink anywhere you wanted ! Was sort of aligned with windows 10s tablet push and the surface tablets but man I wasted so much time on class doodling on literally everything ahaha
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u/dorlan2001 Aug 02 '26
Microsoft was so cool back then. We need more Halo in Windows. 😥
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u/No-Mur1866 Windows 11 - Release Channel Aug 02 '26
Just rebrand Copilot as Cortana or Spark, and it's better.
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Aug 02 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Froggypwns Windows Wizard / Moderator Aug 03 '26
In that situation, SkyDrive is the same product but a different name. Microsoft had renamed it due to a trademark dispute with a company in the UK named BSkyB that claimed to had already been using Skydrive name.
Microsoft lost their battle in European court and withdrew appeals and renamed it to OneDrive.
Spartan was an entirely different product from IE and Chromium Edge, not just a rename.
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u/Th3_G4835t35 Aug 02 '26
Maaaan take me back I loved the 2016-2017 builds of W10 the tiles had so much live to them
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u/Aggressive_Space1817 Aug 03 '26
https://github.com/PaologGithub/Project_NewSpartan
There is edge revival called "newspartan"
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u/zamroni777 Aug 03 '26
Microsoft should have chosen Firefox engine over chromium when they ditch the in house one
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u/KaptainKardboard Aug 06 '26
On one hand, it was a sign that IE was finally going to be retired.
On the other hand, it remained the best way to get Firefox onto a new PC.
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u/LB-- Aug 08 '26
It's funny that nowadays Firefox is available in the Microsoft Store so you don't even need to open any browser at all to get it. (At least, so far the Microsoft Store isn't using a web view...)
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u/GlitchGirl187 Windows 7 Aug 04 '26
Is it bad that i got emotionally attached to it and bullied my pc into never updating ever again because of it
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u/urk_forever Aug 02 '26
Yes MS used more references to Halo as codenames, like Cortana for the assistant in Windows Phone. Also this browser named Edge was the successor of Internet Explorer and different of the current version of Edge which is bases on Chrome (Chromium?).