What's New in DevTools (Microsoft Edge 85)

To check out the latest features of Microsoft Edge DevTools and the Microsoft Edge DevTools extension for Microsoft Visual Studio Code and Visual Studio, read these announcements.

To stay up to date and get the latest DevTools features, download an Insiders preview version of Microsoft Edge. Whether you're on Windows, Linux, or macOS, consider using Canary (or another preview channel) as your default development browser. The Beta, Dev, and Canary versions of Microsoft Edge run as separate apps, side-by-side with the stable, released version of Microsoft Edge. See Microsoft Edge Insider Channels.

For the latest announcements, follow the Microsoft Edge team on Twitter. To report a problem with DevTools or ask for a new feature, file an issue in the MicrosoftEdge/DevTools repo.

Announcements from the Microsoft Edge DevTools team

CSS grid debugging features

The Microsoft Edge DevTools team is collaborating with the Chrome DevTools team and Chromium community to add new CSS grid debugging features to DevTools. You can now display grid line numbers, grid gaps, and extended grid lines as an on-page overlay. Plus, more improvements to the grid tools are coming soon.

CSS grid debugging features

Update: This feature has been released and is no longer experimental.

To try out the experiment with a sample, see CSS Grid planner example.

Chromium issue #1047356

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Edit and Replay requests with the Network Console

You can now use Edit and Replay on requests in the Network Log using the Network Console. Open the Network Log, right-click, and then select Edit and Replay:

Edit and Replay a request in the NetworkLog with the Network Console

A new panel, the Network Console opens in the DevTools Drawer and automatically populates with information for the HTTP request. To display the response returned from the server, edit the request (if needed) and select Send.

You can also use the Network Console to create and send HTTP requests directly from the DevTools.

The Network Console panel

Tip: To display Network Console in the main (top) panel instead of the DevTools Drawer, see moving tools between panels.

Update: This feature has been released and is no longer experimental.

Chromium issue #1093687

Service worker respondWith events in the Timing tab

The Timing tab of the Network tool now includes respondWith service worker events. The respondWith service worker event shows the duration from the time immediately before the service worker fetch event handler starts running to the time when the respondWith promise of the fetch handler is settled.

The respondWith service worker event in the Timing tab of the Network panel

Expand Response received to display additional information from the fetch response like CacheStorageCacheName, serviceWorkerResponseSource, and ResponseTime.

Expand Response received to display additional information from the fetch response

Chromium issue #1066579

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webhint feedback in the Issues panel

Experimental feature

webhint is an open-source tool that provides real-time feedback on the accessibility, cross-browser compatibility, security, performance, PWAs, and other common web development issues of websites. You can view webhint feedback in the Issues panel.

webhint feedback in the Issues panel

To enable the experiment, see Turning an experiment on or off and select the checkbox next to Enable webhint. Open the Issues panel to display feedback from webhint.

Chromium issue #1070378

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Move tools between panels

Normally, tools such as Elements and Network may only be opened in the main (top) panel of DevTools. Similarly, tools such as 3D View and Issues may only be opened in the drawer (bottom) panel of DevTools. You can now customize your DevTools layout by moving tools between the top and bottom panels.

Move tools between panels

Update: This feature has been released and is no longer experimental.

Chromium issue #897944

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Improved Initiator tooltip in the Network panel

In Microsoft Edge 83 and 84, tooltips for the Initiator column, which shows the cause of the resource request, in the Network Log displayed with a horizontal scrollbar. You were only able to display the call stack that initiated the request by scrolling horizontally in the tooltip.

The Initiator tooltip in Microsoft Edge 84

Starting with Microsoft Edge 85, you can now display the Initiator call stack in the tooltip without scrolling horizontally.

The Initiator tooltip in Microsoft Edge 85

Chromium issue #1069404

Announcements from the Chromium project

The following sections announce additional features available in Microsoft Edge 85 that were contributed to the open source Chromium project.

Style editing for CSS-in-JS frameworks

The Styles pane now has better support for editing styles that were created with the CSS Object Model (CSSOM) APIs. Many CSS-in-JS frameworks and libraries use the CSSOM APIs under the hood to construct styles.

You can now edit styles that were added in JavaScript using the CSSStyleSheet interface, which is a new way to create and distribute reusable styles when using Shadow DOM. See The CSSStyleSheet Interface in CSS Object Model (CSSOM).

For example, the h1 styles added with CSSStyleSheet (CSSOM APIs) were not editable previously. The styles are editable now in the Styles panel.

Changing the background property of the h1 styles added with CSSStyleSheet from pink to lightblue

Give this feature a try with a sample that uses CSS-in-JS. See Style editing for CSS-in-JS frameworks.

Chromium issue #946975

Lighthouse 6 in the Lighthouse panel

The Lighthouse panel is now running Lighthouse 6. For a full list of all changes, see v6.0.0 release notes.

Lighthouse 6.0 introduces three new metrics to the report: Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS), and Total Blocking Time (TBT).

The performance score formula has also been reweighted to better reflect the loading experience of the user.

Chromium issue #772558

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First Meaningful Paint deprecation

First Meaningful Paint (FMP) is deprecated in Lighthouse 6.0. FMP has also been removed from the Performance panel. Largest Contentful Paint is the recommended replacement for FMP.

Chromium issue #1096008

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Support for new JavaScript features

DevTools now has better support for some of the latest JavaScript language features:

  • Optional chaining syntax autocompletion. Property auto-completion in the Console now supports optional chaining syntax, for example, name?. now works in addition to name. and name[.

  • Syntax highlighting for private fields. Private class fields are now properly syntax-highlighted and pretty-printed in the Sources panel.

  • Syntax highlighting for Nullish coalescing operator. DevTools now properly pretty-prints the nullish coalescing operator in the Sources panel.

Chromium issues #1073903, #1083214, #1083797

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New app shortcut warnings in the Manifest pane

In the Application tool, App shortcuts help users quickly start common or recommended tasks within a web app.

In the Application tool, the Manifest pane now shows warnings for the following conditions:

  • When the app shortcut icons are smaller than 96x96 pixels.
  • When the app shortcut icons and manifest icons aren't square (since the icons are ignored).

App shortcut warnings

Chromium issue #955497

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Consistent display of the Computed pane

The Computed pane in the Elements tool is now displayed consistently as a pane across all viewport sizes. Previously, the Computed pane merged inside of the Styles pane when DevTools was narrow.

The Computed pane is consistently displayed as a separate pane, even when DevTools is narrow

Chromium issue #1073899

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Bytecode offsets for WebAssembly files

DevTools now uses bytecode offsets for displaying line numbers of Wasm disassembly. The line numbers make it clearer that you are looking at binary data, and is more consistent with how the Wasm runtime references locations.

Chromium issue #1071432

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Line-wise copy and cut in Sources Panel

When performing copy or cut with no selection in the Sources panel editor, DevTools copies or cuts the current line of content.

With the cursor at the end of Line 5, copying the whole line from pen.js in the DevTools and pasting in Visual Studio Code

Chromium issue #800028

Console Settings updates

Ungroup same console messages

The Group similar toggle in Console Settings now applies to duplicate messages. Previously it just applied to similar messages.

For example, previously, DevTools did not ungroup the hello messages even though Group similar is unchecked. Now, the hello messages are ungrouped.

When Group similar is unchecked, the hello messages are ungrouped

Give this feature a try with a sample that sends duplicate messages to the Console.

Chromium issue #1082963

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Persisting Selected context only settings

The Selected context only settings in Console Settings is now persisted. Previously the settings were reset every time you closed and reopened DevTools. The change makes the setting behavior consistent with other Console Settings options.

Selected context only setting

Chromium issue #1055875

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Performance panel updates

JavaScript compilation cache information in Performance tool

JavaScript compilation cache information is now always displayed in the Summary panel of the Performance tool. Previously, DevTools did not show anything related to code caching if code caching did not happen.

JavaScript compilation cache information

Chromium issue #912581

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Previously, the Performance panel showed times in the rulers based on when the recording started. The timing has now changed for recordings where the user navigates. DevTools now shows ruler times relative to the navigation, instead of when the recording started.

Align navigation timing in Performance tool

The times for DOMContentLoaded, First Paint, First Contentful Paint, and Largest Contentful Paint events are updated to be relative to the start of the navigation, which means the timing matches the timings reported by PerformanceObserver.

Chromium issue #974550

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New icons for breakpoints, conditional breakpoints, and logpoints

Update: As of 2022, breakpoints are now indicated by a blue rectangle, instead of a red circle.

The Sources panel has new designs for breakpoints, conditional breakpoints, and logpoints. Breakpoints are represented by a red circle, just like Visual Studio Code and Visual Studio. Icons are added to differentiate conditional breakpoints and logpoints.

Breakpoint indicators

Chromium issue #1041830

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Note

Portions of this page are modifications based on work created and shared by Google and used according to terms described in the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The original page is found here and is authored by Jecelyn Yeen (Developer advocate, Chrome DevTools).

Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.