Microsoft Edge is about to lock out older ad blockers, just like Chrome did

Microsoft Edge is ending support for the Manifest V2 extensions platform. This change will affect some ad blockers, including uBlock Origin, which will no longer work in the browser. According to The Verge, there are 58 extensions on the Edge Add-On Store with meaningful usage that still use MV2, but only three of these are available on the newer MV3 platform.

The transition to MV3, which promises better security, privacy, and performance, will happen gradually. Digital Trends reports that remaining MV2 extensions will start being disabled by default in Canary, Dev, and Beta versions of Edge this month, before expanding to the Stable release in the coming months. Consumer devices are expected to complete the transition by the end of 2026.

Users of affected extensions, such as uBlock Origin, can switch to alternative ad blockers like uBlock Origin Lite. Alternatively, they can use a different browser, such as Opera, which still supports existing MV2 extensions. Techmeme reports that enterprise users will continue to receive support until early 2027.

Brief written by urgent.news from The Verge, Digital Trends, Techmeme — 3 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.