And it is that when it comes to improving the security and privacy of users on the network, all measures are welcome. The arrival of this new security feature for Edge represents a new way of safe browsing without sacrificing performance. To do this, disable an optimization feature that will help the browser to provide new additional layers of security.
How Super Duper Mode Improves Security
Microsoft’s main objective is to reduce the market share of Google Chrome and for this it needs to provide its browser with important news so that users decide to bet on its use. One of these performance improvements for Edge arrived last August with its new safe mode, called Super duper.
When we enable this new safe mode in Edge, the browser takes care of addressing JavaScript vulnerabilities, which is the main attack method in Edge. For it remove JIT compilation from the V8 JavaScript engine. This reduces the attack surface used by hackers to hack into users’ systems. It should be noted that many studies carried out in 2019 already found that the main vulnerabilities of the V8 JavaScript engine and WebAssembly were related to the JIT compiler.
To mitigate the effects of this action, Edge will start using other advanced security features. These include Intel’s “Control Flow Guard” and “Control-flow Enforcement Technology” as well as Windows “Abitrary Code Guard.” So, in other words, the Edge browser will allow us to disable the JavaScript engine. But despite this, it allows us to rely on other security measures. Thus, the long-term goal of this feature is to allow JavaScript-enabled websites to function properly without compromising the security and performance of Microsoft Edge.
Advantages and disadvantages
This new safe mode of Microsoft Edge has both positive and negative aspects that we must know before proceeding with its activation. On the one hand, we are talking about a function that is intended to improve our security while we sail. This is something that it achieves by ensuring that both data and our privacy are protected by new advanced security layers, thereby ensuring that we have a less worrisome browsing experience.
Its use is now available for the stable version of Edge. Thanks to this, we should not feel any significant problem in terms of the performance or stability of the browser once we have enabled this function. We will also reduce our current dependency on frequent security updates, since it eliminates the problems of the JIT compilation of the V8 JavaScript engine by disabling it.
On the other hand, although this mode can already be activated in the official version of Edge, the truth is that it is still a experimental mode. Therefore, it is possible that we may encounter some setbacks. When browsing, the websites that we visit frequently should not notice any difference in the browser. This means that it can become a feature that can go unnoticed by the user.
Also, disabling the JavaScript JIT compilation may cause the browser to behave more slowly than usual. This can happen because JIT makes a website’s code load substantially faster. However, if we are looking for the safest possible browsing experience and Edge is our default browser, then we should not bypass this new Edge Super Duper mode and activate it immediately.
Enable or disable security mode
At this point you will wonder how to activate this new security mode. To enable Edge’s Super Duper safe mode, it is very important that we have the latest version of Microsoft’s browser. Therefore, it is convenient to have it updated to the version 94.0.992.50 or higher. This is something we can do by clicking on the three points in the upper right and clicking on “Settings”. In the new window, in the left column, click on «About Microsoft Edge».
If the update is necessary, it will appear in the column on the right. It would only be necessary to restart the browser once downloaded to have it updated. Another option goes through directly download the latest version of Edge available on the Microsoft website.
Later, when we open the browser, we click inside the address bar, type the following command and press Enter:
edge://flags/
This configuration section is the one that allows us to test new and more advanced browser features. This is similar to what happens with other browsers such as Chrome or Firefox. Next, in the search indicator box, just below the address bar, we must enter the following text and press the Enter key:
#edge-enable-super-duper-secure-mode
This will take us directly to Edge’s new Super Duper safe mode. Here we will find a button on the right side that default power appears as «Default». For this reason, we must press on the drop-down menu to change this default state to that of “Enabled” (Enabled).
Once this is done, we only have to click on the “Restart” button that appears at the bottom right, in order to restart the browser and the changes are applied.
It is important to know that we can disable this function at any time if we are not satisfied with its performance. To do this, it will only be necessary to repeat all the previous steps and change the “Enabled” button to “Disabled” (Disabled). Later we restart the browser and the Super Duper safe mode will be disabled, so Edge will work again as it did before being activated.