Microsoft aims to bring ‘Super Duper Safe Mode’ to your Edge browser for a safer browsing experience. With this oddly named mode, Edge will improve security levels while browsing the Internet without being on the edge of your seat.
Now, the question arises how this Microsoft Edge Super Duper safe mode provides enhanced security. First, it disables an important optimization feature, which helps the Edge browser provide additional layers of security.
This new mode makes your browsing safer without sacrificing performance. This all sounds intriguing, right? And if you are concerned about security, but still not sure, read on to learn more about this mode.
Here’s how to use Microsoft Edge Super Duper Safe Mode.
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What is Super Duper Safe Mode?
Microsoft keeps adding features to improve the performance of your Edge browser and offer stiff competition to Google Chrome. At the time of writing this article in August 2021, the Super Duper Secure Mode feature is still in its experimental phase. That means you will experience glitches and inconsistencies if you enable this mode.
Enabling Super Duper safe mode will address JavaScript vulnerabilities, which the attacker primarily targets in the Edge browser. To mitigate that and make it harder for nefarious code to run rampant, the browser will use other advanced security features like Windows Abitrary Code Guard (ACG), Control Flow Guard (CFG), and Intel’s Control-flow Enforcement Technology (CET).
Don’t worry, the long-term goal of this feature is to allow JavaScript on websites to function normally without compromising the security and performance of the Edge browser.
Johnathan Norman, head of vulnerability research at Microsoft Edge, noted in a blog post that JIT-related security issues accounted for approximately 45% of all V8 processing vulnerabilities in 2019. The Super Duper Secure Mode feature activates Intel’s Control-Flow Enforcement Technology (CET), which protects your PC against common malware.
To put it plainly, the Edge browser will allow you to disable the JavaScript engine and allow you to rely on other security measures. So while this mode has several technical challenges ahead of it, you can give it a spin and be a part of the testing.
Let’s now see how you can enable or disable Super Duper safe mode in Edge.
How to enable Super Duper safe mode in Microsoft Edge
Before we begin, it is important to note that this security feature is only available on the experimental Microsoft Edge channel, i.e. Beta Channel, Dev Channel, or Canary Channel. That means it may take a couple of weeks or months to get to the stable version.
Go to the official Microsoft Edge download page and download any of the experimental versions of the browser.
Microsoft Edge download page
Step 1: In the address bar of the browser, type the following address and press Enter:
edge: // flags
Step 2: In the search bar, enter Super Duper safe mode and hit Enter.
Step 3: Click the drop-down menu to change Default to On.
Step 4: Click the Restart button in the lower right corner of the Microsoft Edge banner page to restart the browser and apply the changes.
How to disable SDSM mode in Microsoft Edge
If Edge performance or browsing experience is not working for you, you can disable this mode. Disabling Super Duper safe mode in Microsoft Edge is like enabling the feature.
Step 1: Type the following in the address bar of the Microsoft Edge browser and press Enter:
edge: // flags
Step 2: Find Super Duper safe mode in the search bar and hit Enter button.
Step 3: Click the drop-down menu to select Disabled.
Step 4: Restart the Edge browser by clicking the Restart button that appears in the lower right corner to apply the change.
Pros and cons of Super Duper safe mode
While this mode is still experimental, there are some positives and negatives to be aware of. Speaking of professionals, Microsoft Edge Super Duper’s safe mode is intended to provide enhanced security while browsing. User data and privacy will be protected with advanced security layers to make the browsing experience less worrisome.
Also, you won’t feel any significant performance or stability issues with your browser after enabling this feature. Another critical benefit of this mode is that it will reduce dependency on frequent security updates. The reason is that you would eliminate most of the V8 errors due to Just In Time by disabling it.
On the other hand, since this mode is still in the experimental phase, you will encounter some hiccups. The sites you visit regularly will not notice any difference in your browser. Therefore, this feature may go unnoticed by most users. However, be careful when browsing sites that are known to launch adware.
Also, disabling Just In Time (JIT) will make the browser a bit slower than usual, as Just In Time makes a website’s code run faster. So, if you are desperately looking for a super safe browsing experience, you should give this feature a try right away.
Safe browsing on the edge
While Microsoft has announced this new feature for Microsoft Edge’s experimental channels, there is no guarantee that they will bring it to stable. Hopefully, with some positive feedback from security-conscious users, this super security mode will see the light of day in the future.
