Over a month ago, I decided it was time to update all of the Microsoft Edge chapters in the Windows 11 Field Guide to address the many changes that Microsoft had made to its web browser since late 2022. The resulting snafu resulted in the longest period of inactivity on the book yet.

Let me explain.

Actually, I already explained most of this in Still Feeling a Little Edgy (Premium). Long story short, I did update two of the 7 Microsoft Edge chapters in the book with all-new screenshots and some new content, only to find out that the version of the Edge visual refresh I was using wasn’t the final look and feel. And that realization ground everything to a halt.

I can’t express how deflating something like that is. But I touched on this topic back in March when I was trying to get Windows Everywhere out the door and ran into a technical issue with Leanpub that just destroyed all my forward momentum. I’m not sure if it’s just me, or whether this is something that impacts all writers, but outside forces can sometimes just ruin everything. And the visual refresh stuff certainly did that for me with the Windows 11 Field Guide.

The thing is, I can’t even stand using Microsoft Edge at the best of times. I hate this browser for so many reasons, but it’s gotten slow and bloated compared to Brave, the browser I use and recommend, and so it was hard enough to suck it up and actually try to use the damn thing for the few weeks I’d be updating that part of the book. But then Microsoft showed up at Build 2023 with a version of the Edge visual refresh that differed from what I was using. And I can still hear that deflating balloon sound in my brain.

What can I say? I walked away from it for a while. I just couldn’t deal with it.

But last week, finally, my blood pressure had cooled to the point where I felt I should try and get through it again. It meant retaking and re-editing over 100 screenshots that I had already redone and then continuing through the other five Edge chapters and retaking all of those shots as well. I spent a good chunk of last week, most of the past weekend, and part of Monday doing this. And … it’s done, whatever that means. The content edits and additions are light. There are some topics I will want to add later, like Workspaces (which only impacts those with Work or School accounts). And I still have one or more new Edge chapters I could add to the book in the future. But it’s enough for now. I need to walk away from that content for a while. (That said, I still need to update the Edge content in the web version of the book here on Thurrott.com too. I can’t wait.)

Beyond the Edge updates, there are a handful of small updates related to Moment 3 as well. Moment 3 is not a big update, so this wasn’t too time-consuming. But here, too, I’m not really done: I still need to update the Widgets and Windows Update chapters to address some recent changes to them as well. And so I will do that next.

After that, I will move on to the remaining unpublished chapters, which are either partially written (PowerShell) or not yet started. There are actually over a dozen of those, more than I’d like. And I have this creeping suspicion that by the time I get in front of this, Microsoft will have announced Windows 12, throwing everything into a blender yet again. But I’ll figure that out when and if it happens.

For now, the book remains roughly the same length as before, it’s 858 pages in PDF form. I’m sure I’ll finish it eventually. 🙂