Microsoft's free in-browser VPN for Edge has started showing up for some users

A lucky few adventurers in the Canary channel will get to try it out

Credit where credit is due: Microsoft Edge has gotten pretty good. Since the company rebuilt its web browser using Chromium as the base, it actually provides a nice browsing experience — that is, whenever it's not begging you to stick with it. But despite Microsoft's best efforts and the fact that it's starting to see some growth, Chrome still has an indisputable market lead. The latest attempt to bridge the gap and get you to switch while also boosting your security and privacy includes an in-browser VPN, which is now being rolled out to some.

With an announcement post on one of its community blogs, Microsoft has revealed that testing for Secure Network, the official name for the feature, has kicked off on Edge Canary. The Cloudflare-powered VPN is in a preview stage and part of a limited rollout currently, meaning it's not guaranteed to show up for you even on Canary. But if you're one of the few lucky ones, you'll need to log in with your Microsoft account in order to use it, then head to the settings panel and click "Secure Network" to turn it on.

The feature was first detailed on a support page (via The Verge) late last month and is meant precisely as a means to armor yourself from insecure networks and shady websites. 1GB of free data will be given as part of this initial testing phase, but considering that's nearly not enough for streaming videos or games, more premium plans in the future with higher data caps are definitely in the realm of possibility.

That said, Edge is far from the only browser these days with a complementary VPN. Opera also has one, and if you're willing to pay, you can get an official VPN running in your Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome instances. The presence of a fully-free VPN on Microsoft Edge gives the browser an edge (no pun intended) over its two main competitors and it'll sure come handy for folks looking to boost up their online safety.