Now Vole has explained that it is "building a thoughtfully curated ecosystem", citing concern over quality and a fear of diminishing the "user experience".

What most people in the industry would describe as “slow as an asthmatic ant with a heavy load of shopping”, Vole is trying to convince us it is actually a "purposefully metered approach" to new extensions.

To make matters worse, Microsoft is not going to speed up its process so the chance of getting a full range of extensions is unlikely.

Colleen Williams, senior program manager for Microsoft Edge, said: "We want Microsoft Edge to be your favourite browser, with the fundamentals you expect -- speed, power efficiency, reliability, security."

She also added: "Astute observers of our release notes and active testers in the Insider program may have noticed that some preview builds break extensions temporarily."