One of the prominent changes that came with Windows 10 is the Microsoft Edge, a major upgrade of the Internet Explorer. Microsoft supplies Edge as a preinstalled browser as part of the OS that you can’t remove from your computer. Edge browser integrates and works well with native Windows 10 features like “Cortana” and “OneDrive” among others. Moreover, Microsoft Edge provides a safer and faster browsing experience as well as other performance benefits compared to its competitors. This guide will help you to understand various features of the Edge browser and customize for a better online experience.
Below is the layout of Edge browser as per Microsoft.
Microsoft Edge Main Features
- To open Edge, double click the icon on the desktop, or click it on the taskbar.
- Edge hides most of the menu items, displaying a simple interface that allows you to focus more on the page content. Besides, you can switch on and off features from a single click.
- At the top of the browser window, you will see the open tabs, navigation buttons, the address/ search bar, menu icon, and the toolbar.
- The main pane of the browser window displays suggested content and your top (frequent visited) sites.
- You can manage tabs by adding a new tab or by hiding some tabs for later use. To open a new tab, click the “+” sign next to the existing tabs.
- You may also right-click the tab for more options such as closing tab(s), duplicating the tab, pin or refresh tabs among other things.
- You can set aside tabs by clicking the button before the first tab and at the right-most top corner, click the icon to view the set-aside tabs.
- The navigation button helps you move back or forward to a previous site (left and right arrow), refresh the tab (the circular arrow), and open the home page of the browser (the home icon).
Favorite/ Note/ Web Reading View Features
- To enhance your browsing experience, Edge allows you to switch to a “Read view” mode. To activate the tool, click on the icon with two white vertical bars located at the left edge of the address bar.
- Moreover, you can use the “Read View” bar to modify the font size, the page theme, switch to full screen or audio reading.
- Another interesting feature is the “Note” tool that enables you to make notes on the web page. Click the “Notes” tool (Pen icon at the top-left corner) and use the various tabs to highlight, clip and save a section of the page.
- Click the “Favorite” icon (Star) on the address bar to add the page to your favorites.
Customizing Microsoft Edge Browser
Edge offers several ways of personalizing your browsing experience. You can manage the appearance, bookmarks, browser data, and many other things.
1. Make Edge Your Default Browser
- Click the menu icon (3 horizontal dots) at the upper left corner of the browser and select “Settings” at the bottom of the list.
- If Edge is not your default browser, you will see “Change my default” at the top of the settings. Click the link to open the default app settings.
- Scroll down to “Web browser”, click the current default app and choose “Microsoft Edge” from the list.
2. Personalizing Browser Appearance and New Tab Page Content
- On the “Settings” pane, you can change the browser theme. Click the arrow below the title, “Choose a theme” and choose between “Dark” and “Light” theme.
- Additionally, you can specify which page(s) you want to load when you launch Edge or on a new tab.
Related: Remove thumbnails from Chrome new tab.
- On launch options.
- New tab options.
3. Managing Edge Browser Data
Microsoft Edge stores your browsing data including browsing history, cookies, and cache among other information.
- To clear the browser data click “Choose what to clear” under the “Clear browsing data” heading.
- Tick every type of data you want to delete and click the “Clear” button. You may toggle on the switch at the bottom, if you want the browser to clear all data after every session.
4. Managing Favorites (Bookmarks)
- Scroll down the settings list to find “Import favorite…”, toggle the switch below “Favorites bar” to show or hide the bar.
- To import bookmarks from other browsers, follow the link “Import from…” and select the other browser from the list. Then click the “Import” button.
5. Edge Advanced Settings
Use the Advance settings to activate/ deactivate more features. Click “Advanced settings” from the settings. Here you can play around with several changes such as:
- Show/ hide the “Home button”.
- Block or unblock pop-up ads.
- Enable/ Disable Flash player and sites in app mode.
- Manage download location.
Wrapping Up
Microsoft Edge is a Windows 10 in-built browser that offers a variety of security and performance features to the users. The browser has a simple interface that helps you to pay attention to the page content, as well as toggle switches to turn features on and off when need be. Besides, it is integrated with other Windows 10 features to increase your online productivity.
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