Microsoft’s modern Edge browser boasts plenty of features designed to enrich your web browsing experience, from adding extensions for protecting privacy or playing in-browser games, to offering features for improving security.
Edge provides powerful users with some useful tools. For example, its task manager lets them quickly determine which tabs and extensions are consuming the most CPU and memory resources.
Vertical tabs
As soon as you have multiple tabs open in your web browser, they can become unruly. You might lose track of where you were or even close tabs accidentally without realizing. Microsoft Edge recently introduced vertical tabs as an effective solution that will move all of your tabs from the top down into its left sidebar for easier browsing and control over tabs – plus its 16:9 screen compatibility makes this an excellent solution.
If you want to give this experiment a try, click the three dot icon in the upper right corner and select “Settings.” When in “Tabs,” click on “Show vertical tabs” before toggling them on or off by clicking again on that same icon – although switching them back off could also return your default user interface!
Vertical tabs may not be as popular, but they still make for an effective way to manage tabs and save screen space. Plus, you’re able to view full tab names more clearly on a clean list; making this form factor better fit 16:9 aspect ratio laptop screens.
Microsoft Edge stands out from other Chromium-based browsers by being capable of stacking tabs vertically instead of in an endless line at the top of its window, which makes it easier to keep an eye on all your tabs at once and can especially come in handy when working on projects requiring intensive concentration.
One unique advantage is that this allows the active tab to remain front and center while still showing inactive tab information on a separate sidebar – perfect for when conducting research projects or comparison shopping across retailers and don’t want your browser to become overrun with tabs!
Microsoft Edge also gives you the power to personalize your new tab page for optimal workflow and browsing experiences. Customizing its layout so as to include calendar events, weather updates, task manager notifications and news feeds is available – experiment with all these options until you discover which works best for you and enjoy more personalized web browsing experiences!
Startup Boost
Startup Boost, designed to optimize device performance, has made its debut this month in Edge 89 and won’t cost much in resources, according to Microsoft, but may increase startup times on low-end devices by preloading core Microsoft Edge processes at system start up time. It allows the browser to launch quicker when users log in or restart Windows. It has begun rolling out this month as part of Edge’s stable update release schedule.
Microsoft’s Startup Boost is enabled by default and can be disabled through registry settings; however, on systems running Edge as their primary browser it may be more challenging to do so and even IT administrators without access to the registry may find it hard to identify whether Edge is starting during startup process; for this reason it’s essential that IT administrators utilize tools capable of detecting when Edge launches at bootup.
There are multiple ways to determine whether Edge is using Startup Boost. One is by visiting its settings page by typing edge://settings/system into a browser window – if the Startup Boost switch turns blue it indicates activation. Another method involves opening Task Manager or autoruns and checking if Edge appears as part of a list of programs launching when Windows boots.
Administrators can also configure a group policy to disable Edge’s Startup Boost feature on managed devices. The process is easy, without needing for scripts or external tools. To create a device configuration policy in Intune, log in and navigate to Devices > Windows > Configuration Profiles. From here, click Create Profile in order to launch the Create Profile Wizard and get your policy underway. On the Windows Configuration tab, select your device type and a settings catalog from the drop-down menu. Next, modify a setting you would like to alter and click Next – scope tags can also help restrict who can modify specific settings. When finished creating a device configuration policy you can deploy it across users.
Never put sites to sleep
Are You an Active Internet User? If you use the Internet frequently, then you are well aware of how resource-hungry browsers can be. Opening multiple tabs at once consumes system resources quickly, impacting overall device performance and slowing it down significantly. Microsoft recognized this issue and created sleeping tabs to reduce resource consumption; inactive tabs will go into sleep mode after an amount of time which frees up memory and CPU resources to be allocated elsewhere – similar to tab hibernation features found in some modern browsers – for similar functionality follow these steps:
To access this feature, click on the menu icon and select “Settings and more.” From there you will see a list of options; to enable this one specifically click “Settings,” scroll to the bottom, find “Save resources with sleeping tabs,” click on it then enable by clicking on its button.
Once enabled, this feature will cause pages you have not opened in some time to fade into view, helping to conserve resources and improve browser performance as well as extend battery life on devices.
However, this feature may interfere with websites that require frequent refreshing. If this is the case for you, disable “Save resources with sleeping tabs”.
Microsoft recently unveiled their biggest update to Edge since migrating to Chromium source code in 2018. This release focused on enterprises, featuring features like intranet and internet search integration that allows users to quickly locate company information such as departments, team members and office locations quickly. Furthermore, support for pen input allows these devices to operate more seamlessly – something not possible previously with touch devices such as tablets or hybrids.
Power saving
Edge is the default browser included with Windows 11, yet it has plenty of extra benefits beyond simple browsing capabilities. Built around Chromium-based technology, this web browser features built-in Bing search capability as well as other search engine options. Furthermore, extensions from the Chrome Web Store are supported as well as cross-device synchronization of bookmarks, history and passwords across signed-in devices.
Microsoft has made great efforts to reduce Edge’s resource requirements compared to Chrome, but older hardware may still make it slow and draining. To address this, Microsoft implemented Efficiency mode as a power-saving mechanism – automatically activating when battery levels become low or manually through Settings if desired.
Edge’s ability to set groups of tabs aside and retrieve them later is another outstanding feature, particularly useful for people who tend to leave too many tabs open at once. Furthermore, unlike Chrome, which presents them all undifferentiated along the left rail of their browser’s home page, Edge stacks them vertically along this left rail making them easy to see and manage.
Microsoft Edge browser provides many productivity and organizational tools that will help you work online more efficiently, such as drag-and-drop search, list creation capabilities, customizable new tab pages and reading views that highlight important text for easy browsing as well as autoscroll for effortless scrolling. In addition, its immersive reader can read text aloud in natural voices for increased comprehension and accessibility.
Microsoft Edge can run hundreds of Chrome extensions that add extra functionality and personalization, such as ad blockers, screen readers, in-browser games and productivity tools. Furthermore, it features an automatic personalized content feed upon startup as well as customizable homepage features so that you can select which news stories and websites are displayed and you can also change text size settings using custom keyboard shortcuts – plus it is free download across PC, Mac, iOS and Android!
