Microsoft Edge is now the default browser on Windows 10. If you are an Edge user, this collection of tips and tricks will help you.

These tips work on the Chromium-based Edge browser. If you do not have the Chromium-based Edge, you can download it here.

Use Profiles

Profiles are similar to user IDs on your computer. They will have separate sets of bookmarks, extensions, themes and browsing history.

What’s the use of Profiles?

Imagine you are using a computer for both work and for personal tasks. You could set up two profiles, one for work and another for personal browsing.

Browsing history from your personal profile won’t come to the work profile. You could use a different set of extensions.

A todo list extension for work and a gif extension for personal browsing?

Set up a new profile click your profile icon on the top right corner. From the menu that shows up, click Add Profile. You can now create a new profile.

Remember to name your profile. This will help you identify the profile later

Sync settings and bookmarks

Do you use edge on more than one computer?If yes sinking your bookmarks and extensions would help you.

When you sync your settings and bookmarks these will be available on any other device that you login from.

For example you could add a bookmark from your computer and access the same from your mobile.

To sign in, click your profile icon on the top right corner. Then, go ahead and click the Sign In button. Now, Edge will ask you to log in using your account.

To use sync make sure that you use the same account on the second computer.

Customize the start page

The next Edge tip that I want to share with you is customizing the start page. You can customize the start page and its contents.

To customize your start page, open a new tab and click the gear icon on the top-right corner.

You could choose from one of the presets or make your own custom start page.

Disable notifications

Have you noticed websites that you visit asking you for permission to send you notifications? This can be annoying at times.

The good news is, you can disable this feature completely.

Open a new tab and go to edge://settings/content/notifications, and you can disable the permission prompt here.

Favorites bar with only icons

The Favorites bar is the row of bookmarks that you see right below your address bar.

This place is very useful to save Favorites that you access very regularly. You can make the best use of the space here by saving only the icons for websites.

In most cases, you will be able to identify websites just by looking at their icons. If you have saved a website that you are familiar with, for example, Facebook, you can save only the icon as the bookmark.

Right-click any favorites icon on the Favorites bar and choose “Show Icon Only“

Show “Home” button

Do you want a quick and easy way to go to the Home page? You can display a “Home” icon.

To enable the Home icon, open a new tab and go to edge://settings/appearance. Under Customize toolbar, enable “Show home button“

Reader mode

Do you read a lot of articles online? Reader mode can remove advertisements and other distracting elements from websites for you.

You can then customize the font and font size to your liking and read distraction-free.

Click the “Immersive Reader” icon on the address bar or use the F9 key to open a page in Reader mode.

Now, here is an article from this website, with Reader mode enabled:

Make Edge read to you

Reader Mode is useful when you are reading articles. However, what if you want to make Edge read them out loud for you?

Yes, you can make Edge read articles for you.

Pin tabs

Is there any website that you will keep open for most of the time. For example I keep my to do list app open throughout the day.

This will take up some space on my row of tabs. Luckily there is an option called “Pin” which will minimize the tab into just an icon.

You pin tab, right click the tab and choose Pin Tab.

I can keep the website open without losing much space. As a bonus these websites will open whenever I launch the Edge browser.

Collections

“Collections” is a good way to save websites for future reference. You can add websites into different collections or groups.

For example, if you are researching for an upcoming event, everything related to this event can stay in collection.

Refer to our guide on Edge Collections here.

Pin websites to Windows taskbar

Edge allows you to add website shortcuts to the taskbar. You can do this from Settings > More Tools > Pin to Taskbar (Pin to Finder in Mac)

Prevent websites from tracking you

Edge has a few built-in privacy options that you can make use of. One of the favorites is the ability to stop websites from tracking you.

Open a new tab and go to edge://settings/privacy. You will see all the privacy options here.

There are three different levels of tracking prevention:

• Basic
• Balanced
• Strict

Review the features of these three options and pick the prevention level of your choice.

While you are here, enable the “Always use Strict tracking prevention when browsing InPrivate”

Use dark mode

From the screenshots used on this article, you might have already noticed that I am using dark mode. I was not a fan of dark mode. However, after trying it on phone, I became a convert and went all in.

If you have enabled dark mode on your Windows 10 PC or Mac, Edge will automatically apply dark mode.

You can verify or override these settings from edge://settings/appearance.

Mute tabs

You can mute individual Edge tabs. This is useful when a website suddenly starts playing an auto-playing video ad or some other content.

I keep WhatsApp tab muted to avoid being distracted by notifications.

To mute a tab, right-click and choose Mute tab. You can also use CTRL + M to do this using the keyboard.

Summary

Hope you found this collection of Edge tips and tricks useful. I would love to know what your favorite tip is.

Do you have an Edge tip that you think I should add to this list? Let me know in the comments section.