Change These Microsoft Edge Settings to Make It an Even Better Browser

Webbrowers love hide their best settings in layers upon layers of menus, and Microsoft Edge is no different. It’s not the worst thing in the world, because it’s actually a very good browser out of the box…but there is certainly room for improvement. (On the one hand, the default settings force you to use Bing search, which is a crime.)

To save you time when navigating through menus and submenus, hHere are eight quick tweaks that dramatically improve your Microsoft Edge experience.

Change the default search engine

Bing is not the best search engine for everyone (anyone?)but unfortunately it is the default option on Edge. If you want to switch to Google or DuckDuckGo, follow these steps.

Open Edge and click on the three dots icon in the upper right corner. gthis Settings > Privacy, search and services > Address bar and search. Click the drop-down menu next to Search engine used in the address bar and change search engine.

Then click on the drop-down menu next to Search on new tabs uses search box or address bar and select Address bar. This will ensure that the search engine of the new tab page will also change to the one you prefer.

Customize toolbar

Customizing the toolbar allows you to keep only the options you frequently use at hand. For example, Edge has a useful tool To share button to quickly send links to other apps. You can add that to the toolbar and remove options you rarely use.

Go to Outline Settings > Appearance and scroll to Select the buttons to display in the toolbar: section. Here you can add or remove corresponding buttons and options your preferences.

Enable vertical tabs

Most browsers use a horizontal tabbed view by default. That’s fine if you have a big widescreen, but those tabs really add up on a cramped laptop screen. Vertical tabs let you maximize Edge’s usable screen real estate, and they’re easy to activate.

Go to Outline Settings > Appearance and scroll to Customize toolbar section. Click it To light up button next to Show vertical tabs for all current browser windows.

Enable quick screenshots

Microsoft Edge has a pretty robust built-in screenshot tool. It lets you capture custom areas on a web page or take a scrolling screenshot of the entire site. To use this function, press Ctrl+Shift+S on your keyboard. The screenshot menu will then appear and you can follow the on-screen instructions to take and edit your screenshots.

Fix new tab page

Edge’s new tabbed page is full of clutter that will annoy those who prefer a clean look. You can fix it by opening a new tab and clicking the gear icon in the top right corner of the page. I suggest turning Disable the following options, but you do:

• Quick links
• Sponsored links
• Background
• Show welcome message
• Office sidebar
• Tips for new tabs
• Contents

Once you do this, the page will appear much cleaner and more usable.

Improve performances

If you feel that Edge is slowing down your computer, you can quickly enable its Efficiency mode to speed it up. Go to Edge Settings > System and Performance and activate Activate efficiency mode. (While you’re at it, Discover our longest list of tips to speed up Edge performance.)

Reduce Microsoft Tracking

Microsoft uses quite a bit of analytics data, apparently to improve your experience with Edge. If you value your privacy, you can opt out of some of this data collection.

Head to Edge Settings > Privacy, Search, and Services and scroll to Optional diagnostic data section. Here you will see three options: one for browser data collection, one for search data, and one for browsing history data. Disable all three.

You can then scroll to Services section at the bottom and disable the following options:

• Suggest similar sites when a website cannot be found.
• Save time and money with Shopping in Microsoft Edge.
• View suggestions for following creators in Microsoft Edge.
• Get notified when the creators you follow post new content.
• Receive notifications of related things you can explore with Discover.

A few more useful privacy settings to explore

Once you have checked all these items, take a look at the permissions you have granted to the different websites. Go to Edge Settings > Cookies and Site Permissions. Revoke any permissions that no longer seem relevant.

Then gor through the options under All permissions and place them carefully. Ideally, you should completely block access to your location, motion or light sensors, notifications, background sync, and USB devices.