Microsoft Edge Tips

Microsoft Edge is Windows 10’s built-in web browser. If you’re learning about Windows or just getting started, here are some Microsoft Edge tips to help you. We’ve included tips that we find helpful and use ourselves. Let us know about any of your favorites in the comments, and we can add them.

1. What’s new and tips

Microsoft offers a tips page with introductory guides to new Edge features, customizations, and plugins. To access the Microsoft Edge Tips page, click on Edge’s main menu (the three dots at the top on the right), hover over `Help and feedback,’ and choose `What’s new and tips.’

2. Fullscreen

Try pressing F11 on the keyboard to make Edge go full screen. Using the mouse, you can also access the entire screen by clicking the double arrow in the menu:

See other Windows 10 keyboard shortcuts.

3. Enter immersive reader

If you’re less into images and more into text, or you enjoy distraction-free reading, then try Edge’s `immersive reader’ view (formerly reading view). To access it, press F9 on the keyboard, or click on the small book icon at the top of the browser in the address field.

4. Edge keyboard shortcuts

5. Extensions / Add-ons

No browser would be complete nowadays without the use of in-house and third-party extensions. These free browser add-ons provide extra functionality and convenience to your browsing experience. To access the Extension panel in Edge, go to the main menu and choose Extensions:

As you can see in my example, I’m using five extensions here:

To see what extensions are available for Edge, look at the foot of the extensions panel, and you’ll see a blue button that says, `Get extensions for Microsoft Edge’. Click on that button or the blue button below to take you to the Edge Add-ons page:

6. Add extensions from the Chrome Web Store

With the latest version of Edge (now built around the open-source Chromium engine), you can use the myriad of extensions available for the Google Chrome browser.

1. Go to the Chrome Web Store.
2. Select Allow extensions from other stores in the banner at the top of the page.
3. Search for and select the extension you’d like to add and select Add to Chrome.
4. At the prompt showing permissions required by the extension, review the permissions, and select the Add extension button.
5. Edge will confirm that the extension has been added.

7. Favorites bar / Favorites

If you can’t see the favorites bar near the top of the browser, go to Settings and more (Alt+F), Favorites, Show favorites bar, and choose: Always, Never, or Only on new tabs.

You will see that Edge shows you the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+B to Show the favorites bar.

Right-clicking a favorite in the Chromium version of Edge, now gives you the following options: Open in new tab, Open in new window, Open in InPrivate window, Edit, Show icon only, Cut, Copy, Paste, Delete, Add this page to favorites (Ctrl+D), Add folder, Show favorites bar (Ctrl+Shift+B), Hide favorites button from toolbar, and Manage favorites (Ctrl+Shift+O).

8. Click to mute audio

If you’d like to mute the audio on a page, you can click the speaker icon on the page tab. Click it again to unmute it:

See also Windows 10 keyboard shortcuts

9. Zoom in and enlarge content

If you’d like to make the page content larger (and easier to read) in any web browser, you can. Just press Ctrl on the keyboard while scrolling your mouse wheel. You can also press Ctrl while pressing + or – on the keyboard Numpad.

See also Zoom in and out – Quick tip.

10. Move tab to another window (right-click tab)

If you find yourself with many Edge tabs or windows open, you might want to organize them. You can right-click on a browser tab and choose Move to another window, and you can then select to move that page/tab to a new or any other Edge window that you have open. This feature makes it easier to separate or group tabs together.

11. Pin tabs

I often use a service called Grammarly to help me improve my writing style and to check my content for plagiarism and originality. The Grammarly page is an online page where we can paste in text to quickly check it. It takes a few seconds for that page to load and set up, so I prefer the idea of keeping it open and ready to use at all times. Having many tabs open in the browser, though, can make things start to look cluttered and confusing. With Edge, we can pin tabs. Pinning a tab doesn’t close it but stores it off to the side for instant access. Here’s how to pin a tab in Microsoft Edge:

Choose which tab you’d like to pin.

Right-click the tab and choose Pin tab.

The tab will now be pinned.

To unpin the tab, right-click it and choose Unpin tab.

12. Long-click arrows to list recent page history

To find a page you have recently visited (in your current browser session), you can long-click (click and hold) the back or forward arrows to see a list of those pages.

This list isn’t as extensive a history list as pressing Ctrl+H, but it helps go back to pages that you’ve visited while the browser has been open.

13. Sidebar search

One of the latest Microsoft Edge tips and features now generally available in Microsoft Edge is sidebar search. While browsing in Edge, highlight a word, right-click it and choose Search in sidebar for “word”. You can also highlight a word and press Ctrl+Shift+E.

The search results conveniently show in a search panel to the side, allowing you to still remain on your current page without having to open or close any tabs.

More Microsoft Edge Tips get added to this list. If you have any useful tips of your own, leave them in the comments, and we can add them to this page. Microsoft has just released an Edge Feature Roadmap.

See also:

• Microsoft Edge Insider Program
• 24 Web Browsers for Windows
• Windows 10 Tips for Beginners

Are you a Microsoft Edge user? If not, which web browser do you use and why?

Grant Barker

I’m a longtime PC enthusiast. I love talking about computers and seeing other people enjoy theirs. I live in Japan as an English teacher (and vegetable farmer). When I’m not aspiring to be a better blogger, I play Apex Legends.