In June 2022, Microsoft retired Internet Explorer in favour of Edge. Read more here.
Microsoft Edge has developed significantly since its launch in 2015. Unlike Internet Explorer, the back end of Edge is based on Chromium coding, most well-known for the coding behind Google Chrome.
Whilst Edge and Chrome may feel similar in some ways, Edge has replaced Google services with Microsoft ones. That means your data will be able to sync with your Microsoft account, rather than a Google one. Perfect if you’re already using Microsoft services for your day-to-day work.
Here are our top five features in Edge that will make you love the browser:
Our Top five features:
The Edge Sidebar
Released in 2023, the Edge Sidebar gives you quick access to a range of tools on the side of your browser.
Most notably, it’s a quick way to access Copilot, Microsoft’s AI assistant. But you can also access a range of other apps and tools in the sidebar, such as Outlook, Teams, and even a tools section which has a calculator, unit converter, timer and more.
Collections
Collections allows you to store and organise information from websites. You can then export the data into various files, such as OneNote, or simply come back to it later.
Vertical tabs
If you like to work with a lot of tabs open, vertical tabs help to keep them organised with a simple click.
Screenshot
Screenshot lets you grab screenshots of an area on a webpage to save as images. You can access this in your tools in the top right, or by right-clicking and selecting screenshot.
There is also another great feature here which is to get a full-page screenshot. If you’re on a long webpage your screen can only fit so much in. But a full-page screen capture will take an image of the entire webpage for you.
Tracking Prevention
We’ve all been looking at a product, only to then find it following us around the web. Tracking prevention in Edge is designed to protect you from being tracked. There are also three settings to give you flexibility: Basic, Balanced or Strict.
Using Edge
Edge browser is available for Windows 11, Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 8, Windows 7, macOS, iPhone, iPad, and Android.
If you are using a newer device, it’s likely Edge will have been your default browser over Internet Explorer. However, if you don’t have it yet, you can download Edge from the Microsoft website:
