Introducing the new favorites experience in Microsoft Edge

William Devereux 

On-the-fly config options? Yes!

Pin to side? Yes!

Tree view? Yes!

Search? Yes!

BUT

Click to expand folder? No! Hover-to-expand, please. This is the way the preceding version of Favorites worked, and it saved clicks.

Click to collapse folder? No! Auto-collapse, please. Or, auto-collapse on exit. This, too, is the way the preceding version worked, and it, too, saved clicks.

Without auto-collapse, expanded folders remain expanded. This requires a tedious amount of constant click-around cleanup to collapse the folders so they remain navigable. If you neglect this chore, pretty soon you wind up with a Favorites window with all folders completely expanded 100% of the time. At that point, there's no reason for the tree view in the first place. You might as well just list all the favorites in one long, scrollable text list, separated by headings.

Worse, collapsing a folder requires a return visit to the Favorites tool. Why? Because the instant you select a favorite, the tool disappears. This much is fine, but because the folder does not collapse, you must open the Favorites tool again, find the expanded folder, then click it to collapse it before you can get on with your work.

I should say: Everything I've just said about these flaws applies only to the Favorites extension, i.e. the button sitting either on the toolbar, or in the Settings menu, depending on your preference. I experience none of these flaws, and in fact Favorites performs just the way I describe it should, if I use the Favorites bar. But here's the thing about the Favorites bar:

I don't want to use it. I don't like favorites/bookmarks bars in any browser. They gobble real estate. The clutter things up. And in Edge, that clutter is amplified by the gawdawful manila folder icons that are straight out of the 1993 Information Superhighway Catalog. My preference for dark mode only serves to accentuate their sickly luminescence. If I must have folder icons, at least give me the option to set the color.

KEEP THE FAVORITES EXTENSION BEAUTIFUL: COLLAPSE THE FOLDERS AUTOMATICALLY.