Forum Discussion
Introducing the new favorites experience in Microsoft Edge
Favorites are an integral part of any web browser, and in the months since we released the new version of Microsoft Edge we’ve heard a lot of feedback about the experience. Specifically:
- While the favorites menu provides quick access to your favorites, it isn’t always the easiest to use and more complex tasks typically require going to the edge://favorites page
- The favorites page works well for bulk management but isn’t ideal for more lightweight tasks like getting to, updating, or moving a single favorite
- Many of you also miss the Hub in the legacy version of Microsoft Edge—especially the ability to pin your favorites and other content open while you browse
Today, we’re excited to share that we’re evolving the favorites experience to address your feedback and provide a more efficient way for you to quickly access and manage your favorites without losing context of the page you’re on. These changes are currently available in the Canary and Dev channels.
The new favorites experience blends the power of the full page with the dropdown’s ease of access. Your favorites are now displayed in a classic tree view, and you can edit, organize, and even search your favorites in-line without having to go to the full page. The new favorites menu stays around while you need it and disappears when you’re done, making it easy to open or manage multiple favorites at once.
We’ve also brought the full breadth of management capabilities to the new favorites menu. In addition to the basics like reordering, renaming, and editing, you can now add new favorites and folders directly from the dropdown menu, sort, import or export your favorites, remove duplicate items, and much more. With the new favorites menu, these features are always at your fingertips.
Best of all, in response to overwhelming feedback you can now pin your favorites open in a pane along the side of the browser. This allows you to see your favorites while you browse and helps you stay more productive during those times where you need frequent access to your favorites.
For those of you who prefer a more immersive experience, we’ve got you covered. You can get back to the favorites page at any time by clicking on the favorites menu button () and selecting Manage favorites. Or simply type edge://favorites into your address bar.
We’d love to hear what you think of the new favorites experience, so please send us feedback! This is a new interaction model that we hope will save you time and keep you in the context of what you’re doing. In the coming months, you’ll see other content types adopt this model as well, including downloads, history, and more. Stay tuned!
— William Devereux, Senior Program Manager, Microsoft Edge
99 Replies
- martinkleinCopper Contributor
And since we are talking about favourites - pleae add an Option to the "Add to favourites (Ctrl-D)" Dialog to add the favourite to THE TOP OF THE LIST instead to the end !!
Regards Martin Klein - martinkleinCopper Contributor
On my Microsoft Surface Pro it is NOT slow. Works like a charm.
But of course there is too much line space.
And not necessary to intend the Folders. Needs too much horizontal Space.
Please make it as slim as possible.
And please stick it to the left. I have the collections on the right already !!!!
And AGAIN - please allow to drag a Tab to any favourites list or to the task list. I suggest "right click" and drag. Because the "left click" makes a window - only god knows why :-))Regards Martin Klein
- Kai SchätzlCopper ContributorGood move. I won't use it, but there have been quite a few requests for this.
Be prepared that people will ask for the docked version to stay over close and reopen. I tested it and it's gone when you close the browser. You have to reenable it with each new window. This is not what the folks that use the docked version want. They want it there as if it was a part of the chrome and not removable. They won't ever close it and won't want the browser to close it for them.
Also be prepared for those that ask for docking on the left side.
And those that want the undocked version appear in the dock area and not as a menu.
Btw, maybe it's my PC, that is a bit slow, but it takes too much time before the menu is usable. After I click the Favorites button it takes about three seconds until the favorites have appeared fully and are usable. First second I get a white menu (very shortly) that gets filled with the dark grey background, then the bright grey slots for the favorites and folders appear all at once (but not in the correct positions, looks like a default) and finally the bright grey placeholders get filled by the tree view and are a bit reshuffled for the "real thing". All in all this behavior is quite awkward and I wouldn't use it that way even if I wanted. In contrast, if I click one of the folders that I have on the favorites bar the menu appears immediately, no matter how long.
Thanks for listening and keep up the good work!- ClaudioxCopper Contributor
Kai Schätzl I agree it gives a feeling of being a bit slow. On my PC it displays a black window with the format and then it fills with the contents. Not very dynamic.
I guess it will be corrected soon.
- Ryoma2040Copper Contributor
William Devereux
Why, why, why!?
Before I had a menu that opened when I clicked the button and showed all of my favourites in a nice big menu. Now, I have to wait several seconds for the menu to actually load and the whole thing is crushed into a tiny box that I need to scroll through.
All I want is a simple menu with no bells and whistles (like I had before I updated yesterday), not this tiny little menu with a scroll bar. - Dad2JTKCopper Contributor
William Devereux You forgetting all about a different type of PIN web site, How come one cannot drag and drop the web site address on top of the EDGE icon in the Taskbar, thereby making a PINNED for when you RIGHT click and having a saved site on the icon on the taskbar, You know using that drag up feature on the icons on the taskbar, HOWEVER what's more interesting is you do show a RECENT page type link and can PIN that previously recent page, thereby making a PINNED site. But that is an issue too. How come one cannot rename that pinned site as well? Some folks did like this ability especially in the job where I work, where "admins" like to disable many things. This was something that worked fine.
- edsparBrass Contributor
William Devereux
Definitely like the new features and ability to pin the favorites bar now, but the whole thing seems really slow and you can watch it draw. Hopefully performance improvements coming.
Agree on reducing the spacing too. - martinkleinCopper Contributor
Would be great if I could drag an active Tab directly to the favourites List and it would be saved exactly whery I dropped it in the favourites List.
Thanks for all your effort !
Regards Martin Klein
- But how? not only Edge but if you do that on any other browser, the tab turns into a window, that's how Windows essentially works.
- martinkleinCopper Contributor
no - try it in Firefox. There you can drag a Tab into any favourites list.
I never understood why Chrome and Edge turn the Tab into a window when you drag it.
But ok - thats the way it works now and some might find it useful. But Edge could implement a right click and then drag and drop without the window stuff and place the tab in the favourites list.
Regards. Martin
- TofVWCopper Contributor
Bonjour,
Malheureusement, depuis que Edge Chromium est sorti, il y a toujours le même problème, déjà remonté plusieurs fois: lors d'un Ctrl+clic ou d'un clic sur le bouton du milieu de la souris, pour ouvrir un Favori dans un nouvel onglet depuis le Panneau des Favoris, le panneau se ferme!
Cela n'arrive pas avec la barre des Favoris, mais comme je préfère utiliser le bouton à côté de la barre d'adresse (qui ouvre le panneau des Favoris), ce serait bien si ce problème pouvait être enfin résolu. Ça n'arrivait pas avec Edge Legacy ou Internet Explorer, ça ne doit pas être très compliqué à faire.
Merci.
- survivor303Brass Contributor
We really need favorites bar to Android version too. on horizontal mode, the browser can work just like it would on real desktop, so please add option to keep the bar always visible. we tablet users really need it.
or make option "real desktop mode", where sites and the ui works on desktop mode, include the always visible favs bar.
- MitchrisIron Contributor
William Devereux The new bookmark system is a great solution. There is only one thing that should be changed, and that is to remove "Other Favorites" from the favourites bar. Or at least give you the option to disable showing them.
- Noel BurgessIron Contributor
- MitchrisIron Contributor
Noel Burgess It does not quite suit me, because I break the tabs into 2 folders: main and other. And it would be enough for me to show others only in "Favorites", without showing the tabs on the bar.