Forum Discussion
MicrosoftMake Microsoft Edge your own with themes
Browsers are very personal. Much of what we do on a computer happens in a web browser, and like anything you use frequently it’s important to be able to make it your own. We’ve heard your requests to make Edge more personal with themes, and today we’re excited to announce that we’ve added over two dozen themes to the Microsoft Edge Add-ons site.
Themes change the look and feel of your browser to create a beautiful and immersive visual experience. They can also be helpful for distinguishing your different profiles to help you separate home, school or work accounts. When you apply a theme, you’ll notice a new background on your new tab page. Your tabs, address bar, and other parts of the browser will also take on the look of the theme for a more immersive experience. We’ve even added support for vertical tabs, a new feature you Insiders have been helping us test.
You’ll find a wide variety of launch themes in the Add-ons site to help you show off your current mood or interest. We’ve also partnered with Xbox to offer themes from your favorite franchises, including Halo, Gears, Forza, Microsoft Flight Simulator, Sea of Thieves, Grounded, Ori and the Will of the Wisps, and more. All of these themes are available exclusively in Microsoft Edge. And if you don’t find one you want, you can also install themes from other stores, including the Chrome Web Store.
Of course, this is just the beginning. We’ll continue growing our collection of themes, and in the coming months we’ll be adding support for anyone to submit their own themes. Soon, you’ll even be able to select a theme color directly from the Edge Settings as well.
Themes make Microsoft Edge more personal and fun, and we’re so excited to hear what you think. Let us know which theme is your favorite in the comments! And keep an eye on the Microsoft Edge Add-ons site for more themes in the future.
— William Devereux, Senior Program Manager, Microsoft Edge
61 Replies
- Is there a way to uninstall a theme? I have not found anywhere in the Edge Add-on Store, Settings, or other locations to uninstall a theme.
- William DevereuxYes! You can remove a theme by going to edge://settings/appearance and selecting the "Remove" button.
- Thank you, William. This worked for what I wanted.
there isn't really a way to uninstall themes, you can only disable them from here
edge://settings/appearance
the Theme files will still be left in your computer.
here I completely explained what we need for theme management/installation/uninstallation in Edge:
hopefully developers will notice? William Devereux
- Thank you! That worked for what I wanted, as I'm not worried about the files remaining on my system.
- Reply on Thursday
- what is this, the early 2000s? Just plain ugly
focus on simple color scheme selection,, not gaudy background images William Devereux there doesn't seem to be an easy way to switch between 2 custom themes that I have installed without 'reinstalling' one of them. I have scoured the UI to find such an option and have been unable to find it.
Edge Installation Information
Version 88.0.705.50 (Official build) (64-bit) running on Windows 10 1909 18363.1256
If I go to Settings > Appearance > Custom Theme I see the following microcopy:
Get themes from the Microsoft Edge Add-On Store or other stores. Currently using: Grounded – Ground War.
I cannot find any option within the Appearance UI to change the currently selected custom theme to the other one that I have installed (Halo - Haven)
The only way I am able to change the custom theme is by clicking on the hyperlinked microcopy Grounded - Ground War and 'installing' the Halo - Haven custom theme again - even though I had previously 'installed' it.
Proposed Solution
(1) Insert a drop-down box into the Appearance Settings UI that enables users to switch between installed custom themes.
(2) List all installed custom themes when a user visits the Extensions UI, with a heading of Installed Custom Themes and 3 sub-headings:
a. Custom themes installed from the Microsoft Edge Add-ons store
b. Custom themes installed from the Google Chrome Webstore
c. Custom themes installed from other webstores
More Context Relating to Confusing UX for Edge Add-ons Theme Page
What makes this experience all the more confusing is the microcopy on the Edge Add-ons theme page. The microcopy displayed after I click the Get Theme button is as follows:
Add-on already installed on your browser
This implies to the user that the theme has been installed and can be recalled or viewed within the browser UI. This implication is true in a limited sense: The user can only view the currently installed custom theme in the browser UI.
If a user 'installs' another custom theme from the Edge Add-ons theme page and returns to the Appearance Settings UI, any themes that were previously 'installed' is no longer visible.
This UX is confusing because the implication behind 'installing' something means it is retained or stored within the software.
Not being able to view previously 'installed' custom themes results in confusion and user friction.
Warmly,
Jay from 🌞🌏🦘
- Hi,
This is just a opinion, I love the new themes but it is kinda borring seeing the same thing over and over. I love the theme colors but the themes needs to be have more background with more slideshow like the WonderWoman Theme. I rather have a color picker that may or not be rolled out instead of just one backgruond. The new images of Bing each day is way better.
Thank You,
Anyone prefering this, please upvote by sharing this feedabck usnig Edge!!
THANKYOU
SHawnNNNWWN- I want Themes to have textures and patterns, and not just simple colors, also the new tab page image isn't really useful for me as I always use my own image for NTP
- Yes, I agree. The themes are currently just to make the header of edge look nice and a nice picture in new tab. That isnt' good since first of all it gets borring. The bing image or my own image is much better. Second, it dosent' change everyday 😞
Just like the colors and some patterns would look awesome!! Maybe a surf theme ;0
The new Themes are awesome. I am experiencing some weird behavior on one of my machines. Tab bar does not pick up Theme Color. On one PC it looks perfect, on another it doesn't. Why would the tab bar not pick up the Theme Color?
- William DevereuxHey Kevin! Just to confirm--do you have the same theme installed on both machines? And are they both running the same version and channel of Edge?
William Devereux I messed up William. Thanks for the reply though. I changed them around so much I was sure I had the same them on both machines....but you are correct. I didn't. My mistake but I sure am enjoying edge and all the work coming out of MS these days.
It Would Be Very Nice If We Can See The Themes On Edge Pages /Edge Urls Like The Settings Page Also!!
- Absolutely! the grey color isn't consistent with the rest of the UI when we install a theme.
William Devereux Cool Feature & Liked
Would be nice to see themes that modify more than window frame/new tab page.(e.g. like settings page, context menus etc.
This is great, but I'd like to see a small platform in Addons store where users can make themes and share them on the store, without knowing how to code.
other people can download user-created themes, rate them etc.this will be great for Edge browser and people will love it.
HotCakeX William Devereux Chrome has the option for users to precisely customize theme colours. Edge must incorporate that. Currently available options (theme colours) in Edge setting (Appearance) are inadequate and unappealing.
- This is something I consider very important. You talk of "personalizing" Edge with themes, but when the rubber actually hits the road, it's not really personalization, it's just using a design that someone else somewhere thought was a good idea. Not even a little bit personal, because I didn't design it, someone else did.
What you need to do is talk to the team that develop Microsoft Visual Studio, and take a look at the customization of that program. They got it right, you can modify every imaginable aspect of the UI, and they even developed an addon that allows the creation of fully customized themes.
One area that really needs user selection is in title bar colorization. Since I run with a deep blue title bar, the black text that Edge insists on using is completely unreadable. I need some way to set it to white, or better yet, use the solution that Samsung use on their smartphones for the status line at the top. They actually analyze the current background image, and automatically switch between white and black text to ensure the best possible contrast.
This problem, and the solution to it, were codified over four hundred years ago, simply read "The rule of Tincture" on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_tincture for details. Yet modern designers seem to miss this outstandingly simple rule with absolutely amazing regularity. Samsung understand this. Microsoft apparently don't. - These theme have been made with some effort and are not from chrome. After several days of trying I am not using theme because they did not change address bar and menu.
The idea of user creating themes easily without coding requirement appeals to me.
Can you please make it so that the custom image on new tab page that we upload ( not to be confused with custom theme ) is not darkened a bit like it currently is?
Can you provide light theme for inprivate mode like original edge did?
What appeals to me is the idea of using edge out of box with no customisation. It is not a looker anymore ever since chromium was adopted. I sometimes saved images when I came across edgeHtml version. Not here. That needs to be changed.
I digress but this is also a reason a native adblocker is needed that is switched on by default. Most chrome users probably don't use adblocker, so when they try edge they'll get a clutter free feel they don't get in chrome.
Finally, menus must be made shorter, more visual and approachable. Opera does it best among all browsers.
