Forum Discussion
Dev channel update to 77.0.197.1 is live
josh_bodner So now that you PiecesOf8
josh_bodner wrote:
New features and behavior:
- Changed the ability to pin a website to the desktop into the ability to pin a website to the taskbar.
Now that this "feature" has been introduced, how does one pin a website to the desktop? Being able to create a shortcut on the desktop was far more useful than being able to pin to the taskbar because the shortcut could be moved to different locations.
Why was the ability to pin a website to the desktop removed? Who asked for it to be removed?
Agreed. There are two issues here for me:
1. I don't want to clutter my taskbar with pinned sites, but I do want to pin sites to Start or Desktop where I can arrange and group them as I like.
2. When a site is pinned to the taskbar, the site still opens up as a tab in whatever edge window is currently open, and not in its own window associated with the pinned taskbar button! For me, the entire point of pinning a site to start/taskbar is that I can treat it as an independent app, separate from the other browser tabs I may have open. Chrome implements this via its 'Open as window' open when creating a shortcut, and it is literally the only reason I keep Chrome installed - to be able to treat web-apps as desktop apps, and not tabs that get lost amongst all the other stuff I'm browsing.
- Have you tried using the Apps feature in the menu? You can pin a site as an app, and it will open that site in its own window, without the address bar, toolbars, etc.
dhirensham
One does not want a cluttered desktop, either. Nor is there any time enough sites would be pinned to the taskbar to clutter it. Pinning is not something that begets clutter; if so, it's being misused. (And, bonus) One can, actually, see a taskbar whilst working & windows open.
You're #2: This is normal, proper behavior. IF the browser window is, already, open a pinned site will add into it. IF the browser is not, already, open, then the pinned site will (newly) open the browser. There is nothing wrong or amiss here, the behavior IS correct. Certainly, it is identical to Edge. This is the same behavior that, already, exists. It is not peculiar to Edge C. It, actually, should be acutely familiar. Oh, btw, right now, they DO have it going to both places simultaneously, Taskbar & Start, just like you want. It's not the way Edge works, now, but, it does suit you 😉. Sites do not normally pin themselves to Start. That should NOT be familiar. Pinning sites 'permanently' isn't, really, by design... mixing apples & oranges... falls in the Favorites category, treated in that light. Sites are saved as Favs. There is a (big) difference betwixt saving & pinning. Or one pins super-favorites which, should be few. There is no reason a Win 10 taskbar should become cluttered. And desktops aren't a storage place.
As an aside, a nice practice is not to have desktop icons showing; there is no need. What few there are can be accessed via the Desktop toolbar. Can't justify covering a nice desktop. Also, there folks like myself using an Applications window, an example ⬇, @ the taskbar & not using Start, at all. Also, is a snip of Start; might notice the absence of something. The Dev Update should not be there. It's from testing Pin to taskbar to see if they had fixed this, yet. Was doing it before this Build, as well.
Cheers,
Drew- Try the Google extension OneTab to keep all needed sites in one tab.
Certainly for me personally, the main reason for pinning sites anywhere is to be able to reach them quickly. From the release notes, it appears that one can no longer pin sites to the desktop, but only to the taskbar. Meaning if you have a lot of sites you wish to reach quickly, then you would end up with a cluttered taskbar. Meanwhile, if the sites were pinned to the desktop, they could be rearranged into folders or moved to the start menu to reduce clutter on the desktop if required.
Regarding #2, I am aware that this is how the original Edge worked as well, and it's also something I've submitted feedback around in the past already. That doesn't mean that the functionality is ideal. More and more services are becoming available purely via the web, rather than as desktop applications. I understand the reason for this trend. But there is still a use case for a website, which one would ideally like to treat as a desktop app, to behave like a desktop app, in that it is distinct from the other browser tabs you may have open. For example, MS Planner has an iPhone and Android app, but no UWP app (a tragedy in itself since MS owns Xamarin). This means from my desktop, I must access it via the browser. It's something that I typically keep open all day, so I don't want it lost between tabs of blogs, stackoverflow, etc. Especially when one frequently cross-references stuff from various browser tabs when working with the web app that you want to isolate. It's a lot easier to alt-tab to a distinct app, compared to hunting for it amidst a bunch of tabs.
Thankfully the functionality that I want is already available in Edge C as per Urs Wedershoven 's comment (Install this site as an app), so I am happy now.
dhirensham You can use the feature "Install this Site as an app" in the Apps menu. That will give you a Desktop icon and it opens as a single "program" in the taskbar.
