Forum Discussion
Discussion - Set Aside Tabs and Warn on Close
Hi Insiders, we have received a lot of feedback about how you would like to close your tabs with the option of easily finding and reopening them later as you move between different workflows. Specifically, many of you are asking for the Tab Set Aside feature from the previous version of Microsoft Edge to be brought back. Some of you are also asking for a prompt to help avoid losing all your tabs such that you can’t find them again if you accidentally close the browser.
• Ask users if they want to close all tabs when they close a browser window
• Bring the tab set aside feature from the current version of Microsoft Edge
Each of these requests seem related to the fact that many of you have a lot of tabs open at once across many tasks and workflows. This leads to a situation where it can often be difficult to manage all of your tabs at the same time, and each additional tab makes it difficult to deal with all of the rest (e.g. tabs get smaller, harder to read each titles, many similar tab icons begin to blur together, etc.). But it can also be scary to close tabs and declutter your workspace, for fear of not being able to find things again later if you need to. We have definitely experienced this problem ourselves, observed it in our research and conversations with users, and agree it is an area where we want to invest in tools to help you be more productive across various tasks. We are actively investigating the best way to address this problem and would love your help and input as we proceed to make sure we get the experience just right.
We have looked through your feedback, and there are definitely some very valid reasons for why there was value in the Set Aside feature such as: Helping you pick up on a task later without leaving the tabs open when you aren’t using them, organizing your tabs into groups related to a similar task, and a short term home for more transient tasks that didn’t warrant saving in a permanent location such as Favorites.
We also reviewed feedback on the Set Aside feature itself from people actually using it in the previous version of Microsoft Edge, and there were some very valid critiques on how it worked and how it could be improved. For example, the Set Aside buttons being in a location where they were often accidentally clicked causing some to think their tabs had disappeared, requests to be able to set aside a subset of the currently open tabs rather than “all or nothing”, or requests to rename and personalize tab groups further to more easily find them again later.
The request for a prompt before closing the browser also feels related, because if people could always confidently find and reopen any of their previous tabs, then there would be less fear or concern about losing tabs if they are accidently closed. This would allow people to feel free to declutter and reduce the number of open tabs with no fear about finding them later if needed, and more easily focus on the subset of tabs they are working on now.
As we begin this journey of investigating how best to address these requests, we are asking for your help. Please continue to tell us more about your experience with Set Aside and closing tabs in Microsoft Edge, why these features are important to you in which types of tasks, what did and didn’t work for you about previous implementations, and how you would improve on these scenarios going forward.
337 Replies
Elliot Kirk ... same issues as everyone else, which is why I searched for and found this thread. As a safety net, I had to adjust my settings on opening a new browser window to "open last site." That way I can get back to where I was if I close everything in error (or my cat walks on the keyboard doing the same). However, sometimes I have multiple tabs open and I usually don't want to open a bunch of tabs opening on a new session where I might be in a hurry to do some online banking or something else of a timely nature. Also, it can be awkward especially if I'm not alone next time I open a browser and I don't want to advertise where I was during my last internet outing. Just picture, my client, now sitting next to me, is an attorney and a window pops open where I was reading last time about, "all attorneys are XXXX." You can imagine multiple scenarios.
Windows users make mistakes - and inadvertently close windows. The vast majority of Microsoft apps (e.g., Word, Excel, PowerPoint) give the user the option to save the open document before closing. Not Edge, it wipes everything that you've been working on, closes all tabs and the application.
It seems like a no-brainer to include a warning that you are about to close all tabs and the application. Why is there even a discussion?
- EXACTLY !! THAN YOU !
This one of most stupid things ever to do for any browser, not giving a warning before closing!
I literally don't know what are they discussing all this time !!! This should have been available since the first canary release ever!
Still waiting for Microsoft to implement Set Aside Tabs at least; but whilst we all wait - someone has made an extension for Edge that brings this functionality to the browser.
Its called Tabs Aside and here is the official link to MS Edge Store:
https://microsoftedge.microsoft.com/addons/detail/tabs-aside/kmnblllmalkiapkfknnlpobmjjdnlhnd
Thought I would share as some may find it useful.
Elliot Kirk THIS is the ONE AND ONLY feature that made sense and set you guys one foot above even the Chrome browser. My opinion simply put without it, its not even worth using edge at all, period the ease of simply pressing a button (on the navigation bar) to simply store the tabs and another to recall them, was GENIUS. The only adjustment I would have made was to make that list part of your sync (across devices). The fact that you could "peek" pulling the tabs up to see mini pages, or while choosing tabs set aside you could see partial content to make better decisions on which to select and which to rid of was AMAZING.
Again Simply put, without the feature I have np further use for edge, CHROME will be my default browser and I will disable any or all features that use edge.Bohique I've been shouting this from the mountaintop for months! Even getting flak from some of the members of this group, and crickets from Elliot Kirk and the other Microsoft folks. 🤷:male_sign:
I just upgraded to the new Microsoft Edge and am already missing the function to set tabs aside. The function is an extremely useful tool to group past browsing sessions, but I found tabs set aside particularly useful to guard against data loss from browser crashes. Users cannot always rely on the feature to 'on startup, continue where you left off' to actually restore the tabs from the prior browsing session.
Also, while I greatly appreciate that effort was taken to migrate tabs set aside to a subfolder within Favorites, I find the outcome very unwieldly for users like me that used the feature extensively. It is not user friendly to order the tabs set aside as Group 1, Group 10, Group 100, Group 101, etc. (They should be ordered as Group 131, Group 130, Group 129, Group 128, etc.)
Hi, As I have been known to accidentally hit the X for "close all tabs" instead of the X for "close this file explorer window" (usually just below it) I would appreciate the re-instatement of the "Warn on close " pop-up as I'm sure it will save me much grief!
Regards
TrevD
- Please bring this feature back. I often have a ton of stuff open as I go down rabbit holes and I just want to set aside to do a quick workspace cleanup so I can revisit later without putting a lot of thought into organizing those tabs (don't want to favorite or bookmark or w/e)
Elliot Kirk When are we getting Set Aside Tabs, Warn on Close and Tab Preview. All three must features it's been more than five months but it is still marked as 'In Discussion' in the Top Feedback Summary. What is there to discuss that take this long to do, either Microsoft is doing it or not.
saad47 That's 5 months since they opened this topic. The discussion predates that by many, many months. I'm not at all hopeful that it's going to make the cut into Edge; just as I'm not hopeful that display tabs ever will, either. I still have Edge Canary, Developer and Beta, but I went back to classic Edge (shhhh..... don't tell anybody!) for those specific features. I don't care what anyone says, Collections are NOT set-aside tabs. Two different things. Elliot Kirk, please either do them, or don't. At this point, I'm really tired of kicking this can around. In the end, we all have to live with what you do (or don't do) anyway, so just make a decision, already!
I feel like were getting nowhere with the effort to have this added. Anyone have any new information on this?
- 35 weeks discussing if you should "Ask users if they want to close all tabs when they close a browser window" .... Which is something that MUST be there in any browser! There is nothing to discuss about it !! Any browser doesn't have this is a stupid browser, yes of course CHROME included! Which is the worst browser ever.
I'm LITERALLY waiting for this option to be added so I can move to Edge !!!
And of course it should tell me how many tabs are currently running in the warning!"Warn on close" would be helpful - as an option.
It doesn't have to be very complicated to add "Warn on Close"
Elliot Kirk As Google is implementing 'Tab Grouping' to Chrome, is it time to look again at implementing 'Set Aside Tabs' into Chromium Edge?
This article from The Verge via MSN news is succinct: https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/technology/google-is-adding-a-tab-grouping-feature-to-chrome-for-browser-hoarders/ar-BB143eVB?ocid=msedgdhp
