Forum Discussion
Open Downloads
Hi Shlomix, Thank you for taking the time to offer us your feedback. We are aware of this ask, and are still trying to determine its importance. We defaulted to the opposite behavior in the current version of Microsoft Edge, and received a lot of feedback that things disappeared after being downloaded. We are starting with this as the default as it allows users who get interrupted to get back to where they were without having to find and re-download content. We are certainly open to making changes, so please let us know how you tend to use downloads, so that we can best optimize for the scenario.
Thanks - Elliot
Elliot Kirk Thank you for the update. By default, force downloads always. That alone will save a million IT people work-years of recovery and many tears from ordinary users.
I mentioned a solution (posted above here) would it be possible to include an edge://flag that allows "Open" behavior when opening files? That way, ordinary users cannot inadvertently turns it on, but "prosumers" can replicate typical browser behavior.
I do agree, though, that forcing "Save" when downloading files is probably best in the long-term. Deleting files should be a conscious choice, not an inadvertent knock-on effect with zero UI notification (closing an "Opened" file and a "Saved" file have the exact same UI for users in Windows 10: but with one of those choices, an ordinary user has essentially "deleted" the file by simply closing it).
Though I've come to like the "conscious deleting" enforced by Chromium Edge (my 250 GB SSD has not, haha), I'll play Devil's Advocate.
- When running versioned, one-time installers: very rarely do these fail. Often hundreds of MBs, these installers don't need to be stored because after a few days or weeks, the installers become out-of-date. You downloaded the 3.11 installer and now 3.25 is out. The old installer was only useful on that day of installing. It would've been been simpler to just "Open".
- When looking for an online file that has many similar copies (a Word document in a large online folder): sometimes, you know exactly what Word document or PDF you're looking for, but the naming scheme isn't useful, so you need to check multiple files. With "Open", you can work much faster as you don't need to clear out erroneous copies.
My earlier comment, before using the forced Download behavior, was premature.
At the same time, perhaps on first-use or somewhere public and easily accessible (I'm already afraid this won't be possible), a note about the "Open" vs "Save" might help. There is a public good argument here and I see it.