Forum Discussion
MicrosoftProvide run / open / save / save as options when downloading files - Discussion
Hello everyone,
Thanks so much for all the feedback provided regarding Open/SaveAs. We are now introducing an option for users using Edge version 87.0.629.0 and above to choose, for each download, whether they want to Open, Save As, Save, or Cancel a download. To enable this option, navigate to edge://settings/downloads and enable, "Ask me what to do with each download." Once you download a file after enabling that setting, you will have the option to Open, Save As, Save, or Cancel it. If you choose to open it directly, it will be downloaded to a temporary folder.
Additionally, we have exposed an option to directly delete downloaded files from your computer, in the browser so that you can easily clean up after downloading your files without leaving the browser.
To learn more about these features, please check out our post.
1 (open a file) - yes! Often I just need to print a PDF file, but in Insider Edge I have to download it and stick it on my desktop first. (I don't put temporary files in my downloads folder because I'll lose them.)
2 (rename a file) - Sometimes! The real problem with the downloads folder is how confusing it gets. For example, I have no idea what
is, but it went into my downloads folder last month. Twice. (If you're wondering, I opened it and it stands for "FOSSwire Unix/Linux Reference".) There is currently no option to "Move and rename" a file directly from the downloads bar. One must either click on Options, then Show in Folder, or else turn on "Ask where to save each file before downloading".
3 (download many things) - Maybe? I don't download multiple files very often. I have done it once in recent memory; I had "Ask where to save each file before downloading" turned on at the time. This made the situation much slower. However, I tried out the "default" in Edge Dev just now, and similarly to the issue with 2, there is no button to "move all to folder" after the files have been downloaded and are visible in the downloads bar.
4 (doing all 3 together) - 99% of the time, I want to "run / open" my files. My advice will probably heavily favor this style. When trying to come up with a solution, the big question I had was "should we rename and move the files as each is downloaded or after all have been downloaded?" If we choose what happens to each file as it is downloaded, we have to "confirm" each download as it happens. With a lot of files, that's a lot of confirmation clicks. Thus, it would be better to save every file to the default folder with one click, but then allow the user to edit the file name/location directly from the Downloads Bar. Thus, each file would have options to "open/run", "move to folder" and "rename" from its options menu in the downloads bar, and on the right side of the bar, the Show all button would be complemented with "move all" and "open all" buttons. If you download a variety of files all at once, you might want to save most of them but also open one or two. An [x] could be placed to the right of each file's Options button, and its tooltip would say "close" to prevent confusion with "deleting" the recently downloaded file.
There are two obvious issues with my proposal:
A: If you move a few files to custom locations, then "move all" files, what happens? Edge can't force-remove a file from the downloads bar immediately after it has been moved by the user; many people would probably want move and then access their files.
B: The term "open" is very problematic when files are automatically downloaded. In Classic Edge, there was a clear choice between opening OR saving a file. In my system, Saving THEN opening sounds like the file will remain in the downloads folder. Synonyms for open, like "view" or "open temporarily", do no better to address this problem.
Considering these problems, my proposal might not be possible at all. I hope it is, or that this post is helpful more generally, at least.
As for part A, I think that if one of the files has been moved to a custom location before the user selects "move all", then Edge should NOT override that one file's special location. There are two ways this could be visually indicated. Edge could show relocated files on the left side of the downloads bar, putting a divider bar between them and the rest of the files. This is not ideal; it moves the file from under the mouse to a different part of the screen. A better way would be to show the icon of the file within a folder, and possibly tint the file's tile in the downloads bar a slightly different color.
WolfIcefangYes I forgot to include that in my mockup, but an "Open and Delete" button would work nicely right under the existing Open button on the options menu.
Seeing as the classic Edge Open button opened things once and then kept the file in a hard-to-find temporary cache, deleting the file when Edge was closed, I assume that enabling the proposed option to delete recent downloads on close will mimic this old behavior. With that option enabled, clicking the "Open and Delete" button is functionally no different than simply opening the file by clicking on the filename. The file gets deleted when the browser is closed in both cases, except this way the file is in a more intuitively accessible location, in case you want to click it twice or save it for some reason. Since they do the same thing, I expect people will use the "Open and Delete" button less and less, so the extra click to use it will have less and less consequence.
As far as representing moved files, I like your color and folder icon ideas. Another option might be a checkmark over the file icon (indicating done moving/organizing). And yes, the Move All button should only affect unmoved files still in the downloads folder.
