Forum Discussion
Provide run / open / save / save as options when downloading files - Discussion
Hello everyone and thanks for your significant interest in our feedback item of “Provide run / open / save as options when downloading files”. This has been a very interesting problem to think through. The downloads team would love your thoughts on whether we have identified the main customer needs such a feature would need to address.
We believe that there are three main things being asked for:
- You would like a way to open a file without having to keep it on your computer so that your downloads folder remains “clean” (eg. You want to view your bank statement, but want it deleted after you are finished looking at it)
- You would like a way to choose the filename and location to save the downloaded file so that you can better organize your downloads (eg. You download a family photo IMG_1502.jpg and want to rename it to Reunion2019.jpg and save it in your Photos folder)
- You still want a light-weight downloads process that does not require many clicks (eg. User wants to download multiple photos in succession and move them in bulk afterwards without having to click “Save” each time). This is what our downloads flow currently addresses; one click to download.
- You would like a way to easily switch between (1), (2), and (3) for different files you are downloading; one size does not fit all (eg. For bank statements, you want to just open it, and have it deleted afterwards. But for family photos, you want to be able to rename and save to a specific location).
Do you think we are thinking in the right direction? We are still exploring possible solutions to this problem and any additional feedback is most welcome!
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.
216 Replies
Elliot Kirk I think you understand the features needed. Is it expected to have these features at release date?
Hello Elliot Kirk,
Since I've also suggested this option, I'm very glorified that You are considering this option to realise.
As far as I have read suggestions and critics, I've come to a conclusion - suggestion that could adapt to as much users as possible:
- In situations listed below, Run would show up when file is executable (.exe, .msi, .reg?) but otherwise it should be Open (like it's now in oEdge)
- In the Settings there would be an input of default directory (as it is now) and select field "Ask to do with downloadable file:" with 3 options:
- Ask before downloading
- Ask after downloading
- Do not ask
- Ask before downloading - It will act as it is in oEdge, but options should change to "Run/Open | Save | Save as" and a cross at the end - currently there's "Cancel" button, but it's pretty useless because of that cross at the end. Benefit of it could be -1 click when wanting to "Save As".
- Ask after downloading - It will download file in default directory and then will ask what to do - "Run/Open | Open & Delete | Move".
- Run/Open - action understandable I guess (same as it's now in cEdge - click and it will open);
- Run/Open & Delete - Edge will move file to some temp-dir and after closing browser it will delete (or shutting down pc, idk how that works);
- Move - will open dialog to select folder to move file;
- Maybe there would be need for "Show in folder" instead of "Move" but that is debatable.
- Do not ask - this will just download file. I believe there You can keep the current cEdge behaviour.
I'd also want kind of "old-style" download prompt as in oEdge when it pops up at bottom center but there would be a suggestion for UI from me:
- In the situations below where "ask ... downloading" is selected I'd love that items would show up differently: the oldest status (waiting for action, downloading, downloaded) should move to end of right. For example in ask before situation - when user downloads a file in the bar it will show up first aligned in left, when user downloads another file it will append at right of the first item and both have statuses "Waiting for action". When the status changes, it moves at the end of list. AND when you click on the item representative DL prompt (pop-up) shows up with info - whether prompt with buttons, download progress etc. but not opening file [when DL is done].
- When selected Ask before downloading - File would show up in current bottom DL bar with text "Waiting for action" under filename (see attached image) and the DL prompt shows up for the first item. If clicked to download multiple then users can switch between items in bottom bar.
- When Ask after downloading is selected - File will show up in bottom bar and downloads. When finished shows prompt (if that pop-up isn't already active), changes item status to "Waiting for action" (see attached image) and moves it in bottom bar to the end of list. User can switch between items in bottom bar.
I truly believe this would be pretty challenging and different than other browsers provide but also quite cool. But developers should keep an eye on performance changes - if it's drastically increasing then we don't need this feature.
By the way - oEdge = old Edge; cEdge = Chromium Edge; DL = download.
- Yes Exactly.
- Just implement the current Edge behaviour. The direct download to the default location is a disaster if you are doing a lot of downloads, while the popup method allows me to organise the downloads before the download folder becomes a total mess.
One example: I am frequently downloading Visual C++ runtimes, which always have the same file name regardless of their version. With the crappy Chrome download model, I cannot do the downloads in parallel, because they all target the Downloads folder and get renamed to vcredist (1), vcredist (2), etc. which is totally useless. 1. open Doc or PDF on FTP connection is needed. On FTP Pages Open an PDF Document directly is missing. actual save open folder and then open it by double click (funny, it will opened in the same Edge it was clicked before!)
2. Save File to Folder is very needed, it save a lot of time
I would like to see a menu that provide also "Save as" and "Open"
- I would like it to work exactly as it does in current Edge. If I'm going to download something I think I will need in the future, I will save it and leave it in my downloads folder. If it is something I think I will only need once, which is the overwhelming majority of what I download, I will just open/run the file and not have to spend time navigating to my downloads folder to delete it.
One missing use case in regards to "run / open / save / save as" is to open/run an excel sheet provided by my bank which I just want to open without saving. Then I copy/paste the content to a different excel sheet, in which I defined several analysis functions processing the copy/paste content.
In the classical edge or different browsers this is possible.
2nd use case for me is to define path and/or filename for documents to be downloaded from the web.
Regards
Karsten-S
Personally, I like the banner at the bottom of IE/Classic Edge, but I love some of the other ideas. One thing that would help is always opening a PDF file. Sometimes it opens in another tab, but many times you get the prompt for download. I don't necessarily want the website to determine what happens. I want the PDF to open in a temporary location that will be cleared when I close the browser. If I want or need to save/print the PDF, the viewer buttons are sufficient for that.
For exe or msi files, I would probably want a prompt because 90% of the time I want to run them on the computer I'm using, but 10% of the time I'm downloading them to save for later or run on another computer. Otherwise, the right-click menu could be made better to handle files. If I'm running it, delete the temporary file when the browser is closed.
Office files I would expect to just open in the program. If you close it, Office will prompt to save or close without saving.
Like one person suggested, maybe a setup page to control what happens to the majority of file types. Some people clicking on a picture might just want to view the picture in a modal, close and move on. The modal could have options for save/print, etc. As we see with the suggestions, each person is going to want their own flavor of something.
Maybe a good solution would be make better use of the right-click menu. You could either turn on the IE banner in setting or use right-click with more/better options. I know lots of options takes more coding time, but most people are going to want more options than fewer.
One more thing to think about, when clicking on a html or htm file that someone has in a documents list on their website, the file just needs to open in the browser in another tab. Why would I want to download that? I just want to view it or print it. Example would be that a company sends an email to a customer and places that in the document list for that customer as an html file. I as the agent of the company have access to view what was delivered to the customer. I don't want to save that locally. I just want it to open and view.
Open / Run is a must for me. No matter what.
Second, everything you said about bulk downloads is not something I really seek in a browser.
I think it could be useful to let the user choose between:
- open/run: as in current edge
- save: to downloads
- save to recent location: dropdown with MRU five download locations alternatives
- save as... : custom location and filename
Think to my daily workflow: every day I attend lessons of different courses and I need to download updated slides for each one, I'm used to put slides for each course in different folders, and (currently) every time I have to go with "save as..." selecting the right folder going back from the last one which was of a different course.
The MRU locations is what really speeds up downloading multiple files in my use case. Bulk download to the same folder is better addressed by proper download managers.
Elliot Kirk Provide us at least current Spartan Edge UI / Old good IE UI for saving/saving as files or just opening them without actual saving.
