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 It is important for us that this run / open / save / save as implementation works together with the "Always open PDF files externally" group policy.
We have 800+ employees who are required to open PDF files from our internal document management solution in Adobe Reader, as the build-in PDF viewer in Edge does not display the documents correctly (As the documents have JavaScript in them)But the way the "Always open PDF files externally" group policy works today is not very user friendly, as they have to first download the PDF to the Download folder and then open it.
We wish Edge could open PDF files using Adobe Reader just like Internet Explorer could, where when you click a PDF it just automatically opens the file from a temp folder, where the user doesn't see that the file is downloaded and doesn't have to cleanup their download folder.Let us Choose Download Location For each File Type separately in Edge browser
Elliot Kirk
Elliot, sounds like 4 comes the closest to covering things or summing it up nicely. Certain instances will beget different actions. Point is, YES, sometimes want to run or open something without saving. And, if saving, always, want choice between DLs going to the DL folder or being directed elsewhere. These (traditional) options, really, should (continue to) exist.
Cheers,
Drew- Is there no way to see, when highlighting a link with the mouse, whether or not it will prompt a download?
If there is, one fairly easy solution (easy to conceptualise at least) is to right click on such a link and have a menu: 'open', 'save', or 'save and open'.
In general, I think that pages downloaded from the same webpage should be treated the same. Perhaps a default could be a prompt as in the old Edge and, if the page isn't explicitly opened, the rest of the downloads are also downloaded but not opened (i.e. treated the same as the first download from that webpage).
I think the user should also have the option to change the default, whether "open", "save", "both" or "treat as was the first download from that webpage" For me, the main use of this dialogue is to tell how large the file I'm downloading is going to be. Very important especially on capped connections.
This would be so useful.
I think an open / run /save would be good for documents and applications. I tend to save a lot application installers to a different part of my hard drive and would love to have an option in the new edge to do so. Elliot Kirk
Having an option to open, save and run downloads is simple and very useful. Because having programs download right away is not good, for example some websites automatically try to download files. But if there is an option for what to do with the download, the user can then stop it. And if many files are downloaded by the user, and the user wants to save them in different places. It is not ideal to go to setting and change the save location. By having those options of open, save and run the user doesn't even have to save the item to their computer.
Could you please wrap this topic up and post a conclusion and your plans about it? it's been more than 1 month now
When downloading the previous Edge shows time in hours and minutes remaining from the start to the end. New Edge only shows hours left first, then minutes only when it is ending.
Example a 2 hour 30 minute download will just be shown as 2 hours left, 1 hour left then mins till completed. Please show full actual downloading time like EdgeHTML, it would be great. Thank's !
