OMG - They DO listen! Pin it right on

Silver Contributor

I just updated Canary & :eyes:, someone DID listen.  The (silly) Pin to Desktop is gone & YAY, Pin to taskbar IS there, now :thumbs_up::thumbs_up:  From & on behalf of myself & all the others who are pleased to see this (change), thanks.  Have checked w/ each update, nice to see it happen. Pin it Right on, baby! :pushpin: Kudos to the Edge Build Team.  Keep 'em coming...

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Cheers,
Drew
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18 Replies

@Drew1903 

 

We always do =D.

 

Sometimes it just takes a little longer for specific features to be rolled out.

 

Thank you, Drew and everyone for there feedback to help make improvements like this

happen.

 

Thanks,

Frank

 

Having been wearing various Insider hats for a LONG time the title was tongue in cheek.

And you're welcome. It's great to help work on this endeavor with the Edge Team towards a common goal.

Cheers,
Drew

@V-FRROME This is a nice improvement and I am glad to have Pin to Taskbar in Edge Canary.

 

Two observations:

 

In Edge Legacy, Pin to Taskbar is at the top level (one click below . . .), but in Edge Canary it is the second level (two clicks below . . .). This makes the option much less visible in Canary. My view is that it should be at the top level as it was in Legacy.

 

Legacy

 

Annotation One level.jpg

 

Canary

 

Annotation Two Level.jpg

 

Apps & Pins

 

I also observed some inconsistency in the use of "apps" and "apps and pins". My view is that apps and pins should be separate since they look and feel different. If the decision is to keep them together the "apps and pins" should be used consistently.

 

Annotation Apps and Pins.jpg

 

Thank you for this improvement and for the continued interaction with the community.

@V-FRROME Another observation.

 

Although the pinned site opens as a normal browser tab instead of a a new "app" window, it appears that an app is still being created. This is indicated by the appearance of the pinned sites in the Recently Added and alphabetical listing of the Start menu. My view is that pinned sites should not appear as apps or be added to the Start list.

@ms4132 


My view is that pinned sites should not appear as apps or be added to the Start list.

Absolute agree. I also think adding website shortcuts to Taskbar is a wrong user habit that should be discouraged by professional developers like Edge team given large variety of tasks performed by a typical PC.

 

Desktop Taskbar is for most often used and currently open apps. Adding webpage shortcuts to it causes unneeded clutter. Browser Favs Bar is for most often opened websites. Placing their links anywhere else doesn't provide faster access. Next site also faster to open from a New Tab Dial or Favs Bar then from Start Menu or Taskbar.

 

Would you share how many websites and for what reason do you have pinned namely to Taskbar? ;)

IMHO the devs should collect telemetry on browser feature usage stats, and actively remove seldom used features, at least from common access places to easy clutter.

@sambul95 There are many different ways that individuals work and what they work with also differs. From just the people around me, some people rely on Start to access tools. Others pin many things to the desktop. Others keep many open tabs in the browser. Others, like me, use the taskbar as a quick launch.

 

Most of my working day is spent in Outlook, Word or Excel. I don't have active browser windows for a large percentage of the day. From time to time I need or want to take a quick look at something in a browser window, which I then close. Examples would be operational dashboards or a weather site.

 

For my particular work environment and way of working, when using an item pinned to the taskbar one click takes me straight to the site I need. I keep my taskbar on top and disable autohide. For me, other approaches take more clicks.

 

Bookmark in Browser - click to open browser, click to open bookmark. Actually usually two clicks since I organize my bookmarks in folders.

 

Desktop - click to get to the desktop if the shortcut is behind my active window, click to open the shortcut.

 

Start Menu - click to open the start menu, click to open the shortcut (tile).

 

While there may be other approaches or shortcuts, this is what works for me. And to address the other part of your question, I have about five items pinned to the taskbar and have used this feature in Internet Explorer, Edge Legacy and now Edge Canary.

 

In my view the browser is like any other application which I can pin to the taskbar, such as Word, Excel or Outlook.

 

 

@ms4132 

 


In my view the browser is like any other application which I can pin to the taskbar, such as Word, Excel or Outlook.


I've 4 browsers pinned to the Taskbar, and plenty of other frequently used apps. Adding webpage shortcuts to the Taskbar seems redundant to me, or requiring some vertical Favorites Bar (similar to Desktop Toolbar) pinned to the Taskbar with all webpage shortcuts added to it. If you add 5 webpage shortcuts to the Taskbar plus frequent app shortcuts, on a laptop screen there would be no extra space on it for currently open apps.

 

Your use of webpage shortcuts from Taskbar rather resembles using web apps instead of browser. That's why they are also added to Start Menu. ;) How big is your monitor? On a laptop, would you benefit from a vertical Favorites Bar added to the Taskbar, which opens on mouse hover? 

@sambul95 I use this same approach on a number of different form factors. Resolutions range from 1024x768 through 4k. Screen sizes vary from 10.1" to 65". Types of display include tablet, laptop, TV.

 

I have different combinations of browsers (up to about five) and sites (up to about five) on different systems, but I have yet to run out of room on my taskbar, even with regular (not small) icon size.

 

While the usage may be similar to web apps, it works better for me to have the item opened as a tab instead of in what seems to me to be an artificial new framed window that hides normal browser controls. To me I am accessing a web page, not a packaged app, so I prefer normal browser navigation.

 

It is not clear to me how a vertical favorites bar opening on hover would be an improvement. I would need two actions (hover to expand, point and click) to accomplish what I can do with one click by pinning the specific site to the toolbar (point and click).

@Drew1903 remember, I told you I really appreciated the feedback and that we are working on that very scenario! :) 

 

We are going to continue to iterate on it as we get even more feedback from you all. It's so appreciated!

 

Thanks!

-John

John,

Seems it needs to be mentioned that when a site is pinned to the taskbar it should NOT, also, show on the Start menu, as it is doing, now. It is supposed to ONLY show on the taskbar. Obviously, this behavior needs to be corrected. Thanks for understanding.

Cheers,
Drew

Sent from my Windows Phone

@ms4132 

I'll just add a wee bit which I think supports what's been said.  There are so many easy ways to navigate & access things in 10... drawing an implication out of Pin to taskbar that it means crowding it up with oodles of icons. No reason to suggest one breed the other, it doesn't.  So, a specific site is pinned, on occasion and maybe, not even, going to be left or kept there forever. Certainly, we are not talking about putting a whole raft of sites there.  But, more fundamentally, there is no need to have millions of icons on the taskbar initially irrespective of any pinned sites.

Oh, yes, and the screen size isn't the point, laptop, PC, small or big monitor... as was said, there is no need to have a whole pile of icons on the taskbar, in the 1st place.  And this is coming from Users conducting many activities on their machines simultaneously.

As for the  mentioned hoover vert Favs:  The Favs Bar serves fine, for now. In the old IE days the Links toolbar could be used & it meant the Favs Bar could be hidden.  But, Edge doesn't play nice with Links toolbar.  Instead, we can easily open & close the Favs Bar (Ctrl+Shift+B), at the moment. I say at the moment because the Favs icon of Edge Favs.jpg is, still, missing from Edge C.  Ctrl+I will, also, do the same in Edge, but, has no effect in Edge C, right now. Once that icon & function with Favs (of Edge) is in Edge C viola, there will be of what you speak.

The other place a vert list IS cool is the Desktop toolbar since it means desktop icons can Not show (Yay).

And the notion oft suggested that pinning sites to the taskbar will create an overcrowded taskbar is a myth.  If a person, really, wants to place heaps of icons there, make the taskbar wider & double row the suckers ;)

Just a 2 cents, fwiw.

Cheers,
Drew
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@ms4132 


It is not clear to me how a vertical favorites bar opening on hover would be an improvement. 

Thanks for clarifying your usage case. It looks like you use just a few apps, and don't launch those from Taskbar anyway. Therefore, you have plenty of space left on Taskbar for webpage shortcuts, assuming its one row or hidden on smaller screens. 

 

However, even in this scenario it seems faster to open a shortcut from Desktop rather than Taskbar, since on Desktop each shortcut has a Name, but on Taskbar one must hover a shortcut to get its name, and they all have same icons. Hence, starting a webpage from Taskbar is slower than from Desktop.

 

In case of using Favorites Bar pinned to Taskbar, when you hover the bar, it opens and shows all shortcuts with names, so its still faster to start a webpage this way. 

 

But I never do any of this since doing so many things on a PC at once, so using proper apps for each task becomes a habit. I don't see benefit of scattering ANY shortcuts all around PC, they must be in proper places. For webpages either in Browser Sessions, Favorites, or New Tab Speed Dial depending on use frequency. In fact I don't use app desktop shortcuts either. Most programs are started from Search, a few from Taskbar, Win Service apps from Start Menu, then I open "recent" files from the Program. :smiling_face_with_smiling_eyes:

 

However, I can see your point which covers very limited PC use scenario: a few programs and 3-4 frequent webpages. Probably either workplace (SOHO) or older age scenario.

@sambul95 

 

With regards to " you use just a few apps, and don't launch those from Taskbar anyway", I do use just a few apps (e.g. Outlook, Yammer, Teams, Calculator), but I do launch them from the Taskbar. The ones I use less frequently, I resort to the Start menu.

 

With regards to "on Taskbar one must hover a shortcut to get its name, and they all have same icons", the pinned websites have unique icons so I do not need to hover over them to identify them. Here are two examples:


Annotation Pinned Icons.png

 

 

 

Even for some sites that do not have an icon, Pin to Taskbar has created a visual based on a letter. I have two that I can differentiate because one has the letter C and the other has the letter V. Since I don't have many, I have not yet encountered a situation where I have duplicates. If I did, I could differentiate by where I place them on the taskbar.

 

With regards to "Probably either workplace (SOHO) or older age scenario", my view is it has to do with the requirements of a particular role (including large corporations) and personal preference (regardless of age). People around me in common age groups have different styles they prefer when using their computers.

 

 

 

 

 

@ms4132 

"I do launch them from the Taskbar. The ones I use less frequently, I resort to the Start menu."

There can be heaps of approaches & ideas for things, ways of doing things.  Take a look @ this method...

Ok, just conversing, now... I, really, haven't used (in the sense people mean that) a Start menu since early 7 days.  Nor do I have much on the taskbar.    But, what I have used for a long time is an Applications window which, resides on the taskbar.  It's a heck of a lot easier & quicker (finding an item) grabbing something from it than, bothering w/ Start.  BTW, the End User picks how the content is displayed.  Here's a couple of examples:
NB: Notice nothing inside a folder.

Apps window.JPG
List.jpg

And since we are talking about Start menu, thought I would show mine...

 

My Start.jpg

Cheers,
Drew

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Cheers,
Drew
Drew

@Drew1903 

 

Where did you get this Applications folder from? ;)

@sambul95 

 

Nice to see someone taking an interest in this, Sam.  I've turned many clients & others on to it & all use it & like it a lot. I use it constantly, have for years.

Instructions for creating Applications window

Using, %windir%\explorer.exe shell:::{4234d49b-0245-4df3-b780-3893943456e1}

Rt Clk on Desktop > New > Shortcut

In Location put  %windir%\explorer.exe shell:::{4234d49b-0245-4df3-b780-3893943456e1}

Hit OK or Next (whichever it is)

In Name change explorer.exe to Applications

Hit Done or OK (whatever it is lol)

Now you click on the created desktop shortcut icon, Open it.

Now get rid of the Nav tree & change the View to List, Medium icons or whatever you prefer, but, have it Sort A to Z.

Lives on Taskbar as long as only Minimised.  Have to redo from the desktop icon only if & when a reboot has been done.

NB: The created desktop icon can be changed from the default if desired.

Cheers,
Drew
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@Drew1903 

 

Nice to deal with a dedicated Windows warrior. You see I'm using smileys all the time now. :smiling_face_with_smiling_eyes:

 

It seems to be a Special Folder like Documents, i.e. aggregated links view. Therefore, duplicate links can be freely deleted from it. I just tried it, can be useful as Bird View apps inventory, except portable apps (not installable) not included. Still Search turns best suggestions faster, likely stats based.

 

DesktopBar.jpg

 

I usually create a new Library in Desktop view, then create various aggregated by purpose app collection  folders in it, including Portable Apps folder, and move installed app shortcuts from desktop to these folders . This way the Library is accessible from Desktop Toolbar, and has auto expandable app collections, while desktop is clean. Yet nothing can replace Everything Search, when looking for some hidden gems on one's PC. 🧐

@sambul95 

Sam, I keep its desktop icon on the taskbar (#1, I changed from the default icon) and keep it (#2) minimized & living on the taskbar after click on its icon & configuring it as desired.; instead of > Desktop toolbar for it. It, also, shows on the Jumplist under Frequent Jumplist.jpg. Any applications (Store or other 'programs') added or installed will show in this window. Rt Clk on items in the window gives this menu

Rt Clk menu.jpg

Cheers,
Drew
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