Introducing the new downloads experience

[William Devereux]

The new Microsoft Edge recently turned one year old, over the last year we’ve heard your feedback about the downloads experience. While there’s a lot you liked, a common criticism was that it was often hard to notice new downloads in the tray at the bottom of the window. Closing the tray to clear up screen real estate also prevented you from monitoring your download progress, and it was difficult to get back to your downloads later. Today, we’re thrilled to introduce a major update to downloads which should address all of this feedback and more. 

When you start a download, a new menu will now appear in the top-right corner with all your active downloads in one place. This menu is easily dismissible so you can continue browsing uninterrupted. Best of all, you can monitor your overall download progress right from the toolbar thanks to the new progress ring on the downloads button.

Simply click on the downloads button at any time to view all your downloads again. You can hover over or right-click on files in the list to pause, restart, or cancel a download. You can also select See more to view and manage your past downloads as well. And as with the recently updated experiences for favorites, history, and as of today Collections, you can even pin () the downloads menu open so you can monitor your downloads in detail while you browse. 

The downloads button will remain in the toolbar until all the downloads have finished, at which point the progress ring will change into a green checkmark. Simply open the menu to see your finished downloads and hide the downloads button again. 

If you haven’t downloaded a file recently, you can still access the new downloads menu from the Settings and More menu (). And in response to overwhelming feedback, you can finally choose to always show the downloads button on the toolbar for one-click access even when you aren't in the process of downloading a file. 

For those of you who prefer a more immersive view of your downloads, you can easily get back to the downloads page by selecting Manage downloads in the downloads menu () or typing edge://downloads in the address bar. 

We’re so excited to hear what you think of the new downloads experience, which is currently available in the Canary and Dev channels. Please send us your thoughts by submitting feedback in-app and in the comments below.  

— William Devereux, Senior Program Manager, Microsoft Edge  

[#2]

@prirai 

---

@prirai wrote:

@eduardobragaxz

I think @HotCakeX has point. We should be allowed to pin the collection to the side of our window and Edge should remember this preference the next time we open it. No harm with that. Anyways I like the new fly-out so I'll prefer that.

---

Thanks for the support, please also send feedback using feedback button on Edge and request to make the pinned state remembered.

[#3]

@William Devereux 

Great job! How about allowing the order of the downloads to be prioritised?

Regards

Graham

[#4]

@William Devereux No drag and drop. So for me is just not good. 

I would love to use it and give feedback, but I just hate it without drag and drop.

it looks pretty

[#5]

My main objection to this - as a web developer - is that with the bar at the bottom and all new downloads appearing a the left hand spot on the bar, it's easy for me to create screen instructions for someone to click the downloaded file to open it (with a big obvious arrow pointing to it). That's completely impossible with this new design - no way for the developer to know where that downloads tab will appear relative to the web content. So it makes it much harder for me to create instructions that work for multiple browsers - I have to detect edge and then show them screen shots of how it MIGHT look depending on a lot of factors. The old method (pretty consistent between various browsers) would allow me to create easy to understand and follow instructions for (for instance) firing up a zoom meeting, or downloading a CSV. Now I need to craft all sorts of different instructions for edge. Not friendly. It's hard enough to explain this to users without moving crap around arbitrarily. If you like the new downloads bar up top fine, but expect it will cause MORE confusion for those not intimately familiar with browser tech because people already can't follow instructions and if those instructions point to a nonexistant toolbar they'll be even more confused.

@William Devereux 

[#6]

@Lee Drake 

Spoiler

---

@Lee Drake wrote:

My main objection to this - as a web developer - is that with the bar at the bottom and all new downloads appearing a the left hand spot on the bar, it's easy for me to create screen instructions for someone to click the downloaded file to open it (with a big obvious arrow pointing to it). That's completely impossible with this new design - no way for the developer to know where that downloads tab will appear relative to the web content. So it makes it much harder for me to create instructions that work for multiple browsers - I have to detect edge and then show them screen shots of how it MIGHT look depending on a lot of factors. The old method (pretty consistent between various browsers) would allow me to create easy to understand and follow instructions for (for instance) firing up a zoom meeting, or downloading a CSV. Now I need to craft all sorts of different instructions for edge. Not friendly. It's hard enough to explain this to users without moving crap around arbitrarily. If you like the new downloads bar up top fine, but expect it will cause MORE confusion for those not intimately familiar with browser tech because people already can't follow instructions and if those instructions point to a nonexistant toolbar they'll be even more confused.

@William Devereux 

---

the new flyout downloads experience is WAY better than how it looked before.

it always appears in the same place, you don't see the flyout menu appearing at the bottom right, bottom left or top left, it's always there at the top right side of Edge, in the specified toolbar area.

Edge is not the only browser using this improved flyout experience, the old downloads bar came from chrome and it was awful.

Internet Explorer also had similar experience like the new Edge, Firefox does too right now.

[#7]

;@William Devereux 

Congrats! Overall, I see this as an improvement. 

One drawback to the new window is the following:

I'd like to see a return of one option from the old downloads window that I miss--a one-time option to open with system viewer. The new window has ALWAYS open with system viewer, but not a one off event. I like using Edge to view PDFs within the browser. But with large ones, or files that I spend a lot of time with, I prefer to use my system viewer. So the choice to do it once with system viewer, while still using Edge as my default, would be nice. I attach a screenshot of the old downloads menu, with its option that I would like the new window to have.

[#8]

@William Devereux 

I really love this design , I have some feedbacks here:

1) I really missed the shield icon in Microsoft Edge, as we all know all downloads will be checked by SmartScreen filter and I hope it show icon like it has been checked and it is safe like a green shield. 

2) Sometimes we have a case like we download a file and then manually deleted it and current behavior is like file deleted when click on it. It would be nice like we have a button when click on it, it check for existence of all files and if any file missing automatically show it has been deleted. Right now user must click on it to see if it has been deleted or moved. Then another option like to remove all deleted downloads from the list instead of remove them one by one. Currently, user think like download a file and when click on it, it is not there and it is a bit negative experience.

[#9]

Hi folks,

Just a reminder to keep your responses civil and on topic. Please review the community code of conduct if you have any questions. 

Thanks!

-Alex

[#10]

Why was my reply removed? It was informative, my opinion, and I was not the one arguing with those 2. Yet, you left the bad comments above mine and yours, strange.

[#11]

Looks like I missed a few comments above that were not part of the off-topic fork, just cleaned those as well. If your reply was in response to the off-topic fork of this conversation, it was removed along with the parent and all replies associated to it.

[#12]

I did it but the bar was not showing.

I disable edge at windows start and then it worked like a charm.

I DISLIKE very much the new "download thing"

Is not what I need. I HATE IT.

I don't care if the old bar it's 3000 years old.

For me, if there is not an option to permanently disable this, it will be a "go back to chrome" feature.

[#13]

What I dislike more, is the "my way or the high way" download feature.

The size of the bar is not of my liking, neither the position of it.
the download order is also not of my linking.

I don't like it. If there were an option to revert to the old history page, I would love that too.

[#14]

The flyout system seems like to be the future of Edge design, things you are describing Can be added to downloads flyout. after all, that's what feedbacks are for.

but which "bar"? the flyout has no bars.

[#15]

I just cant understand why you keep saying the new "download flyout system" is better than the old one, how a new download system having less features than the old one ( which was perfect ) could be better ? Why making a new flyout system without a highly used function like drag and drop ? you literally need to do more steps to moving a file than before. The position of the new flyout system ocupprs more from the page you are viewing than the old one and you gonna loose a part of the view from the page. Seems like you are the only one who dont like the old download bar.
There is no problem if a feature or a system is "too much old" if he do their job properly. And of course the old download bar do the job better than the new one, its not a problem the "flyout system be the future", but you dont need to use this if the user experience would be a downgrade.

The best example is the windows start menu, they tried to remove it on Windows 8 and everyone disagreed, even if the Start Menu is "OLD", its still more useful than the Windows 8 version, so they bringed it back.

As we can see on comments, there is more people who disliked the new system. Why just not make possible to switch to the old one ? its almost the same of the "new history experience" why cannot make possible to make a simple feature which gonna be liked for both sides? Just make possible switch between then.

[#16]

@DDemK 

Spoiler

---

@DDemK wrote:
I just cant understand why you keep saying the new "download flyout system" is better than the old one, how a new download system having less features than the old one ( which was perfect ) could be better ? Why making a new flyout system without a highly used function like drag and drop ? you literally need to do more steps to moving a file than before. The position of the new flyout system ocupprs more from the page you are viewing than the old one and you gonna loose a part of the view from the page. Seems like you are the only one who dont like the old download bar.
There is no problem if a feature or a system is "too much old" if he do their job properly. And of course the old download bar do the job better than the new one, its not a problem the "flyout system be the future", but you dont need to use this if the user experience would be a downgrade.

The best example is the windows start menu, they tried to remove it on Windows 8 and everyone disagreed, even if the Start Menu is "OLD", its still more useful than the Windows 8 version, so they bringed it back.

As we can see on comments, there is more people who disliked the new system. Why just not make possible to switch to the old one ? its almost the same of the "new history experience" why cannot make possible to make a simple feature which gonna be liked for both sides? Just make possible switch between then.

---

Like I said earlier, this is not the final form, not even available in Edge stable, only available in insider channels.

the only missing feature is drag and drop functionality, that's it, other than that it is better than the old downloads bar that occupied screen real estate due to bad user interface.

if you want drag and drop functionality, make sure to use feedback button on Edge to request that. devs will see how many people request something and then act upon it.

how does it exactly occupy more space?

that is literally only a small button on the toolbar, not even visible all the time, it can appear when a download is active and then disappear.

also you don't see the flyout at all times, only when you click on it, and you can make it appear/disappear with a click/tap.

unlike the old downloads bar, where if you clicked on X to close it, you couldn't make it appear again and you had to switch to a full screen tab to manage your downloads, very inconvenient.

and no I'm Not the only person who likes the new flyout system.

[#17]

Hey everyone! Thanks for the passionate feedback about the new downloads experience. We've been listening very closely to your feedback, and I'm excited to share that drag-and-drop is now supported in today's Canary build! Hopefully this change helps address one of the biggest pieces of feedback you have. Please let us know what you think!

[#18]

@William Devereux 

Thank you, just tested it on version 90.0.816.0 and works fine,

Can you make it even better by applying these please?

1. (this was requested by other people too) show open/save/save as by default, Don't hide any of them under a (...) button. there are plenty of space there to show those 3 buttons side by side. I use Save function 95% of the times, so i have to click on the (...) button every time, this can easily be prevented if you showed those 3 options by default. I'm not saying to replace "save as" with "save" because someone else might be using "save as" more often. but if you show all 3 options in there, everyone will be happy.
2. when there are multiple downloads pending (e.g. 2>), then show extra options for "Save all", "Cancel all" and "Save all as".

these are important and will help the experience to become better.

[#19]

Those open/save/save as could show only when hovering over it too.

[#20]

Yes, the 3 options just need to be displayed side by side, won't matter if visible at all times or visible on hover, both will work.
someone on the forum even made it with Photoshop, putting Open/Save/Save as next to each other, they fit perfectly.

[#21]

I totally dislike this new UI. I would prefer to have the downloads at the bottom.