Introducing the new Extensions menu on the toolbar

[josh_bodner]

Extensions are small applications that enhance the browser’s functionality. Once you install an extension, you can notice the extension icon appearing on the toolbar. If you have several extensions installed on your browser, these extension icons take up considerable space on your toolbar. We have received significant feedback from the users asking for the ability to manage these extensions and reclaim space on the toolbar.  

To address this feedback, we are rolling out a new Extensions menu on the toolbar. This extension menu allows you to hide one or more of your extensions from the toolbar. Furthermore, you can directly visit the Edge add-ons site to install more extensions or the extensions management page using the two links provided in the menu. 

The extensions menu will be shown to you on the toolbar if you have one or more extensions installed on the browser. The default state of these extensions are shown on the toolbar. You can choose to hide them by clicking on the extensions menu icon and the view/hide icon (eye icon) listed inside. Alternatively, you can right-click on the extensions icon on the toolbar and choose “Hide from toolbar” to hiding that extension from the toolbar.  

There are extension-specific “more” options (...) available against each extension inside the extension menu. Try out these options to manage the extension level settings for each extension. 

If you would like your extensions upfront on the toolbar, you can also choose to remove the extensions menu from the toolbar. This will ensure that all your extensions are available on the toolbar and the extensions menu icon is hidden from the toolbar. For this, you can right-click on the extensions menu icon and select “Customize toolbar” option. This redirects you to the Appearance section inside the Settings page for Edge. You can toggle the button off or on for the extensions menu to hide or show it on the toolbar. 

The feature has been rolled out to the Dev and Canary channels as part of the CFR. Do leave us your valuable feedback around the extensions menu by leaving a comment below or sending us feedback via the browser (… menu > Help and feedback > Send feedback). We hope you enjoy this exciting new feature and look forward to hearing from you! 

[#2]

Is there a flag to turn this off? I am not a fan.

Requiring this button on the toolbar in order to hide extensions has added clutter. I prefer the hidden extensions being accessible through the menu button (...).

It was frustrating seeing this new button, clicking "Hide from toolbar" and then having all my extensions added to the toolbar and no clear way to remove/hide them again ("Hide from toolbar" is dithered after doing this when right clicking on extension button). I eventually figured out how to re-hide them, but it was quite painful.

[#3]

@mep001 @josh_bodner 

I had literally the same thing happen to me.

It looks worse, has added clutter to the toolbar and is of no real extra use. The only benefit it has over the extensions in the menu is the oversight maybe, but it comes at the cost of an extra added button. It may grow on me in the future, but it's not an instant succes I would say.

The addons you do hide are the ones that either have no interaction or the ones that you use every 2 months. You hide them in the menu for a reason.

The fact that all addons just popup and fill your toolbar however (if you try to hide the button), is just poor design. It shouldn't be like that. Have to re-hide them is indeed very painful.

[#4]

Love the new extension button, makes it easier to manage extensions. it's consistent and unified.
previously, when i resized Edge omnibox/address bar, some extensions would go to the (...) menu and some stay up there, it was annoying, but now everything is in one place, extension button.

[#5]

It's fine that you have added a dropdown lightweight extension manage like the favourites and history and downloads ones, especially as it can, like them, be turned off. It is NOT fine that you've removed the toolbar overflow area. A dropdown extension manager is NOT the same thing as or a replacement for a toolbar overflow area as in the one you've removed from the top of the More menu.

I HAD 9 extension toolbar buttons in the toolbar, and 18 in the toolbar overflow, where they were arranged logically for me by me so I could quickly find buttons in the overflow when I need them, the ones I use quite often grouped in the upper line by type, the ones where the buttons are never used as they don't do anything on the lowest line.

Now I have a SCROLLING dropdown of 27, one button per line, every single button including the ones already on the toolbar in alphabetical order regardless of whether they are already on the toolbar, lesser used but not on the toolbar or useless. AND I CAN'T FIND ANYTHING when I need it.

This is dreadful. When Chrome did this I finally gave up on any thought of using it. Now you are making the same mistake when I was expecting better from you. An extension manager is NOT the same as a toolbar overflow, and you've added the first but REMOVED the second, whereas I couldn't care less about the first but need the second.

An Extension manager has ALL extensions, whether visible on the toolbar, not visible but useful, or of no use as pressing the button does nothing in alphabetical order, and tools with each for managing the extensions. A toolbar overflow has ONLY the extensions NOT visible on the toolbar, and is just for pressing the button for whatever effect that has, and allows the user to re-order them to taste just as in the toolbar.

For me, Canary and Dev today became unusable. I will do each update and check each only to see if I get a useable toolbar overflow back. That could be maintaining separate dropdown extension manager and toolbar overflow by carrying on with the former as is and adding back the latter as was. Or it could be adding sufficient options that the new extensions manager can be reconfigured as a toolbar overflow - HIDE extensions visible in the toolbar and allow re-ordering in the list, although the one button per line and scrolling needed as compared with the old toolbar over flow is NOT good. But if you don't add back a preoperly functional toolbar overflow, that's Edge dead and gone for me.

Please do not follow Google stupidity. A dropdown extension manager is conceptually and functionally a different thing to a toolbar overflow for people who use a lot of extensions, and you have removed the toolbar overflow. For me a toolbar overflow is a sine qua non for a useable browser. I really hope you guys really think about this and restore a good toolbar overflow.

[#6]

Pros of this extension menu that you are not mentioning.
1) in the (...) menu, only extension icons were shown, not their names, if extensions had similar icons or weird new icons, user wouldn't know which one is which, had to hover over them and spend so much time to see each of their tooltips.
2) the new extension toolbar shows one extension at a line, with their full name, so even if the icon is not helpful for identifying the extension, the name will fill in the gap.
3) the new extension icon keeps everything in a fixed place. you said you had some extensions in the (...) menu and some in the toolbar. in the previous design, that wouldn't be important, if you resized Edge window and had to drag the address bar/omnibox to better see the results and URL, you would lose your custom locations, after returning to bigger Edge window size and dragging the address bar to the left.

so reading your post, these are the features that can be implemented to help your case:
1) ability to sort extensions alphabetically or recently used
2) ability to use drag and drop to relocate extension icons in the the extension toolbar.

you can send these using the feedback button on Edge so they can be properly registered in the feedback system.

[#7]

How to disable this? I don't see a flag for it. I prefer my overflow in the main context menu. I don't like there's an extra icon on my toolbar. Useless change. There was nothing wrong with the old way.

[#8]

Please change the following:

1/ bring back the extensions overflow menu like it was before, it is very useful, and caters to uses cases not covered in your new extensions menu

2/ when hiding the Extensions Button, do NOT show all extensions, but keep the ones we had hidden in the overflow menu

Thank you.

[#9]

What is the reason of force showing the Extensions icon? Please make it possible to hide it completely like it was earlier. Zero clutter = nice UX.

[#10]

Personally, I manage my extensions once every 3 months. So, to me it is totally out of balance to place a button (even if you could remove it manually) just for that absolut minor task.

[#11]

@josh_bodner 

'help and feedback' -> 'send feedback' is disabled on my system.

I'm confused by the new button.

It appears the old option 'to move extensions to the menu' has been removed, so this only adds an extra button where I was already cleaning things up before?

Then I right-clicked that button and choose 'hide from toolbar' because I didn't want it... but now _ALL_ my extensions are back in the toolbar (where before they were hidden in the menu!). And now I can't get the 'toolbar extensions management button' back! No way to remove clutter now, and now I have lots of clutter while I had none before.. so this seems very backwards to me.

The drop-down options / texts in the DevTools are fixed now, so Edge is usable again. That's a big plus at least :).

[#12]

@Mathias Schmidt 

Spoiler

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@Mathias Schmidt wrote:
Personally, I manage my extensions once every 3 months. So, to me it is totally out of balance to place a button (even if you could remove it manually) just for that absolut minor task.

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what minor task and which button?

[#13]

@JorisMak 

"'help and feedback' -> 'send feedback' is disabled on my system."

are you using a work account? that might be an organization policy.

[#14]

@mrfry700 

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@mrfry700 wrote:
How to disable this? I don't see a flag for it. I prefer my overflow in the main context menu. I don't like there's an extra icon on my toolbar. Useless change. There was nothing wrong with the old way.

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There was nothing wrong with the the old way?

maybe take a look at this

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/articles/introducing-the-new-extensions-menu-on-the-toolbar/m...

[#15]

The pros in your previous comment do not seem to be pros to anyone else here so far. They 'fixed' this for some people by breaking it for others. Bad design. Let the user choose which way they want it.

[#16]

No, always a local account (imagine using an online account to login to your computer :shudder:) but I use a privacy tool to disable a lot of the stuff that happens in the background on my system. Probably is related somewhere. :shrug:

[#17]

If there was room to move extension-buttons to the menu, there is room to move this 'extension-menu' button to the menu. Where it would be hidden from the toolbar, because taking up another slot there just doesn't weight up to the 'benefits' the button has.

To be honest, the idea that having room to show extension name + icon together is a good thing just doesn't register with me. It's not like people are installing 10+ extensions at the same time so they don't know what icon is what.. if a new extension is installed it neatly 'popped up' so you saw what you had done, and you know which icon is which extension.

And like I said, even if this is a thing what people want, the button could be moved to the menu where the extensions were hidden before, and they it can open the list of extensions with names like it does now... just don't be fixed in the toolbar without an option to hide it there.

I still see this move as a _big_ regression.

[#18]

@Revz_ 

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@Revz_ wrote:
The pros in your previous comment do not seem to be pros to anyone else here so far. They 'fixed' this for some people by breaking it for others. Bad design. Let the user choose which way they want it.

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nope, not just my "pros", that wouldn't make sense. they are facts.

also other people in the forum mentioned them before, just because they haven't got time to come to this specific thread and put a comment, doesn't mean i'm the only one.

Spoiler

1) in the (...) menu, only extension icons were shown, not their names, if extensions had similar icons or weird new icons, user wouldn't know which one is which, had to hover over them and spend so much time to see each of their tooltips.


2) the new extension toolbar shows one extension at a line, with their full name, so even if the icon is not helpful for identifying the extension, the name will fill in the gap.


3) the new extension icon keeps everything in a fixed place. if you had some extensions in the (...) menu and some in the toolbar. in the previous design, that wouldn't be important, if you resized Edge window and had to drag the address bar/omnibox to better see the results and URL, you would lose your custom locations, after returning to bigger Edge window size and dragging the address bar to the left.

none of these are my opinions, I'm describing how the UI was.

[#19]

@JorisMak 

Spoiler

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@JorisMak wrote:
No, always a local account (imagine using an online account to login to your computer :shudder:) but I use a privacy tool to disable a lot of the stuff that happens in the background on my system. Probably is related somewhere. :shrug:

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I don't need to imagine, already been doing it for years just like millions of other people.

if you happened to use anything that broke Windows functionality, preform a reset of Windows 10. Edge probably needs them.

[#20]

I'm not a heavy extension user by any means, but the few that I have, I like to keep handy, but out of view. I like a clean toolbar. I keep Favourites, History & Collections on the tool bar because I use them regularly. My extensions, I just want them in the background doing their job. What I don't currently like about the new mini Extensions manager, is that if I turn it off, all extensions appear on the tool bar, with no option to move them to the menu. That option is greyed out - so will it be coming as the feature is developed? Hope so. Conversely, if I turn on the Extensions manager, I can hide the extensions themselves, but I'm forced to have the Extensions button on the tool bar. It's a strong preference of mine to have the choice of what appears on the toolbar (it's MY toolbar, after all). The current iteration of the Extensions manager is ok thinking, but I think that there should be the option to NOT show the Extensions button, AND NOT show the extensions. I know it's one button instead (in my case, 7), but I just want my regular 'go-to' buttons showing on the toolbar.