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]

@Dino_Zuma 

Spoiler

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@Dino_Zuma wrote:
OK, so I found one solution to my problem. The new Extension toolbar icon "on-off" switch is hidden in the "Settings/Appearance" menu along with other Toolbar buttons. While the Extensions button was rolled out in the latest update, the button never appeared automatically in my toolbar, which made all my extensions suddenly flood my toolbar after the update. I had the inspiration to search for it today and I found it. This makes me wonder why no one on the MS EdgeDev team mentioned this before. *Sigh* Oh, well,

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it's not hidden. it is right in appearance settings: edge://settings/appearance

right-clicking on Edge toolbar icons also gives you the option to "customize toolbar" which takes you to the same page.

[#3]

I'm sorry you believe I'm attacking you personally. Quite the opposite. I will take your suggestion, however. Thanks.

[#4]

@Dino_Zuma 

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@Dino_Zuma wrote:
I'm sorry you believe I'm attacking you personally. Quite the opposite. I will take your suggestion, however. Thanks.

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Not a suggestion, just reminding you of the code of conduct

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/community-policies/code-of-conduct/ta-p/1235728

[#5]

I get that. But when the Extensions button was originally discussed in this forum, the article said it was "on the toolbar." But in my update, it never appeared. What did suddenly appear were all my icons that were previously hidden under the . . . menu. No mention was made that the on-off button was in the Appearance settings. So, I patiently waited for Extensions button to be "rolled out" to my toolbar so I could again hide many of my extensions again. It would have been good to know from the start that the on-off button was in the Appearance settings, which would have eased the frustration of others on the forum who experienced the same frustration. Food for thought.

[#6]

@Dino_Zuma 

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@Dino_Zuma wrote:
I get that. But when the Extensions button was originally discussed in this forum, the article said it was "on the toolbar." But in my update, it never appeared. What did suddenly appear were all my icons that were previously hidden under the . . . menu. No mention was made that the on-off button was in the Appearance settings. So, I patiently waited for Extensions button to be "rolled out" to my toolbar so I could again hide many of my extensions again. It would have been good to know from the start that the on-off button was in the Appearance settings, which would have eased the frustration of others on the forum who experienced the same frustration. Food for thought.

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The post explains:

"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. "

[#7]

Hmmm. I discounted that, thinking the new extensions button would first be "rolled out" and appear automatically before I needed to consider that option. All I saw was that my hidden extensions magically appeared with the dropdown menu option to "Hide from toolbar" greyed out. I'm not the only one this happened to, it appears. This also was all the more puzzling because on my desktop PC, when EdgeDev updated the extensions button did appear automatically and I was able to easily hide extensions from the toolbar. Wonder why the button appeared on my desktop PC and not on my laptop?

[#8]

Oh that's because this is part of the CFR
https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/articles/controlled-feature-roll-outs-in-microsoft-edge/m-p/7...

[#9]

Thanks for clearing that up, that's good to know. I hope others on this thread see your replies to my questions. I think it would clear up lots of confusion over why the extensions button did not appear automatically with their update and how to turn it on in the settings menu versus what they perceived as loss of functionality and lots of frustration over not being able to hide previously hidden extensions.

[#10]

Thanks but all I said was basically repeating what the post up there said.

[#11]

That isn't all the extensions I have. That isn't even most of them. I have most of them hidden away. Those are just the ones I need quick access to. I used to be able to have them one click away and ordered to where I could access them quickly. Now I have to either put all of these on my toolbar or be unable to find them since I don't know the names of all of them.

[#12]

"Now I have to either put all of these on my toolbar or be unable to find them since I don't know the names of all of them."

use the new extension flyout, it shows each extension's names next to its icon, you don't have to put any of them on the toolbar.

[#13]

I like new button. But I don't like that when I choose to hide it from toolbar all my extensions shows again on toolbar. And that when I turn on this button in "appearance" it don't hide extensions that was hidden before automatically

[#14]

I have probably 40-50 extensions installed. And again I don't know the names of all of them. Sure, alphabetical order would help if I happened to know what all of them were called, but I don't.

This means that I have to scroll through 50 different extensions where I can only see 14 at a time and try to figure out which of them is the right extension I need. The several that I have on the toolbar are ones that I use often enough that sticking them in such a list takes way too long. (Also I tried living with it for a week the way you are suggesting, it doesn't work for me)

[#15]

@Ebsolas 

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@Ebsolas wrote:
I have probably 40-50 extensions installed. And again I don't know the names of all of them. Sure, alphabetical order would help if I happened to know what all of them were called, but I don't.

This means that I have to scroll through 50 different extensions where I can only see 14 at a time and try to figure out which of them is the right extension I need. The several that I have on the toolbar are ones that I use often enough that sticking them in such a list takes way too long. (Also I tried living with it for a week the way you are suggesting, it doesn't work for me)

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The solution is to have a drag & drop functionality on the new extension flyout.

I've already said this before and sent feedback myself.

[#16]

Hey everyone,

Several comments on this post were removed because they contained personal attacks and other rule violations. This is a friendly reminder to focus on the feedback not the person. We're all here to improve the product and provide feedback while keeping a friendly and open community.

Unfortunately, many comments that did contain legitimate feature feedback were removed because they also contained personal attacks. I encourage those of you whose feedback was removed to post again and focus on the feedback.

Additionally, please remember that everyone here is welcome to provide feedback, both good and bad, and that feedback is not wrong because you disagree with it. Please be respectful and constructive, even when you disagree with one another.

[#17]

What's the most productive way to provide feedback that will land on your developer's roadmap?

In the post, there are two methods mentioned: 1) leaving a comment here, and 2) sending feedback via the browser Send Feedback form. If both are equal, that's great!

The extension change appears have people with passionate feedback (I feel strongly myself), and I'd like to feel confident it reaches the developer team through the right process. Thanks!

[#18]

Hey there mep001!
For threads (like this one) that we post specifically asking for feedback, both methods mentioned in the post have equal weight. Feature teams and community managers collaborate on these posts and ensure that we're reviewing the feedback in the thread as well as what's sent via the browser.
For feedback that isn't part of a larger discussion, or for reporting bugs/issues, the in-browser feedback is the preferred method and ensures that we (community managers and feature teams) see the feedback.
The feature team is reviewing the feedback around the new extensions menu, but we are still listening to new feedback coming in both here and through the browser. So, if there's something you like, don't like, want to see done differently, or even something you have trouble doing now that you didn't before the menu change - let us know! =)

[#19]

Hello. I'm glad to hear the team is still keeping an eye out for feedback. Extensions toolbar menu has grown on me over the last couple weeks. Now I actually prefer it. However, for those who used the overflow menu, the transition can be quite rough. Hopefully, team Edge can create a less jarring on-ramp.

Why I Prefer the New Extensions Menu:

1. All your extensions plus hide, more actions, manage and find more extensions are all together and just one click away.  It's a better overall experience once you get used to it.
2. Being able to see full extension titles rather than having to hover over each one is better for the same reason vertical tabs are better. I memorized all my extension icons. But the more you have, the more helpful this new design should be (IMO).
3. Discoverability is better—especially for users who rarely venture into Settings and right-click menus.
4. Makes for a cleaner, more consistent Settings menu. I like Edge's overflow menu compared to some other browsers. But in retrospect, it always looked a bit like a hack—increasingly so as you push more extensions into overflow.

Ideas for a Smoother Transition:
If you're someone who hides toolbar icons by carefully reordering then expanding your address bar and/or using the right-click hide menu, this change can feel downright rude. It's not likely to be a problem for users who rarely if ever customize or use extensions, but it's not a good idea to upset thousands of geeks who do.

1. Do NOT dump all the icons a user has carefully hidden back out onto the toolbar without warning. The extensions menu should at least start with all the same icons hidden.
2. Alphabetical order is a good default IMO, but previous icon order should optionally be preserved if possible. The ability to at least reorder by drag and drop, as mentioned by HotCakeX, would probably be appreciated by many.
3. Using the same icon for the new toolbar menu and settings menu was confusing at first (at least for me). Since I hadn't heard about the new toolbar icon yet, I thought "how did this get promoted to my taskbar?" So, instead of left-clicking to open, I immediately right-clicked to hide it. After that, one pretty much has to do some reading and/or digging through menus to find it again. Somehow, make it as obvious as possible that this is not the settings menu control—at least on first use and before someone has a chance to right-click on it.
4. The greater surprise and pain is when you discover none of the previous methods of hiding icons works anymore—especially after you've hidden the darn icon before realizing what it was. Maybe add a warning about that too in a first-experience pop-up?
5. I don't know if you can make this feature optional and maintain both methods. I've already reached the point where I'm okay with the change, but we all know not everyone will be quite as receptive.

[#20]

@Mike Glenn 

What you've pointed out and others who were "used" to this new extension button has been rinse and repeated by those who dislike this feature.  There were no significant issues with Extensions at all - why fix what isn't broken?  They had bigger fish to fry like having Edge be more tablet and touch friendly.

The Edge devs have "promised" a look and feel that will be independent of Chrome but it's the exact opposite - the Edge browser is starting to look more of Google Chrome than have its independent aesthetic design.  Vertical tabs is putting a lipstick on a piggy - close but no cigar there IMO. It's been years since you introduced Fluent design and it's still not implemented decently in your browser and worst yet, it feels like you guys have given up and just following what Google does.

What others have suggested have been implemented by Firefox - the customizable overflow menu as shown in the screenshots below are an example of what a lot of us envision this to be.  For me it's not perfect - I hope I can delete the separator...but it's much better than what Edge has.

I've been using Edge as my main browser since it was introduced (used Firefox, Opera and Vivaldi sparingly) but ever since they've been moving closer and closer to being just a copy of the world's most popular browser; I've been appreciating how Firefox has become.

[#21]

@azrael99 

Spoiler

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@azrael99 wrote:

@Mike Glenn 

What you've pointed out and others who were "used" to this new extension button has been rinse and repeated by those who dislike this feature.  There were no significant issues with Extensions at all - why fix what isn't broken?  They had bigger fish to fry like having Edge be more tablet and touch friendly.

The Edge devs have "promised" a look and feel that will be independent of Chrome but it's the exact opposite - the Edge browser is starting to look more of Google Chrome than have its independent aesthetic design.  Vertical tabs is putting a lipstick on a piggy - close but no cigar there IMO. It's been years since you introduced Fluent design and it's still not implemented decently in your browser and worst yet, it feels like you guys have given up and just following what Google does.

What others have suggested have been implemented by Firefox - the customizable overflow menu as shown in the screenshots below are an example of what a lot of us envision this to be.  For me it's not perfect - I hope I can delete the separator...but it's much better than what Edge has.

I've been using Edge as my main browser since it was introduced (used Firefox, Opera and Vivaldi sparingly) but ever since they've been moving closer and closer to being just a copy of the world's most popular browser; I've been appreciating how Firefox has become.

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Why do you think Edge looking like Chrome is bad and if it looked like Firefox it's a good thing?

you personally appreciate Firefox, and someone else appreciates Chrome and Edge.

that doesn't mean they are wrong or right.

Edge can look like Firefox, Chrome, other browser, partially or not, or it can look like none of them, or a mixture of everything plus unique elements. either way, it's all good.

it's better to emphasize on the usability of a feature rather than its dynasty.