Updates to the New Tab Page in Microsoft Edge Insider preview builds

Microsoft

Preview builds of the next version of Microsoft Edge include an all-new New Tab Page, which gives users the option of personalized layouts that provide options for search, top sites, and a personalized feed depending on your preferences.

 

Over the past several months, we’ve gotten tons of great feedback from our Insider community on additional configuration options you’d like to see on the New Tab Page. This week, we’ve rolled out a new set of updates to all Canary and Developer channel preview builds of Microsoft Edge to address some of the top feedback.

 

Content Visibility Customization

One of the most common requests we heard is that power users wanted more options to configure the page layout, in addition to the “Focused,” “Inspirational,” and “Informational” defaults. The updated New Tab Page now includes granular options under the “Custom” layout, allowing you to enable/disable and configure individual elements of the layout:

 

NTP_img1.png

 

  • Content visible shows a selection of personalized news and more on the page each time you open a new tab, making it easy to stay up to date on the latest.
  • Headings only gives you quick access to your personalized interests, while hiding the main feed until you click or scroll.
  • Content visible on scroll hides both the interest headings and content, with just a subtle hint to access your feed by clicking or scrolling.
  • Content off removes additional content from the page entirely, for the most lightweight experience.

 

Dark theme

We also heard that elements of the New Tab Page could be jarring when the browser was in the Dark theme. Now, if you’ve selected a the “Dark” theme for Microsoft Edge, the New Tab Page will now reflect that as well. Dark theme is supported on all layout modes for the New Tab Page including menus, top sites and news.

 

Dark theme is now supported across all configurations of the New Tab PageDark theme is now supported across all configurations of the New Tab Page

 

Personalizing your feed

The Microsoft News interests hub just got a refresh. Click “Personalize” to see which interests you currently follow in your newsfeed. Customize your feed by removing interests from “My Interests” or adding interests by exploring the categories. The left navigation makes exploration easy. Click the “+” icon to add and the green check mark to remove an interest. For convenience, your chosen interests will also appear in the horizontal navigation above the newsfeed.  

 

NTP_img3.png

 

We hope you love these updates to the New Tab Page! We’re continuing to make incremental changes to refining the experience, and we would love to hear your additional feedback or suggestions.

Send feedback at any time with the Send a Smile buttonSend feedback at any time with the Send a Smile button

 

You can send feedback at any time by clicking the “Send feedback” smiley icon in the top-right corner of Microsoft Edge, or by typing Alt+Shift+I to open the feedback tool.

– Uday Pharate, Senior Program Manager, Microsoft News

34 Replies

@Elliot Kirk  Newbie here! I've just started using Dev Edge (New Edge as I call it) and one issue with tabs on the New Edge is how crowded they are; with Old Edge, I literally have 50 or 60 tabs open at a time and I can clearly tell what each one is. It does require that I scroll side to side to see them all, but with New Edge, all the tabs are shown at once, and with that many tabs open, they are so squished together, I can't identify a single one! Will you widen the tabs to better mimic Old Edge, or will this be customizable in the future so power tab users like me can actually tell what I've got open?

 

Also, this may be the wrong place to ask, but scrolling is much too fast on New Edge. Old Edge, on the other hand, is nice, and smooth, and reasonable. Anyway to currently adjust this, or if not, in the future maybe?

 

Thanks!

 

 

 

@lister1911 

Hi Lister,

Smooth scrolling IS coming.  In the meantime do this...
SSFlag.jpg

Cheers,
Drew
thVY64FD02.jpg

@lister1911 

Hi,

you're right, in the Edge classic we could view a small picture of the whole tab preview at the top of them, however in Chromium there is something similar and it will show you a preview picture of the tabs at the bottom of them.

it's called Tab hover card images but it's not available in Edge insider, only google chrome and it'd look like this

 

2019-06-05_14h22_46.png

 

I hope Microsoft adds it, for now only Tab hover cards is available

 

Annotation 2019-10-08 112135.png

 

 

for Smooth Scrolling, it's also available right now in Edge insider and you can active is using the flag

 

Annotation 2019-10-08 112149.png

 

only changes that will come are improvements to this flag to make it even better, some of them are coming this month in October, some will come at later time. more details:

 

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Discussions/Top-feedback-summary-for-October-1/td-p/886926

@HotCakeX

Thanks very much for the info!

 

Unfortunately, I can't find where to set the flag for Smooth Scrolling. I looked everywhere under Settings and I couldn't find any reference to it, or to Experiments for that matter. I even tried using the search function under Settings, but search also didn't recognize either Smooth Scrolling or Experiments. I'm probably missing the obvious, right? I'm using Dev Edge if it matters.

 

Also, I understand what you're referring to with the small tab preview in Edge Classic (Old Edge to me!), but I'm not even talking about that. The tabs themselves are much larger in Edge Classic so that I can see a website's icon as well as the beginning text of the page's name. In Edge Insider, the tabs are so tiny, if I don't recognize the little icon, I can't tell anything about them!

 

Here's what it looks like in Edge Classic with a boat-load of tabs open:

Old Edge.jpg

 

New Edge.jpg

 

 

As you can see, Edge Classic had much bigger tabs. Thanks again for taking the time to reply. I was having some trouble getting these pictures to upload.

@lister1911 

 

You're welcome!

Oh the flags are all here: edge://flags/

(type it in the browser Address bar)

 

sorry I didn't mention that earlier :)

 

Annotation 2019-10-08 123713.png

 

Yes true that, in Edge insider, when there are a lot of open tabs, they tend to get so compact

@Drew1903 

 

Got it, thanks Drew! It's not quite smooth scrolling, but it's definitely better!

 

Appreciate the help!

@HotCakeX 

 

You and @Drew1903 have been a huge help--thanks very much, again!

@lister1911 

Terrific.  Yes, even an improvement on something is, still, a good thing.; glad you found it, ok; that's why I included the URL, et al, in the snip for you.

"You have been a huge help--thanks very much, again!" Lister

You're very welcome.  And that's what makes it rewarding.  Thank you for that

Cheers,
Drew
thVY64FD02.jpg

Capture.PNG

 

@Elliot Kirk News feed is still completely broken in Dev Version 79.0.294.1. Is it still a bug or am the individual facing the problem?

 

Please someone inform.

 

Thanks

@TanvirArjel 

Tanvir,

IF, you are talking about the New Feeds on Dev NTP, for me, it is not 'broken' nor has it been 'broken'.

DevFeeds.jpg

Cheers,
Drew
thVY64FD02.jpg

Capture.PNG

 

Would tell me your version please?

@TanvirArjel I am also facing that problem. I see nothing in my Interests and the page claims I've "unfollowed them all". Trying to reset them I get an error.

Version: 79.0.294.1 (Official build) dev (64-bit)

@TanvirArjel 


@TanvirArjel wrote:

Capture.PNG

 

@Elliot Kirk News feed is still completely broken in Dev Version 79.0.294.1. Is it still a bug or am the individual facing the problem?

 

Please someone inform.

 

Thanks


 

 

It's broken for me as well

Version 79.0.298.0 (Official build) canary (64-bit)

It's been like this since the past few canary updates

 

Annotation 2019-10-09 095152.png

 

 

 

@Mitko1239 

 

I get that error too but in Canary,

Version 79.0.298.0 (Official build) canary (64-bit)

Version 79.0.294 was the same (which is what you guys are using now as Dev channel)

at first I thought it's just my network acting up but apparently it's not just me

@TanvirArjel 

Tanvir, have just updated (Dev) to Version 79.0.294.1 (Official build) dev (64-bit).  But, as I said, has been ok in prior versions, as well.

Cheers,
Drew
thVY64FD02.jpg

No! This is problem existed in previous Dev version too.
Doesn't change the fact that we others have this problem.
I think a solution would be much more helpful, Thanks.