Discussion - Set Aside Tabs and Warn on Close

Microsoft

Hi Insiders, we have received a lot of feedback about how you would like to close your tabs with the option of easily finding and reopening them later as you move between different workflows. Specifically, many of you are asking for the Tab Set Aside feature from the previous version of Microsoft Edge to be brought back. Some of you are also asking for a prompt to help avoid losing all your tabs such that you can’t find them again if you accidentally close the browser.


• Ask users if they want to close all tabs when they close a browser window
• Bring the tab set aside feature from the current version of Microsoft Edge

 

Each of these requests seem related to the fact that many of you have a lot of tabs open at once across many tasks and workflows. This leads to a situation where it can often be difficult to manage all of your tabs at the same time, and each additional tab makes it difficult to deal with all of the rest (e.g. tabs get smaller, harder to read each titles, many similar tab icons begin to blur together, etc.). But it can also be scary to close tabs and declutter your workspace, for fear of not being able to find things again later if you need to. We have definitely experienced this problem ourselves, observed it in our research and conversations with users, and agree it is an area where we want to invest in tools to help you be more productive across various tasks. We are actively investigating the best way to address this problem and would love your help and input as we proceed to make sure we get the experience just right.

 

We have looked through your feedback, and there are definitely some very valid reasons for why there was value in the Set Aside feature such as: Helping you pick up on a task later without leaving the tabs open when you aren’t using them, organizing your tabs into groups related to a similar task, and a short term home for more transient tasks that didn’t warrant saving in a permanent location such as Favorites.

 

We also reviewed feedback on the Set Aside feature itself from people actually using it in the previous version of Microsoft Edge, and there were some very valid critiques on how it worked and how it could be improved. For example, the Set Aside buttons being in a location where they were often accidentally clicked causing some to think their tabs had disappeared, requests to be able to set aside a subset of the currently open tabs rather than “all or nothing”, or requests to rename and personalize tab groups further to more easily find them again later.

 

The request for a prompt before closing the browser also feels related, because if people could always confidently find and reopen any of their previous tabs, then there would be less fear or concern about losing tabs if they are accidently closed. This would allow people to feel free to declutter and reduce the number of open tabs with no fear about finding them later if needed, and more easily focus on the subset of tabs they are working on now.

 

As we begin this journey of investigating how best to address these requests, we are asking for your help. Please continue to tell us more about your experience with Set Aside and closing tabs in Microsoft Edge, why these features are important to you in which types of tasks, what did and didn’t work for you about previous implementations, and how you would improve on these scenarios going forward.

334 Replies

@Elliot Kirk 

 

Just looping back on this topic -- is there any plan to have a tab group "collapse" feature (similar to what's available in Chrome)? I use tab grouping extensively, and it's helpful to be able to temporarily collapse those groups to save on some screen real estate.

 

Thanks very much!

yeah what chrome has for tab grouping is super useful.
tab grouping on Edge has made 0 improvements since the last 8/9 months, or since it was first added to Edge (accidentally/Intentionally).
There has been a lot of good topics about how to improve it, none of them were applied to the Edge yet, not even a word from Edge team that they are going to apply them.
I don't know why they keep asking for feedback from users. there are already tons of feedback that are ignored.

Everyone, please continue to make noise so we can get this feature back... I forgot even about the history that also gets saved and set aside.... Someone else made an add-on for the new chromium Edge browser. However it doesn't have the history feature sadly. Here is a link for it:

 

https://microsoftedge.microsoft.com/addons/detail/tabs-aside/kmnblllmalkiapkfknnlpobmjjdnlhnd?hl=en-...

This is a classic feature from way back when I started using internet explorer, and it needs to be brought to Microsoft edge.

@xunderworldx 

 

That is an excellent point that I hadn't realized until now.

 

Saving tabs into either a Favorites folder or into a new collection saves the actual pages, but doesn't help as much for those with a bunch of tabs open.

 

I've intentionally force-quit the browser before to save all of my existing tabs (and their history), since that can often be useful information.

 

Having no reliable tab history will lead to more, not fewer, open tabs for a certain class of user.

 

Because of the complexity, this might demand that a tab-set-aside feature be local only and not included in Edge sync.

 

Use case example: currently I've got maybe 15 tabs open in a window, but in a different window I'm using the (sometimes very) resource intensive Power Apps Studio editor, so it would be nice to pop those 15 tabs closed for 30 minutes or so, but then recall them and still have the associated history.

 

Because I can't have that currently, I either have to break my current workflow to deal with those tabs (Power Apps documentation in this case, so they're still kind of in use) or accept the slow performance.

 

Edit: the legacy "Set Aside Tabs" feature, perhaps more importantly, also stored and restored page scroll position for each tab!

I don't think that there is more to say to this topic I genuinely think Microsoft did a good decision to bring this feature to the old edge back then already and I saw enough feedback in this thread to make it even better.
Also you guys could be inspired by the PlugIn Implementation of this Feature they featured given feedback such as
renaming groups
Opening tabs without removing them
Vertical View like vertical tabs that is coming soon to Microsoft Edge

And I really think they did a great job with those non-native capabilities they have.

But just like it was said it lacks that native feel and it can't save the tab session just link them.

The good thing is it's already enough to live by as an alternative until you guys finally decide to implement it to the browser and I think it's time to do so or at least give us a confirmation that it's coming soon this fall or sometime in 2021

@Elliot Kirk Hello, it has been long time. Since this post the update to new Edge is mandatory (included in Windows 10 updates - KB4559309). I do not use new Edge without this feature.

 

So my Windows 10 updates are paused until you will include the tabs aside. I will not give up on the original Edge, because of that. You have one year till my Windows will be not able to install updates anymore.

@Elliot Kirk 

Just in case the team is thinking that having sleeping tabs removes the need for set tabs aside, because one of the reasons why people want set tabs aside is to free system resources, I would like to say I still want set tabs side as it enables me to stop the browser from getting cluttered with many open tabs.

@Elliot Kirk 

I've seen screenshots of the vertical tabs button in the same place where the set aside tabs were in Edge Legacy:

MarinM_1-1602353248593.png

 

Does this mean you are not planning to add set tabs aside to the new Edge, despite all the feedback here?

@MarinM 

they changed it :)

now it's here

fdfsfsd.png

 

 

@HotCakeX  It shows under the left arrow (when enabled} and above the arrow (when disabled). I believe that is the intended position.

That had been the position for vertical tabs button for about 2 months, but about 1 week ago, they changed it to this new position that I showed above.
Yes, "Set Tabs Aside" is a required feature and should not be replaced by any other option.
"Set Aside Tabs" is one of, if not, the most useful, user friendly and satisfying of features in legacy edge. Bringing it to the new edge makes all the sense in the world.

@Elliot Kirk (I did not key Mr Kirk's name, so if it is inappropriate, please ignore).

I am a user of MS-Edge (Canary).  

As far as I am concerned a "Warn on Close" is essential as I often accidentally close the whole browser instead of a single window.  You will also know that it is sometimes (accidentally) possible to "drill through" so that a click on the X in the corner of (say) MS-word can accidentally also be a click on what is behind it.  That's annoying if I have browsed various URLs and lost sight of where I am in any one.

 

If the community has people who do not want a warn-on-entry, then it should be available to be set in settings.

@Elliot Kirk There should be options in the settings, to enable set aside tabs, and warn on close features.

If these are enabled, the user should be able to use them. If not, it will not work for them.

This is the best way to avoid confusion for users who don't even know about these two features.

 

Hope this will be looked into, and implemented, for the betterment of edge, and for the satisfaction of the users.

Thank you

Now that vertical tabs feature is available (in canary and dev channels), set tabs aside feature can now be integrated into the vertical tabs much more seamlessly making the use of tab grouping.

@Elliot Kirk Instead of having the tab set aside features in the top left we could bring back the Do you want to close all tabs popup with closing multiple tabs and **bleep** a check box that says something like Add all tabs to a new collection. This way it won't be cluttered when we have tab previews and verticle tabs in the top left.edge_close_tabs_warning.png