Introducing Workspaces in Edge | New feature

[HotCakeX]

Workspaces

you can create multiple Workspaces in Edge, have tabs in each of them, and when you close all Edge windows and open Edge again, you still have your workspaces, it's like a combination of tabs set aside + tab groups + pinned tabs

experimental feature in canary, probably CFR. works really well so far

[#2]

@JordanQ 

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@JordanQ wrote:
Thanks for sharing this, since it's not in my Dev channel yet. There is a "workspaces" feature in Opera and I always thought it was brilliant. I can't wait to have something similar in Edge. I mean, it's like virtual desktops for your browser!

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you're welcome, yeah it's something like that.

[#3]

@Tio_Dep 

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@Tio_Dep wrote:
@HotCakeX

Could you explain how this tool works? Especially the fact that workspaces are kept? Thank you!

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it groups your open tabs together, allows you to put them in a named and colored workspace, restore them easily later.

[#4]

@HotCakeX 

While this feature has potential in the future, it currently isn't much more than a 'saved / named' window feature (rather than proper workspaces).

Also, unlike legacy "Set-aside tabs", it does not yet save either tab back/forward history nor the current scroll position on each tab once the Edge is closed. Scroll position is sometimes saved if Edge is still running when you re-open the window (see below for details).

(If you quit Edge with the 'workspace' window open or Edge crashes, both of those properties are restored. That makes me think that once a workspace window is closed by the user, the tab urls might be just stored internally as something like 'hidden' favorites.)

These are probably part of the reason it isn't yet widely available even in Canary without using command-line flags - still very early days.

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Once the user closes a workspace window, during the same session, certain properties are...

Spoiler

• Never restored (if window is re-opened during same session):
  • Window position on screen (unless window was re-sized by the user)
• Restored during the same Edge session:
  • Tab order
  • Selected tab in the window
  • Back/forward history for each tab
  • Window size
  • Window position on screen (only if user re-sized window)
    
  • Horizontal / vertical tab preference for that window
• Sometimes restored during the same Edge session:
  
  • Scroll position of content of each tab (only sometimes! maybe only if the tab is still cached in memory? Only if the page contains HTML anchor tags?)
• Maybe restored?:
  
  • Form data

[as of Version 92.0.878.0 (Official build) canary (64-bit)]

Once the Edge is closed and re-launched, certain properties are...

Spoiler

• Never restored (after Edge is closed and re-launched):
  • Window size
  • Window position on screen
  • Horizontal / vertical tab preference for that window
  • Scroll position of content of each tab
  • Back/forward history for each tab
  • Form data (not tested yet; just an educated guess)
• Restored (after re-launch):
  • Tab order
  • Selected tab in the window

    [as of Version 92.0.878.0 (Official build) canary (64-bit)]

[#5]

it's not final yet, make sure to use the feedback button on Edge to submit your suggestions.

[#6]

Exactly. (My purpose for posting was to inform the expectations of early adopters, not to complain nor suggest.)

[#7]

@JimGrisham Mid-May, and I still don't see Workspaces in my Edge.

[#8]

@GregBurlingame 

If you're still trying to make this work, the reason your command isn't working is because one (or both) of two things; you have existing flags set in edge://flags that are overwriting your argument, or the command you used doesn't work at all. Anyways if you want it to work reset your edge://flags and use my command line, it should work that way. There are some other things I enabled on there that you can disable if you'd like.

mac: "/Applications/Microsoft Edge Canary.app/Contents/MacOS/Microsoft Edge Canary" --enable-features=GlobalMediaControls,GlobalMediaControlsPictureInPicture,TabHoverCards,UnexpireFlagsM90,msEdgeTabGroups,msEdgeTabGroupsAutoCreate,msTabGroupsCollapseFreezing,msTabSearch,msWorkspaces &!

open -a "Microsoft Edge Canary" --args "--enable-features=GlobalMediaControls,GlobalMediaControlsPictureInPicture,TabHoverCards,UnexpireFlagsM90,msEdgeTabGroups,msEdgeTabGroupsAutoCreate,msTabGroupsCollapseFreezing,msTabSearch,msWorkspaces,msRightSideWorkspacesButton"

windows: "C:\Users\[username here]\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Edge SxS\Application\msedge.exe" --enable-features=GlobalMediaControls,GlobalMediaControlsPictureInPicture,TabHoverCards,UnexpireFlagsM90,msEdgeTabGroups,msEdgeTabGroupsAutoCreate,msTabGroupsCollapseFreezing,msTabSearch,msWorkspaces

add ",msRightSideWorkspacesButton" if you want the button to be on the right, but I don't think this works on mac. You can make a .app out of this by using automator. I've uploaded my own here, but you should probably make your own.

[#9]

see my latest reply to manually enable this feature

[#10]

@Daniel00000 Thank you so much - success!  I just tried my command line argument approach and it still didn't work.  I then built up an app using automator (your tip) and I now have Workspaces enabled in Canary on the Mac.  Many thanks!

[#11]

@GregBurlingame No problem, also I tried using the open command you used before and it seemed to work better in automator (didn't keep the script running in the background like it did with launching directly). My final command looked like this:

open -a "Microsoft Edge Canary" --args "--enable-features=GlobalMediaControls,GlobalMediaControlsPictureInPicture,TabHoverCards,UnexpireFlagsM90,msEdgeTabGroups,msEdgeTabGroupsAutoCreate,msTabGroupsCollapseFreezing,msTabSearch,msWorkspaces,msRightSideWorkspacesButton"

[#12]

Thanks @HotCakeX for sharing!

I was waiting for this for a long time. Now I will be able to switch to Edge. (party)

[#13]

Very Nice feature on Edge .

[#14]

@raj2021 Well, apparently I still don't have Workspaces. <Sigh>

[#15]

@megdanov 

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@megdanov wrote:

Thanks @HotCakeX for sharing!

I was waiting for this for a long time. Now I will be able to switch to Edge. (party)

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You're welcome ^^

[#16]

@Dan_AI4GK 

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@Dan_AI4GK wrote:

@raj2021 Well, apparently I still don't have Workspaces. <Sigh>

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Controlled feature rollout:

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/articles/controlled-feature-roll-outs-in-microsoft-edge/m-p/7...

[#17]

Yup, I know that well. It's still frustrating, since I'm one of those crowing loudly for one of the features it's allegedly replacing.

[#18]

Wow Cool feature brought by Edge

[#19]

A real innovation of the modern OS in general would include this concept.

[#20]

@HotCakeX 
When we can expect this great feature in stable version?

[#21]

Thanks for testing this out and informing us (readers). Good to know.