Forum Discussion
Elliot Kirk
Microsoft
MicrosoftProvide run / open / save / save as options when downloading files - Discussion
Hello everyone and thanks for your significant interest in our feedback item of “Provide run / open / save as options when downloading files”. This has been a very interesting problem to think through. The downloads team would love your thoughts on whether we have identified the main customer needs such a feature would need to address.
We believe that there are three main things being asked for:
- You would like a way to open a file without having to keep it on your computer so that your downloads folder remains “clean” (eg. You want to view your bank statement, but want it deleted after you are finished looking at it)
- You would like a way to choose the filename and location to save the downloaded file so that you can better organize your downloads (eg. You download a family photo IMG_1502.jpg and want to rename it to Reunion2019.jpg and save it in your Photos folder)
- You still want a light-weight downloads process that does not require many clicks (eg. User wants to download multiple photos in succession and move them in bulk afterwards without having to click “Save” each time). This is what our downloads flow currently addresses; one click to download.
- You would like a way to easily switch between (1), (2), and (3) for different files you are downloading; one size does not fit all (eg. For bank statements, you want to just open it, and have it deleted afterwards. But for family photos, you want to be able to rename and save to a specific location).
Do you think we are thinking in the right direction? We are still exploring possible solutions to this problem and any additional feedback is most welcome!
Hello everyone,
Thanks so much for all the feedback provided regarding Open/SaveAs. We are now introducing an option for users using Edge version 87.0.629.0 and above to choose, for each download, whether they want to Open, Save As, Save, or Cancel a download. To enable this option, navigate to edge://settings/downloads and enable, "Ask me what to do with each download." Once you download a file after enabling that setting, you will have the option to Open, Save As, Save, or Cancel it. If you choose to open it directly, it will be downloaded to a temporary folder.
Additionally, we have exposed an option to directly delete downloaded files from your computer, in the browser so that you can easily clean up after downloading your files without leaving the browser.
To learn more about these features, please check out our post.
Hi!
Here's a use case for you. As you well know, a lot of apps download their update installers via default browser. This happens once a week, at least (in my case). Hence, the best default browser is the one that allows you to run the update without bloating your storage or having it to be cleaned manually afterwards. So far the old Edge (and even Explorer before it, as bad as it might be) had no competitiors on my PC as a default browser (you do know how browsers tend to sneak into that position, don't you?) Without that option I have a choice of 3-4 browsers to make my default, and the new Edge has it's pros and cons versus the others. If you want Edge to be a natural choice for the default browser you have to bring back that option.
- Zaven, this is working now in Dev build (with some minor issues, like always reverting to Downloads folder for Save As starting point). Just wait for it to make its way to the general release build and you'll have the equivalent to what was in Edge and IE.
GraniteStateColinThat's excellent news. In fact, you might wanna keep that "minor issue" as a special feature. Reverting to the Downloads folder makes sense, the alternative being some random location from previous download. If you choose some location other than Downloads deliberately every time you might as well set that as a default download folder.
i-am-kentHello everyone,
Thanks so much for all the feedback provided regarding Open/SaveAs. We are now introducing an option for users using Edge version 87.0.629.0 and above to choose, for each download, whether they want to Open, Save As, Save, or Cancel a download. To enable this option, navigate to edge://settings/downloads and enable, "Ask me what to do with each download." Once you download a file after enabling that setting, you will have the option to Open, Save As, Save, or Cancel it. If you choose to open it directly, it will be downloaded to a temporary folder.
Additionally, we have exposed an option to directly delete downloaded files from your computer, in the browser so that you can easily clean up after downloading your files without leaving the browser.
To learn more about these features, please check out our post.
Good to see the new interface but the thing that makes no sense to me is to expose save as and hide save.
The 2 normal options for me are open or save to downloads; these should both be single click. Save as being in the … menu would make more sense as this requires multiple clicks to use anyway so adding an extra click makes little difference whereas adding an extra click to a single click action more than doubles the complexity (click, find option in popup, move cursor and click again.
Agree with others that Save as should remember last used path as when I use save as (not very often), it's generally when I want to save bunch of files in a specific directory.
Taz902I use a online call logging tool which requires me to check attached logs in the past I would just click on the logs it would open in a new TAB and I could check the contents and close the TAB now it downloads the file and at the end of the day I have nearly 100 files that I need to delete. Are there any plans to bring this ability back? Elliot Kirk
Hi Taz902, you are welcome to the Microsoft Edge Insider Community Hub,
The feature of asking open, save and save a file before downloading it is now available to the Canary Channel under Controlled Feature Rollout and may come to the Stable Channel in 2-3 months if everything goes well.
You can check this upcoming feature in this conversation.
TheShaunSaw, thank you! This is great news. I'm very excited it's getting closer to release. I don't use Canary, but I'll test it when it reaches the Dev channel. Hopefully that will be by the end of September.
Elliot Kirk Any development on this issue ?
Hi Elliot Kirk .
It would be great to have a management policy where I can define that some file types will be save in temp dir or in an specified directory without asking the user.
Usecase:
In generally our useres schould be asked where to save the download. But there are some special files (.rdp for RDP sessions; .ica for Citrix Sessions, ...) on which it is not necessary to ask the user where to save. These temporary files can be saved automatically in the temp directory. And when the AutoOpenFileTypes Policy is configured too, the user has an great user experience for example in Citrix.htcfreek Elliot Kirk I totally agree with this.
In enterprise usecases there are often specific file types that the IT department wishes to set to automatically open and not save in Downloads.
It could be rdp, and ica like mentioned, but also file types like pdf if they need to be opened in the Desktop version of Adobe Reader.
We need Option 1 (open without saving permanently).
Our staff each open hundreds of reports and log files each day that they only need to quickly view without saving. The documents are already stored until retention on the server/cloud hosts so there's zero need to keep the files on the PC and clutter up folders.
I'd also argue that Office documents should open automatically in Office applications without prompting, or there should be an option (with GPO/Intune settings) to configure this to happen.
- Option (1) is deadly needed. My Downloads folder is getting highly cluttered.
Elliot Kirk Is there any development on this issue ? At least, did MS put it into consideration?
As of 6/18 this topic has moved from In Discussion to Planned. I guess that is a step in the right direction but it still doesn't give us a timeframe for when we can expect this feature.
https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/discussions/top-feedback-summary-for-june-18/m-p/1475468
