Tab preview in taskbar

Iron Contributor

Am I the only one who misses the overview of all my open Edge-tabs in the taskbar or do I have a special setting enabled which allows me to see only the current tab if I mouse-over the Edge icon in my taskbar? In IE or old Edge if I point my mouse to the icon in the taskbar I get an overview of all my open tabs and by clicking on one, I get directly to this tab instead the last accessed one.

 

I there anyone else who misses this feature or anyone, who can tell me how to enable it in the new Edge?

 

Cheers, Chris

Edit: This feature was only available in IE, not in Edge. Edge only had the tab preview by mouseover on tabs in Edge, IE only had the preview by mouseover on the IE icon on the TASKBAR. The new Edge now should have both. "The best of two worlds" :)

43 Replies
Upvote this.....

Dennis5mile

@Chrizzly Yes i would like to see this too!

Many users of our company missing this feature :(

@AlexH089 Nice to hear that I'm not alone missing this feature. I hope MS is listening too...

@Chrizzly 

I think there would be a lot more "Likes" if Microsoft didn't make it so difficult and irritating to sign up for a community account.

I'd give this 1M likes if I could. I hate not being able to switch between tabs by clicking on a preview in the taskbar.

 

DW

Nevermind, this feature is now on the "top feedback summary". We don't have to vote for it anymore, as it is already under review. See the list here: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Discussions/Top-feedback-summary-for-September-10/m-p/847266

@Chrizzly 

 

The feature in that list isn't the same as the taskbar thumbnail preview.  The feature mentioned there is the thumbnail preview that's available in the tab bar at the top of the current version of classic/legacy Edge.  Classic/legacy Edge also don't have taskbar thumbnail preview.  IE has always had it, Chrome used to have taskbar thumbnail preview, and it was recently added back in Firefox.  Hopefully this can be added to Edge Chromium!

 

 

@CurtisBrabham **bleep**, you're right! So there's TWO tab preview features they have to adopt. One on the top (by mouseover on tabs on the top of the Edge window) and one on the bottom (by mouseover on the Edge icon in the taskbar of Windows). I also hope they work on both of them.

mouse over edge icon on the taskbar is already there, at least it has been for me...

Dennis5mile

@Dennis5mile Yes, for me mouseover in taskbar shows a preview, but only of the last accessed tab and not of all tabs like IE does. What version of Edge and Windows do you use? I have Win10 1903 and DevEdge 78.0.276.2.

I'm on Windows 10, insider builds slow ring, but I may jump to the fast ring as I've been emailed an invite for this next bug bash which starts on the 25th.... I was on the fast ring with my old pc, but switched to slow ring as I was using a new pc and didn't want to take chances with the warranty and such.... but that is over now, so may switch to fast ring as I love bug bashes... and I'm on Edge Canary, though I have all the channels installed, just Can is set as default..
Version 79.0.278.0 (Official build) canary (64-bit)

Dennis5mile

@Dennis5mile Ok, let's hope it's because of you=Can / me=Dev and this feature made it already to Canary. So after the next big update of DevEdge to V79.x I'll see if it's already implemented or not.

@Chrizzly I think you've misunderstood what @Dennis5mile said.  From what I gathered, it's only showing the thumbnail for the last viewed tab, not a preview of all open tabs.  That's the way it currently works on DevEdge as of the Sep 17 78.0.276.2 update.

 

 

Disregard my previous...I saw that's what YOU said.  Oops...

 

 

@Chrizzly This is why I still use IE.  I'm significantly less productive when I have to hunt for which browser window I need to go back to.

@Dennis5mile 

> Fast, Dennis.  It's no exciting & fun.  Plus, like you say nice to participate in Bug Bashes.

FT is on Build 19030, currently.

As for Previews: At the taskbar I find both Edge & Edge C the same; a browser window with several tabs, preview picture is last used.  BUT, what IS different is site thumbnails or lack of them on the browser tabs. W? Edge hoovering across the tabs gives a thumbnail of their sites; not, Edge C.  Never mind last only, there are none.  What will show on the taskbar is if several Edge browser windows are open in the same desktop, shows them all or each.

Cheers,
Drew

Internet explorer had that option and we should remember that Internet explorer is a super old browser, it was made long time ago, when people's average tab use was 1 or 2 tabs at the same time. Hell, even at first there was no option to have tabs, only window(s).

 

so it was obviously okay for Internet explorer to show all the opens tabs on taskbar, no problem, because people's average tab use was low.

 

look at today's usage, the average tab use is

 

Annotation 2019-11-26 135750.png

 

10-20, see? that creates a real mess on the taskbar if a poor user accidentally hovers their mouse over the Edge icon, specially on smaller screens.

 

that's the reason why modern browsers don't show all open tabs in taskbar.

The browser UI and the tabs section is not helping to choose which tabs to switch to? maybe an option to have tab previews will help that.

@HotCakeXI work on multiple topics at the same time and open each topic in a separate browser window to keep them organized.  I don't always want to return to the last tab I was viewing. With the current setup, if I have 4 browser windows open, each with 4 tabs, I may have to switch to 4 different windows, and look through all the tabs before I find the one I want.  With the IE setup, I had up to about 16 tab previews when I hover over the IE icon on the taskbar and could go directly to the one I want.  Having the preview made it easier to deal with more open tabs, not harder.  And If it's a screen size/resolution thing, then make it an option.  that way people with large screens can enable it. (I don't even work on a huge screen, it's just a 15" 1920x1080 in native resolution 100% scale).