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DavidGB
Steel Contributor
Joined Mar 29, 2019
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Re: What do you think about vertical tabs?
Not interested in vertical tabs and never use them. What I want in Edge is scrollable horizontal tab bar, as in Firefox and also able to be switched on in Chrome (though my use of Chrome is miniscule). Lack of that keeps my use of Edge to just staying with my TV Guide open in it plus the Edge NTP and Bing homepage just to look for the daily pic in case I want to add it to my desktop background slideshow, while my real browsing is in Firefox where I often have 300, 400, even 600 tabs open, easily handled with the scrolling horizontal tabs.1.5KViews2likes1CommentRe: Dev channel update to 106.0.1363.0 is now live!
LisaS I've just noticed that in today's Stable 105 update the 'Microsoft Edge scrolling personality' flag, which I've had set to 'disabled' since it first appeared, has stopped working and the scrolling behaviour has reverted to the wild side-to-side wobbling while scrolling quickly down long pages and the awful 'elastic rubber overscroll' effect or whatever you call it when reaching the top or the bottom of the page that setting that flag to disabled has stopped until now. I also only now notice (as I seldom run them, having given up hope you'll ever address what was my main issue with Edge) that in Dev and Canary Edge that flag has gone entirely, and the new 'Windows Scrolling Personality', if it's supposed to do the same thing, also has no effect in disabling this awful, nauseous scrolling 'experience'. This, for me, is the final nail in Edge's coffin. I absolutely cannot and will not put up with this abominable scrolling behaviour. The fact that you've done NOTHING to address the crippling of the UI for people who use 20/30+ extensions when the Extensions button replaced the old extensions toolbar overflow area at the top of he More... menu - not even allowing the user to re-order the extensions in the Extensions button drop-down menu, which wouldn't have been ideal but would have just about returned minimal usability - has meant that I do not use Edge for general browsing, but have made minor use of it for staying open displaying the TV guide I use while doing my general browsing in Firefox as that DOES provide a good UI for quickly accessing many more extensions than fit on the toolbar. But this terrible loss of the ability to have Edge behave reasonably when scrolling long pages is it for me - especially as the TV guide page I've been using in Edge is a very LONG page (a lot of channels) I scroll very rapidly up and down on many times an evening. I simply cannot use Edge for this anymore now it's scrolling like this, so this is a complete goodbye to Edge on my laptop, and that means dropping any use of it on my Android phone too. I'll just open a second window in Firefox for the TV Guide. I marvel at how every week, month after month, you put more and more 'features' into Edge, none of which are the slightest interest to me, while casually trashing what to me are basic, important abilities (scrolling, a good usable interface for using 20/30+ extension tools) that you DID have perfectly fine but then wrecked for me, making the browser unusable. This isn't even something forced on you by Chromium, because I just opened Chrome for the first time in an age, and while I don't like it and won't normally use it, it does still scroll up and down in a sane way, like Firefox, without drunken, nausea inducing weaving from side to side and bouncy-overscrolling at top and bottom. Congratulations. Whoever decided to kill the functionality of disabling the Microsoft Edge scrolling personality flag has finished off losing you at least this one user. Effectively for good. Maybe I'll have a look in a year to see if anything's improved. But as Firefox does what I need the way I need it, and its devs are not in the habit of killing behaviour or features I need the way yours are, I'm quite likely not to feel the urge to look at Edge again.8KViews3likes1CommentRe: Dev channel update to 105.0.1300.0 is now live!
You know, it astonishes me how week after week you manage to come up with new feature after new feature ... with absolutely none of them being of any use or interest to me whatsoever. But in all this time you've not done a single thing to improve the UI for users with a lot of extensions since the good old UI was trashed when it was replaced by the extensions button and dropdown, which is dreadful when one has 20 or 30 extensions installed. If you'd only allow the extensions in the extensions button dropdown to be re-ordered by the user, it wouldn't be anything like as good as the old UI for extensions not on the toolbar, but it would just about make Edge usable for me. But I'm sure you've got 20 more useless features to add instead.7.6KViews8likes0CommentsRe: Microsoft Edge Add-ons: A 2021 Lookbook
Your change to the extensions button in the toolbar with its dropdown menu completely ruined Edge usability for me. I was just at the point of deciding to move to Edge as my browser, when you made that change and killed it. I look back in every now and then to see if you've done anything to fix the issue I repeatedly raised (and got quite a few likes for each time, so it's not just me) but you've done NOTHING to restore the extensions UI to even vague usability. I have around 30 extensions installed (would be more, but your wrecking the UI for using a lot of extensions stopped me from completing the migration). The toolbar has room for around 10 extension tool buttons when leaving the address bar long enough for use. BEFORE the change, all the extension buttons NOT selected to be on the toolbar were in a menu at the top of the MORE... menu dropdown. 6 tool buttons pre line, sized and spaced just as in the toolbar. NO repeats of the ones visible in the toolbar cluttering it up, all just a small move of the pointer away, and able to be re-ordered just like the ones in the toolbar to e.g. put the ones most regularly used at the top. This made it VERY quick and easy to access every extension button to left and right click them. You killed that, lamely following Google. Now instead there's just the extensions button dropdown UI which has all 30, the 10 already visible in the toolbar cluttering up the list, making the not-in-the-toolbar ones I want harder to find; only ONE per line so I not only have to move MUCH further than the max. 4 lines as was before, but I actually have to scroll down to find the majority: and they are only ordered alphabetically by name - with many extensions having funny names I can't always remember the first letter of - and unable to be re-ordered. The extensions toolbar button and its dropdown are fine for MANAGING extensions, but it is far, far too clumsy a UI for actually USING extensions for users with 20 or 30+ extensions. I can't use desktop Edge any more, which also means I won't use Android EDGE either on my phone as I need browsers on laptop and phone that work together. You have completely KILLED it for me when you tore up the previously great UI for using a lot more extensions than fit on the toolbar. If you ever want me to consider using Edge again you need to provide a usable UI for USING lots more extensions than fit on the toolbar. Best, for me, would be to restore the area at the top of the more ... menu as was - able to be turned off or on, and with the current extensions button also as an option. Or have an extra 'toolbar overflow' button and its dropdown menu which the user can pin more extension buttons on (and re-order) as with Firefox. Or at the very least, allow the extensions in the extensions toolbar button dropdown to be re-ordered by the user, which would still leave it cumbersome and clumsy but just about useable. And I've sent this via feedback and in the Canary/Dev tech community threads many, many times since the extensions button first appeared and the old UI disappeared in Canary. NOTHING has been done. I conclude you consider the proportion of users who want to use lots of extensions so small we are not worth the effort and are therefore not part of you targeted userbase. Frankly I'm soon going to stop even the occasional check back in and re-installation of Edge just long enough to check for progress on this one issue.7.7KViews0likes0CommentsRe: New ways to manage your passwords in Microsoft Edge
MissyQ How about adding a quicker way to get to the password manager? In Firefox it's two clicks - hamburger-menu>Passwords. In Chrome it's two clicks - Profile toolbar button>Passwords button. In Edge it's More...>Settings>Profile>Passwords. Very irritating. Should be a way to get there in one or two clicks.36KViews2likes3CommentsRe: Dev channel update to 93.0.957.0 is live
So that's that. Well, you'll be pleased to know this is the last time I'll be going on about this. You have now done it. Ever since the Extensions button was added and the expanded area for toolbar buttons at the top of the More.. menu was removed from Canary and Edge, I have repeatedly sent feedback about how this is NO GOOD for people like me who use e.g. 20 more extensions with toolbar buttons that need right- and left clicking on frequently than will fit on the toolbar (for me, only a max of 10 fit on the toolbar while leaving a big enough URL bar, so that's 30 buttons total leaving 20 not visible in the toolbar). The Extensions button may have use for MANAGING extensions (though would be a lot more useful if it contained options to disable/enable, not just uninstall) but it is no good for USE. The old UI with the expanded toolbar area at the top of the MORE menu presented ONLY the buttons NOT visible on the toolbar, had the buttons displaying and working the same as on the toolbar, and presented 6 per line meaning 20 are on only 4 lines at the top of the menu, all close to get to after clicking on MORE. And on top of that the buttons could be re-ordered as on the toolbar so one could put those often used at the top in easy reach. The extensions dropdown menu is simply not anywhere near being a suitable alternative for USE of the extensions, for accessing them to frequently left and right click on them. ALL extension buttons are there, including the ones already visible on the toolbar, making it harder to find the one wanted and requiring more moving and scrolling; they are one per line in the menu. requiring moving the mouse much further and having to scroll to get at many; and it's not even possible to change them from alphabetical order to put those most used in easy reach so not needing scrolling (as well as having to try to remember sometimes odd names of extensions to then know how far down the list to look). It is just not acceptable to me, and is something basic and fundamental to Edge's UI for browsing that no number of vertical menus, PDF reading enhancements, bells, whistles or shiny toys make up for. I have repeatedly said, in reports land in comments here after each Dev release, that if Canary and Dev showed no sign of an acceptable UI for many more extension buttons than fit in the toolbar - whether restoring the old one alongside the extensions button for extension management (there's no reason why it has to be one or the other rather than both), or something new - before the old UI disappeared from Stable, I would be quitting even trying Edge - and on my Android phone too, as I need browsers on phone and laptop that work together. My copy of Stable has just updated to 92.0.902.55. The expanded toolbar area at the top of the MORE menu has gone, while the Extensions button, just as it still is in Canary and Dev, has replaced it. It therefore now fails my basic needs as a browser in all versions. After I have posted this, I will be uninstalling all versions of Edge from both my laptop and my phone and giving up on Edge for good. And unsubscribe from here as there's no point me staying subscrobed. Great job. That change to the UI for more extensions than will fit on the bar has completely killed this program for me. Luckily the recent Proton update to Firefox has cleaned it up, speeded it right up, and managed to clean up and simplify the basic interface while not removing all the features for more advanced and demanding users. Good bye.7.1KViews0likes1CommentRe: Dev channel update to 93.0.946.1 is live
Still no sign in Canary and Dev of an acceptable, useable UI for left and right clicking on many more extension buttons than will fit in the toolbar. I presume we will be losing the very acceptable and useable UI for that from Stable soon, to be replaced by the Extensions button that is awful for that with e.g. 20 more extensions than will fit in the toolbar, at which point I'll be giving up on you, uninstalling all Edges from laptop and phone, and will stop bothering you having given up on this software in which the rush of shinny bells and whistles cannot make up for something that to me is a very basic UI issue.10KViews1like4CommentsRe: Dev channel update to 93.0.926.0 is live
josh_bodner So, yet another new toggle in the Appearance page in Canary for something I couldn't care less about, but still nothing to restore a good, useable UI for left and tight clicking on say 20 more extension buttons than can be displayed in the toolbar. This remains, a basic, fundamental issue for me that no amount of other bells, whistles and shiny toys makes up for. I continue checking each Dev and Canary build to see is something has been done, but am basically losing hope and only opening new Dev and Canary builds once each to check that one thing. Meanwhile I am (re-)committing to another browser for actual browsing, while using Google Chrome on the odd occasion I have to use a chromium browser because while it shares the loss of the previous good UI for using many more extensions than fit on the toolbar, I can fit 15 extension buttons on Chrome's toolbar in the space I can only fit 10 on Edge's because you're using much more widely spaced buttons (the same spacing Chrome uses on its off by default 'touch' layout). This slightly mitigates the loss of the good UI for extension buttons not on the toolbar - not anything like enough for Chrome to be my regular browser, but enough to make it preferable over Edge if I have to use a chromium browser for the odd thing (mostly rare sites where either videos only play in a chromium browser, or dropdown menus only work in Chromium). So, as before, if no good, useable UI for use of many more extensions than fit on the toolbar appears in Canary and Dev before your remove the current one in Stable, that is the day I'll uninstall all versions of Edge from desktop and Android phone.8.1KViews1like1CommentRe: Top Feedback Summary for June 23
The really big difference between Edge and Chrome's toolbar is not the text size but the extension etc button width. In Edge the buttons are so much wider that one can only have many fewer extension buttons visible in the toolbar and still have an address bar of a useful width. Which exacerbates the problem created when you removed the previous very good UI for left and right clicking on extension buttons that don't fit in the toolbar and instead added the extensions button, which is simply no good for that role with say 20 more extensions than will fit in the toolbar. In Chrome I can fit 15 extension buttons in the width taken by 10 in Edge, and still have a lot wider address bar than in Edge.8.1KViews0likes0CommentsRe: Dev channel update to 93.0.916.1 is live
Another week of canaries and a dev, and still not a sign of either a return of the old UI for left and right clicking on far more extension buttons than will fit in the toolbar or a new, good replacement. So I continue to be unable to recommend Edge, and remain ready to uninstall both desktop and Android versions of Edge the moment Stable loses the good UI for extension buttons not in the toolbar if dev and canary still have nothing other than the extensions button, which would be OK as well but is no good as a replacement.8.3KViews2likes0CommentsRe: Dev channel update to 92.0.902.2 is live
Oh ... dear. I was very pleasantly surprised last week when Stable went to 91, but unlike Canary and Dev when they went to 91, Stable did not lose the very usable UI for using (not just managing) many more extensions than fit in the toolbar and did not get the Extensions button. I was all ready to uninstall all Edges off phone and laptop as I just can't be having a browser with such a poor UI for many extensions that takes so much more time and mental and physical effort to find and left and right click on extension buttons when there are many more extensions than fit in the toolbar (for me max 10 visible in toolbar to still have a usable length of address box). I hoped this meant you had accepted that the Extensions button (alone - with changes and working alongside a toolbar overflow menu would be OK) was NOT a solution, and weren't going to ditch the very usable old many-extensions-buttons-UI from Stable until you did have an acceptable solution, but it just wasn't ready for Canary and Dev yet. But now you're going on about completing the Extensions button roll-out. Which makes it sound like you are not accepting this as an issue that you'll address and going to kill Edge for me soon. Again, if I have, say, 20 more extensions than fit on the toolbar, some of which I often need to left and/or right click on, and many of which I will sometimes need to click on, the Extensions button, with one line per extension, so there's a honking great list I have to actually scroll through, including the extra 10 that are already visible in the toolbar cluttering the list to make the ones NOT on the toolbar harder to find, and only ordered alphabetically, not e.g. according to my wishes with the most used at the top, and some extensions with odd names so I don't even remember where they are in an alphabetical list without effort - it takes MUCH more physical trackpad moving and scrolling, much more mental effort to find and much more TIME to use, and is just not acceptable to me as a severe loss of usability in the UI. This is a MASSIVE downgrade in UX for people who use lots of extensions. As against the old UI where at the top of the More... menu, right by where one clicked on it, one had normal sized toolbar buttons, 6 to a line, reacting just like in the toolbar and able to be re-ordered like inn the toolbar, not a completely different UI to in the toolbar, NOT with the buttons already in the toolbar cluttering it up, all buttons immediately visible after clicking on More ... and within a small movement on the trackpad - THAT was good UX. If you want to e.g. recreate that dropping down from a new toolbar overflow button rather than in the More... menu, and keep the Extensions button for extension management but alter it so they can co-exist (so most especially turning off the Extensions button does NOT change the toolbar-visibility state of any buttons), that would be fine. But as it stands, if an update hits that means there's no version of Edge with a good use-many-extensions UI, that is when I'm still poised to uninstall all Edge versions from desktop and phone (I need browsers on both desktop and phone that cooperate, so if you kill desktop Edge for me that automatically kills Android Edge too). I was very nervous over the last few days wailing for desktop Firefox 89 to drop today after reading the promo stiff about the new 'Proton' design simplifying the UI and removing unnecessary clutter in case Mozilla, like Google with Chrome and then you with Edge, decided that it was OK to kill the features for the minority of users who have more complex needs to simplify it for the mass of average users - most of whom I'm sure use no extensions or just one or two. I shouldn't have been worried: all features for easily accessing lots of extensions intact in Firefox 89. In fact while Mozilla have sometimes added things I have no use for, and occasionally surprised me with new features I'd never thought of but are cool, they've never actually crippled or killed parts of the UI I depend on. So, if you are determined to kill Edge for me and drop yourselves out of consideration as a browser to move to from Firefox, I'm still cool with Firefox and I'll just uninstall the Edges. Drop the More... extension overflow area from Stable when there's no good alternative in Canary and Dev, and I'll just be off.12KViews6likes1CommentRe: Dev channel update to 92.0.891.1 is live
Still no enable/disable for extensions in the extensions button menu, which is the one thing that would make it any use to me. And still no UI for left/right clicking the buttons of extensions that won't fit on the toolbar instead of or as well as the extensions button menu, which is abysmal for e.g. 20 more extensions than there's room for on the toolbar. When stable goes to 91 so loses that very usable UI for extra toolbar buttons, if there's no sign of one in Dev/Canary, that's when I uninstall all versions of Edge from laptop and phone. You appear to design the UI only thinking of average, undemanding users who e.g. re. extensions don't use any or just one or two, and then bodge on ways of serving more demanding users if you can think of a way as an afterthought, rather than considering the needs of both average and demanding users from the get go. And while Google are taking good ideas from you - finally adding middle-click not closing bookmark menus after you introduced it after Google had been refusing requests for this from users for at least 12 years - you are taking the worst idiocies from Google, like destroying what was a good UI for using far more extensions than will fit on the toolbar. It's a great shame.11KViews4likes0CommentsRe: Dev channel update to 92.0.884.2 is live
josh_bodner It remains and will remain the case that if a good UI - at least as good as the old one - for accessing 15, 20, 25 more extension buttons for left and right clicking than will fit on the toolbar does not appear in Canary before Stable moves to 91 and loses its extension UI, I will be giving up on Edge and uninstalling all versions from laptop and phone. NOTHING else you are doing will make up for Edge now having a clumsy UI for more extensions than will fit in the toolbar that takes massively longer and much more effort than the old UI (or Firefox's dedicated toolbar overflow menu), causing a huge disruption in wasted extra time and (as I'm disabled and all movement hurts) far more physical effort and actual pain. You need a new (or the old) UI for accessing far more extension buttons than will fit on the toolbar instead of or as well as the 'extensions button' which may be OK for managing extensions (or would be if it contained an option to disable an extension, not just one to uninstall it, and if visibility status was preserved when the extensions button is disabled), but is utterly dreadful for using 20 more extensions than fit on the toolbar. As is, this issue makes Edge 91+ completely broken and unusable for me. It actually leaves Chrome a bit better as the Chrome toolbar with the Touch UI Layout experiment option disabled (the default) the top chrome is smaller so at least a few more extensions fit in the toolbar than in Edge, where the toolbar buttons and other top chrome are the same size as Chrome when Touch UI Layout is enabled, and there's no option in Edge's Experiments to turn it off. This is a critical basic browsing UI issue that no amount of pretty bells and whistles makes up for.6.1KViews1like0CommentsRe: Dev channel update to 92.0.873.1 is live
josh_bodner So, 92 and there's still no restoration of a good usable UI for left and right clicking on extension buttons when one has many more than will fit on the toolbar. (Again, the 'extensions button' may have uses as an extension manager but it is hopeless as a UI for using many more extension buttons than will fit on the toolbar.) Given a development with google Chrome, this is now how it is for me: Edge 90, with the new download UI but the old area for extensions not on the tollbar, was ahead of Google Chrome for me on two principle grounds: 1 Edge left bookmark menus open when middle-clicking on a bookmark, which Chrome didn't, and 2 Edge maintained a good UI for using many more extensions than will fit n the extension bar after Chrome had dropped that. This not only put Edge ahead of Chrome for me, but also on a par with Firefox and a contender for use instead of Firefox. However, in Edge 91 you have completely wrecked the UI for using many more extensions than will fit on the toolbar, as with Chrome. And in Chrome 91 (current Beta) they have FINALLY introduced middle-clicking leaving bookmark menus open in Chrome (which Chrome users have been repeatedly requesting since at least 2011). This now puts Edge BEHIND Chrome for me - same issue over the use of more extensions than will fit in the toolbar, but has slightly less impact in Chrome simply down to Chrome using smaller toolbar buttons so I can fit more of the extensions on the toolbar. Bottom line now for me therefore is that neither Edge nor Chrome are suitable contenders for use instead of Firefox simply on the grounds that Firefox has a properly well thought out UI that takes into consideration people who use many more extensions than will fit on the toolbar (a 'toolbar overflow' dropdown menu - NOT the same as the More menu - where the user has the choice for each extension whether its button appears in the toolbar or the toolbar overflow menu or neither, and can also re-order the toolbar overflow menu items just as with the toolbar itself). And Edge has now even fallen behind Google Chrome as backup browser to use on the odd website so made for Chromium that Firefox has a problem. I am forced to presume there is actually no one on the Edge development team who both browses widely and uses a lot of extensions, having wide experience of the extensions ecosystem. Because if there was such a person they would have immediately seen the problem the first time the putting-the-open/save-dialog-on-the-download-shelf debacle was suggested and saved months of wasted coding. And they would also have immediately seen the problem the first time someone suggested removing the old UI for extensions not fitting on the toolbar and dimly thought this current extensions button was in any way an acceptable replacement for that usability. You need to hire a new member of the team specifically as someone who browses widely and uses a lot of extensions. And then listen to them. I now feel like I've wasted a year and a half on this browser. I just can't believe that you could actually get it, with 90, not only ahead of Google Chrome but suitable to move to from Firefox, but then in one fell swoop RUIN the extensions UI for people who use 25+ extensions and send Edge crashing back to the bottom of the heap. I just feel sick at the whole business.12KViews5likes2CommentsAndroid Edge Canary - Open in new tab on article links in NTP news feed, please.
In Android Edge, please, please add a long press menu with 'Open in new tab' option on the story links in the NTP news feed, like with normal links on ordinary pages. This is an issue with many other feeds, but seems particularly bad with the Android Edge NTP feed. I go to the feed, scroll a little way, see e.g. three stories I want to read, go to and read the first - which is in that same tab as the NTP - then go back to the NTP and the feed, but it reloads and the refresh changes many of the stories shown in the feed so I lose some or all of the others that had caught my interest. Read a second story, and the list refreshes again changing the stories again. Sometimes I end up forcing NTP feed refresh after refresh just trying to get a now half remembered headline back again. If the NTP feed, acted like other pages, I could scroll down the feed long pressing and 'Open in new tab'-bing all the stories I'm interested in without a refresh and without them disappearing, then go to the tab selector and work my way through reading them. (Alternatively there could be a 'feed lock', but I presume just allowing the usual long press menu on the story links with the normal open in new tab option would be much simpler, and would fully address the issue.) On another NTP matter, how about an 'Add to top sites' action on the pull-up menu thing? Being able to choose the links to have in the NTP 'most visited sites' section is great, but it's a bit of a pain having to type them (or go back and forwards selecting, copying and pasting them) in. P.S. It's great that Android Edge Canary can act as the autofill service on an Android phone. I wanted to be able to use a Microsoft autofill service, but didn't want to use Authenticator. Good job.691Views1like0CommentsRe: Dev channel update to 91.0.864.1 is live
josh_bodner So frustrating. Stable channel has gone to 90, and the removal of the egregious Open/save-on-download-bar that wrecked the download manager extension I like to use, and all the alternatives, has removed the one thing that was making it unusable for me. I can actually use it for my normal browsing. Except ... ... except I have Dev and Canary installed so I know that when Stable goes to 91 in a few weeks it will become unusable to me again, as Dev and Canary are, from the loss of the great extended toolbar area UI for using (i.e. left and right clicking on) the 20 extension buttons I don't have room for in the toolbar, just the extensions button and its dropdown which, whatever else they may be good for, are hideous for quickly clicking on those 20 buttons - so cumbersome I just can't use that UI for that. All you had to do was ADD the extension button and dropdown for extension management, but make it so turning off the extensions button does not change the visibility-on-toolbar status of extensions (but DOES hide the extensions button), and leave the previous extended toolbar area as it was, with options for the user to choose to display one, the other or both. But no, you just ruined the usability for people like me who use a lot (if 30+ total counts as 'a lot') of extensions. So there's no point me getting cosy with eminently usable 90 when hyou are just going to make it unusable for me with 91. . A usable desktop Edge 90, and sudden big progress (although not quite usable yet) with Android Edge, but killing it with the extension toolbar UI horror show in 91. SO frustrating. (And I realise that people who only use a couple, half a dozen, maybe 10 extensions probably don't realise what the problem is, but with 30 it's MASSIVE.)12KViews9likes2CommentsAndroid Edge Canary - better, but ...
So, a couple of days ago an article in one of my feeds pointed me to the existence of the new Android Edge Canary, and I installed (or at first tried to, at least). Much better than standard Android Edge in various ways - Chromium 91 instead of 77 (!), ability to choose sites to pin to new tab page, search on passwords, a full set of Edge://flags including - most importantly to me - #enable-force-dark. However I initially have 3 issues: one bug, but two design/feature-lack ones. 1 There's a big bug in the first run onboarding experience that actually stopped me even getting to the NTP for the first time for over a day. First install, at the start of the onboarding was a page asking me about theme. I clicked for Dark, and the app immediately crashed. Repeated attempts to restart just produced a dialogue telling me the app was repeatedly crashing. Same happened each time I tried an uninstall/reinstall to get back to it starting but with the start at the onboarding again. After the update the next day, I tried again and got the same, After another uninstall/reinstall I skipped changing the theme in the onboarding, which took me to the page to add and log in with my account - but on clicking to submit the password, it immediately crashed, and again would only give the 'Edge is constantly crashing' error dialogue on trying to restart. Again, repeatable. I finally uninstalled and reinstalled, got back to the start of the onboarding, and this time skipped both the theme choice and the adding account. Finally I actually got to the NTP and was able to use the browser, and was able to then change theme and add my account and log in from the Settings menu without incident. So, there appears to be an issue with the onboarding if the user chooses anything but skip. But as I'm now 'onboarded' I'm not likely to see if this has been fixed n later versions. 2 I've developed a lot of sensitivity to white/brightly light coloured backgrounds on websites, emails and pretty much everything. I couldn't even consider using Android Edge without an option to darken web pages. Android Edge Canary has at least provided access to the #enable-force-dark flag which I used to use on the odd occasion I use Android Chrome. However, there is an ease of use issue. Some websites work very badly with the auto-darkening, and one needs to turn it off just while on those sites. Going to Edge://flags to turn the darkening off, then re-starting, then after leaving the site having to go back to Edge://flags to turn the darkening back on again then re-starting again is simply too clumsy. Android Google Chrome on chromium 90 has another flag #darken-websites-checkbox-in-themes-setting, and it is much better and more sensible to have a toggle in settings rather than having to dive into flags with re-starts. This is now my minimum acceptable implementation for darkening websites. It's not the best, though. THAT is Android Firefox's ability to use the same Dark Reader extension as I have in desktop Firefox, Edge and Chrome. It is vastly superior due to the fact that one can, on a website where darkening is bad, make that website an exception in three taps so Dark Reader then automatically turns darkening off on that website in future visits. In fact this is such a usability boost I'm very unlikely to be persuaded to use a browser (desktop or phone) which doesn't have or can't have added such a feature. 3 I HATE bottom controls. I'm not an average user. I don't use phones one handed, always two. I find bottom controls clumsy and (due to disability) literally painful (or, as doing everything is painful, I should say MORE painful). I'd like to point out two things about Android Edge's rivals from which lessons may be taken. When the new Firefox Android browser became available as Firefox Preview back in 2019 I tried it, found it only had bottom controls, wrote a review in the Play store saying how I hate bottom controls and wouldn't be using it if that's how it remained and uninstalled it. Got a reply from the developer thanking me for trying it and hoping I might look again in awhile as they were planning lots of options. I can't have been the only one giving this feedback as less than 3 months later, December 2019, a Settings option appeared to have the controls at top or bottom, with the choice presented during the onboarding. So I re-installed it and haven't looked back using the Android Firefox browser, first the preview, then the nightly as my default browser ever since. I also noticed (and tried briefly) the flag that appeared in Android Google Chrome to have split controls - basically exactly what you have in Android Edge, normal and Canary, URL bar at the top, navigation and menus at the bottom. I found it hideous, but again I can't be the only one as after about a year Google removed that flag and just stuck with top controls. So Mozilla tried bottom controls, then added an option to switch to top, while Google tried an experiment with bottom controls but the gave up on it. Microsoft ... please think about this. Have the current bottom controls as an option, even the default option, by all means, but give a choice for top controls in Android Edge. Without that I for one will never use it as my phone browser; and the need for cooperating phone and desktop browsers means I would therefore never adopt the desktop one either, even if you fix the glaring issue you've created in that for me with the loss of the usable extended toolbar area.2.3KViews0likes0CommentsRe: Dev channel update to 91.0.852.0 is live
josh_bodner Still nothing done re. the UI for extension buttons set not visible on the toolbar with the toolbar Extensions button vs the old UI, so I continue to find desktop Edge unusable. The Extensions button dropdown, one extension per line, including the ones visible on the toolbar in the list and only listed alphabetically by name is just far too cumbersome for the number of extensions I have where I need to click on many of them frequently. And as a lightweight extension management pane it is missing the one thing I'd use that for, which would be enabling/disabling extensions, rather then the visible/not-visible and uninstall options that are the only controls offered. I need a UI for extensions that are NOT visible on the toolbar that shows ONLY the ones not visible on the toolbar in a compact view showing at least 20 or 30 all visible together and quick to reach, and which can be re-ordered as the ones in the tollbar can be. Like you used to have at the top of the More menu, though it doesn't have to be located there. And also changes in the Extensions button to allow this including disabling the Extensions button NOT changing the visibility-in-toolbar status of each extension but actually hiding the Extensions button itself (matching disabling the toolbar favorites, history and downloads buttons), plus adding enable-disable extension controls. Unless this is addressed I simply cannot use Edge to browse or recommend it as a browser. For me you completely crippled its usability when you removed the toolbar overflow area at the top of the More menu. I can't believe any of the dev theme use more than about 10 extensions of the type that need right or left clicking on frequently, or this wouldn't have happened the way it did. I currently have 27 extensions installed, and to use Edge as my regular browser I'd be adding more. With only space on the tollbar for about 10, I need a GOOD UI for around 17 more extension buttons over and above the 10 I have visible on the toolbar - and it'd be more than 17 for me to use Edge seriously. GOOD UI in this respect means all those 17+ not visible on the toolbar should be very easy and quick to access. They were. Now they're not.3.4KViews2likes0CommentsRe: Dev channel update to 91.0.845.2 is live
josh_bodner Nothing exciting at all, just a complete lack of addressing the issue you created when you removed the toolbar extension area in the More menu when you added the Extensions button. That UI remains unusable to me with the number of extensions I have nstalled iand frequently need to interact with. 1 Change the Extensions button so disabling it makes NO CHANGE to what extensions are visible in the toolbar, but the Extensions button itself is hidden. 2 Restore a usable UI for e.g. 15-30 toolbar extension buttons more than can be shown in the toolbar like the previous toolbar overflow area at the top of the More menu; or the same but separate from the More menu, dropping down from a toolbar overflow icon. Until and unless you do this, I simply cannot use or recommend Edge. I just can't believe how much you wrecked a good UI in one change.10KViews10likes0CommentsRe: Dev channel update to 91.0.838.3 is live
josh_bodner Nothing to return a usable expansion/overflow area for the toolbar again. The Extensions button may have other uses, but it is not this. One per line, all extensions listed including those already visible on the toolbar, only in alphabetical order, is just useless as a UI with 10 extensions on the toolbar and 17 more, a number of which I need to click on frequently. The Extensions button menu is just too clogged and cumbersome for extension USE. The old More menu toolbar extended area was great 6: extension buttons per line, spacing just as on the toolbar, NOT including those already visible, and able to be reordered,, it made use of many extensions quick and easy, unlike now. Back in the More menu, or a dropdown from a new tool overflow button, on/off options, whatever: I can't use Edge now like this. It's so depressing, You had actually just fixed every issue I had with desktop Edge, making me able to use it, and the very next update you wrecked it by taking out what was to me a vital feature. I'm thinking you are committed to just this new extensions button now, and not keeping a to me usable toolbar overflow UI, so I'd best just recommit to an alternative browser. And Android Edge .... you're doing nothing. Still chromium 77, FFS, and no sign of introducing either the built in darken websites from Chrome or the ability to use an extension like Dark Reader - and without that I can't use it at all. So I suppose it doesn't matter if you make desktop Edge unusable for me, as you apparently have no intention of making Android Edge usable - almost nothing's changed for over a year - and I'll only consider changing to a browser that works for me on both laptop and phone.9.6KViews6likes4Comments
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