Microsoft Edge and Web Apps

Microsoft Edge lets you install web apps in Windows 11 alongside traditional desktop applications, Microsoft Store mobile apps, and other types of apps. These web apps are accessible from outside Microsoft Edge and look and behave more like apps than web pages.

You can also use Microsoft Edge to "install" any web page so that it can be launched outside of the browser as well.

So what's the difference between a web app and a web page?

It may seem like a subtle distinction, but true web apps---called Progressive Web Apps, or PWAs---can interact with the underlying platform in ways that are more sophisticated than simpler web pages. Key among this functionality is a set of features that allow web apps to behave like native apps: they can work when your PC is offline, for example, and display native Windows 11 notifications, and they can access the file system and more of the hardware in your PC.

By comparison, web pages are more limited: they cannot be used while the PC is offline, and if they support notifications, they are delivered by the web browser and not by Windows 11.

From a usability perspective, the differences between a web app and a web page don't matter much if you're online as both can be used side-by-side along with all of the various types of apps supported by Windows 11. The biggest difference, in some ways, is how you add them to Windows 11 for use outside the browser.
Install a web app
Web apps promote themselves as such with an "App available" icon on the right side of the Microsoft Edge Address bar. (This icon resembles three building blocks with a plus sign.)

To install this web app, click the "App available" icon. An installation prompt will appear.

Click install. The web app will appear in its own windows outside of Microsoft Edge and present a short list of options for you to configure.

Your choices include:

Pin to taskbar. This option, which is selected by default, will cause the web app to be pinned to the Taskbar.

Pin to Start. This option, which is selected by default, will cause the web app to be added to the Start menu. You will see it at the bottom of the Pinned section and in the All apps list.

Create Desktop shortcut. If selected, this option will create a shortcut to the web app to the Windows 11 Desktop.

Auto-start on device login. If selected, this option will cause the web app to run every time you sign into Windows 11.
Depending on the web app, you can manage this behavior using the Startup apps view in Task Manager or the Startup apps settings interface in the Settings app (at Apps > Startup). But Microsoft Edge also offers its own interface for managing web app behavior. That is described later in this chapter.
Install a web page as if it were an app
If you visit a particular web page regularly and would like to access it from the Windows 11 Start menu or Taskbar from outside of Microsoft Edge, and it doesn't promote itself as an installable w...

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