Microsoft Edge

Microsoft Edge is the default web browser and PDF reader in Windows 11, and the modern and capable successor to the Internet Explorer browser of yesteryear. It’s built on the same Chromium web platform that Google uses for Chrome, but it integrates more deeply with Windows and Microsoft online services–most notably Copilot–than other browsers.

Addressing the elephant in the room

Unfortunately, Microsoft also uses Edge as a vector for some of the worst behaviors in Windows 11, significantly undermining its value. For this reason, it’s important to configure Microsoft Edge correctly, whether you expect to use it regularly or not.

The pros and cons of Microsoft Edge

Microsoft Edge is the most important in-box app included with Windows 11 because web browsers are, by far, the most often-used apps on our PCs. But they’re also the gateway to two massive and lucrative markets–subscription services and online advertising–that are strategic to Microsoft. For this reason, Microsoft enshittified Edge, as it did with Windows 11, so that it ignores customer needs and choices and forces Microsoft’s bad behaviors on us all.

Some of those behaviors include:

• Microsoft Edge tracks you online. Microsoft Edge tracks your online activities so Microsoft can harvest your personal data, target you with advertising, and sell that information to other data brokers and online advertisers that will expand this abuse.
• Microsoft Edge ignores your default browser choice. If you configure another web browser as the default, Microsoft Edge will still appear when you perform certain actions in Windows 11, ignoring your choice. These instances include clicking a widget or news feed article in Widgets, clicking a web link in Search highlights, clicking a web link in the Get Help in-box app, using Copilot in Windows 11, and more.
• Microsoft Edge ignores your browser customizations. If you customize certain Microsoft Edge features, it will harass you to change them back to defaults that benefit Microsoft. This happens when you change the default search engine away from Bing, disable certain features in the default New Tab page (which displays content from Microsoft Start and other Microsoft online services), change the New Tab page to a third-party option, and more. In some cases, Edge will even change the configuration back to the Microsoft default without informing you.
• Microsoft Edge harasses you to enable optional features that will expose you to even more Microsoft tracking and advertising. Even if you make no configuration changes to Microsoft Edge, the browser will still harass you. It will occasionally prompt you to make configuration changes that it claims are for your benefit but are designed only to ensure that you are exposed to more online tracking, data harvesting, and Microsoft advertising. These suggestions use language like “Make Microsoft Edge better for you and others” to misrepresent the true intent of the configuration changes it wishes you to enable.

My recommendation is to choose a safer and more private web browser, like Brave or Mozilla Firefox. And not Google Chrome, which is just as toxic and dangerous as Microsoft Edge. But no matter which browser you choose, you need to make specific configuration changes to Microsoft Edge. And that’s true even if you never intend to use Edge.

So let’s get started there.

Set up Microsoft Edge correctly … whether you use it or not

The first time you run Microsoft Edge, you step through a short wizard in which each step tries to convince you to enable more tracking or configure the browser in ways that benefit Microsoft and harm you. If you already set up Edge, I explain here how you can properly reconfigure it as well.

This is how you configure Microsoft Edge correctly.

Welcome to Microsoft Edge, the best performing browser on Windows. In this first step, you are asked to sign in to a Microsoft account (MSA) if you signed in to Windows 11 using a local account. Otherwise, Edge assumes you want to sign in to Edge using your MSA so you can use your synced favorites, history, passwords, and other data. You can skip over the MSA requirement or manage which data you sync through that MSA to this install of Edge. If you are going to use Edge, you almost certainly want this sync capability enabled. But either way, you can manage what syncs at any time in Edge settings > Profiles > Sync.

Your Google data and services, now in Edge. Here, Edge prompts you to sign in to your Google/Gmail account so that it can silently import all (or, via the “Manage” link, some) of the data you typically sync with the Chrome web browser. It will sync this data every time you launch Edge, and leaving this enabled only makes sense if you intend to switch from Chrome to Edge like a crazy person. But I recommend disabling this feature, as it’s more about data collection and targeted ads than about making your life easier. You can disable this feature at any time in Edge settings > Profiles > Import browser data > Import browsing data at each browser launch.

Help us make Microsoft experiences more useful to you. This nefarious screen is purposefully worded in a way that makes the configuration it enables by default seem beneficial to you, but the sole aim is to advance Microsoft’s strategies by exposing you to more online tracking, data harvesting, and Microsoft advertising. So uncheck “Make your Microsoft experience more useful to you.” And if it’s too late, you can configure this at any time by navigating to Edge settings > Privacy, search, and services > Privacy: There, you can disable the option “Allow Microsoft to save your browsing activity including history, usage, favorites, web content, and other browsing data to personalize and improve Microsoft Edge and Microsoft services like ads, search, shopping, news, and Copilot.” Yes, that’s the name.

Customize Microsoft Edge to match your style. Before you can start browsing, Microsoft Edge opens two tabs, one to promote new features and one to help you continue customizing Edge over three separate pages. In the first, you can optionally select a color scheme, while the next two are for configuring the feed layout of the New tab page and tabs orientation, and then pinning “favorite” (read: sponsored) websites not to Edge, but to the Windows 11 Taskbar. You can configure the color scheme, the tabs orientation, and related settings in Edge settings > Appearance. And if you use the default Edge New tab page, which I do not recommend, you can customize that page directly.

Features to customize if you are going to use Microsoft Edge

If you are going to use Microsoft Edge, you should also make the following configuration changes immediately:

• Configure the Home view. By default, Microsoft Edge opens the New tab page by default, which means that it will not restore all previously opened tabs when you relaunch the browser or reboot your PC. I recommend changing that. Navigate to Edge settings > Start, home, and new tab page and change “On startup” to “Open tabs from the previous session.”
• Customize the New tab page. Microsoft is evolving the default New tab page in Microsoft Edge this year, so you could see the traditional New tab page or the new Copilot New tab page. Unless you’re a dedicated Copilot fan, you don’t want either. I recommend using an extension like Bonjourr or Momentum.
• Minimize the tracking and personal data harvesting. Microsoft Edge violates your privacy by default, so you should minimize that behavior by installing the appropriate browser extensions I recommend Privacy Badger, uBlock Origin, and Adblock Plus.

What to do if you are not going to use Microsoft Edge

If you are not going to use Microsoft Edge, you should make the following configuration changes immediately:

• Install a better web browser and configure it as the default in Windows 11. You do that in the Windows 11 Settings app by navigating to Apps > Default apps and then finding your preferred browser in the list. Click “Set default”–this will associate two file types (.htm and .html) and two link types (HTTP and HTTPS) with your new browser, and then be sure to configure this browser to open PDF files as well.
• Configure Windows 11 to minimize the impact of Microsoft Edge. By default, Microsoft Edge starts up silently in the background, consuming resources even if you don’t use the browser. To prevent that, open the Settings app, navigate to Apps > Startup, locate Microsoft Edge in the list and configure it to “Off.”
• Prevent Microsoft Edge from ignoring your default web browser choice. There is no built-in control in Windows 11 to fully prevent Microsoft Edge from popping up from time to time. But you can use a free and open source third-party utility called MSEdgeRedirect to shackle Microsoft Edge. When you install this utility, just choose “Active mode” and ignore the other options.
• Optionally uninstall Microsoft Edge. If you live in the EU, Microsoft was forced by antitrust regulators to let customers fully uninstall Microsoft Edge in Windows 11. But the rest of the world has to rely on workarounds, which I find dicey, or a third-party utility to accomplish this. I recommend Win11Debloat: When you run this utility, choose “Custom Setup” and then find and select Microsoft Edge in the list of apps in “App Removal.” Skip over the “System Tweaks” page and then apply the changes. Win11Debloat will warn that it must use a more stringent removal method to get rid of Edge. Let it do so.

Defaults

When you first sign in to Windows 11, its integration with Microsoft Edge is immediately obvious. Some key defaults include:

• There is a shortcut to Microsoft Edge on the Desktop, and Microsoft Edge is pinned to the Taskbar in addition to being available in the Pinned and All sections in Start.
• Microsoft Edge is configured as the default web browser, so it is the app that opens for all the most common web file types and URL types associated with web browser.
• Less obviously, Microsoft Edge is more than the default web browser. It’s also secretly wired to open links you click in the Settings app, Windows Search, Widgets, and other interfaces in Windows 11, and it will retain that integration even if you configure another web browser as the default.
• Microsoft Edge is configured as the default PDF reader.
• If you sign in to Windows 11 with a Microsoft account (MSA), that account is used to sign in to Microsoft Edge so that you can sync settings and passthrough that authentication as needed when you access Microsoft websites and third-party websites that offer MSA integration.
• Microsoft Edge includes an integrated version of Microsoft Copilot, the software giant’s AI assistant and if you don’t enable the new Copilot New tab page, it will berate you to do so.
• The three tabs you used most recently in Microsoft Edge are included in the Alt + Tab multitasking interface as if they are each standalone apps.

Microsoft Edge basics

As a modern, full-featured web browser, Microsoft Edge offers all the standard functionality you expect from using Google Chrome and other alternatives. Key among these features are:

• Toolbar and address bar. Microsoft Edge provides a somewhat minimal toolbar by default, with a large address bar in the middle , “Back” and “Refresh” buttons to its left and several other buttons to its right. Other items can appear here contextually–like a “Forward” button once you navigate away from the initial page displayed in a tab–and this part of the browser is highly configurable. You can customize which buttons appear in the Edge toolbar by navigating to Edge settings > Appearance > Toolbar.

• Tabs. The tabs functionality in Microsoft Edge is familiar. You can pin tabs, drag and drop tabs to reposition them, group tabs, and display tabs vertically if you prefer that to the default landscape orientation. You can configure that and related settings–like the ability to hide the app’s title bar when using vertical tabs–by navigating to Edge settings > Appearance > Tabs.

• Split screen. This recent addition lets you display two webpages side-by-side in the same tab so you can multitasking without having to navigate between tabs.

• Favorites and History. While most other browsers have a Bookmarks feature, Microsoft Edge uses the term Favorites instead. Other than the name, Favorites works as expected, as does the browser’s History view that displays your browsing history.
• Downloads. When you try to download a file using Microsoft Edge, the browser will prompt you to open or save the file by default. But you can configure this to just download files, similar to Chrome and other browsers. You do so in Edge settings > Downloads.
• Search engine. Microsoft Edge is configured to use Microsoft Bing as the default search engine. No one wants that, so navigate to Edge settings > Privacy, search, and services > Search and connected experiences > Address bar and search > Search engines to change this to Google Search or your preferred search engine.
• Extensions. Like other web browsers, Edge lets you add optional features to the browser using extensions. You can find and download new extensions from the Edge Add-ons website and the Chrome Web Store.
• Themes. Thanks to its Chromium underpinnings, Edge supports color themes that can nicely customize the look and feel of the browser. You configure the theme at Edge settings > Appearance, where you will find a unique AI Theme Generator feature too. And as with extensions, you can download new themes from the Edge Adds-on website or from the Chrome Web Store.
• Media features. Microsoft Edge works as expected with popular media-playing websites, but it also offers some unique features. You can open videos from YouTube and other compatible services in a Picture in Picture mode that displays outside the browser, mute a tab that is playing audio, and, perhaps most crucially, block media autoplay entirely. To do that, navigate to Edge settings > Privacy, search, and services > Site permissions > All permissions > Media autoplay.

• Profiles. When you sign in to Windows 11 with a Microsoft account (MSA), Microsoft Edge will use that MSA as your default profile. But you can configure other profiles, so you can sign-in with different email addresses and keep their browser experiences separate. And this can include different personal and work profiles, the latter of which will use a work-centric Edge for Business configuration that can be centrally managed by your organization. You can configure profiles in Edge settings > Profiles and switch between available profiles using the “Profiles” button to the right of the Edge address bar.

• Workspaces. Microsoft Edge lets you create named workspaces in their own windows with unique color schemes, tabs, and favorites when you wish to create a project or collaborate with others on a shared project. You can work alone, invite collaborators,
• Web apps integration. If you visit a website that can be installed as an app in Windows 11, you can do that by selecting the “Settings and more” (“…”) menu in Edge and then More tools > Apps > Install this page as an app. In fact, this works with any page, though webpages that aren’t apps can’t be used offline, of course.

• PDF reader. Like other modern web browsers, Microsoft Edge offers PDF reading and editing capabilities. This experience is powered by Adobe Acrobat and provides markup capabilities, a Read aloud feature, Copilot-based translations, summaries, and explanations, and document search, among other things.

Unique and notable Microsoft Edge features

In addition to all the features you expect in any web browser, Microsoft Edge also offers various unique differentiators.

Microsoft account settings sync

By default, Microsoft Edge syncs many browser settings, including your saved passwords and passkeys, browsing history, open tabs, extensions, and more through your Microsoft account. Each time you sign-in to Edge with that account, whether it’s on Windows 11, Linux, a Mac, or a mobile platform like Android, iPhone, or iPad, those settings will sync and give you a cohesive multi-device configuration. If that’s what you want, there’s nothing to do per se. But you can configure this behavior and reset your sync data if needed in Edge settings > Profiles > Sync.

Copilot integration

Microsoft Edge provides an integrated version of Copilot, Microsoft’s AI assistant. It pops up from time to time as needed, but there are two primary access points if you want to interact with Copilot directly:

• Copilot sidebar. This is available by default by clicking the rather prominent and rainbow-colored “Chat” button in the far right of the Edge toolbar.

• Copilot New tab page. If you configured Copilot to be your New tab page in Edge, you can display a full-featured Copilot experience just by opening a new tab.

Because the Copilot button and sidebar are enabled by default, I will focus on that experience here. But both look and work much like Copilot in Windows 11 and other standalone AI assistants like Anthropic Claude and OpenAI ChatGPT.

So why use an integrated AI assistant? Standalone AI assistant apps work fine, but there are some advantages to having an integrated AI assistant in your web browser.

First, Copilot opens in a pane next to the content you’re viewing online, making it easier to interact with the AI while you browse the web.

And though Copilot is free with usage limits, those who have and are the owner of a Microsoft 365 consumer subscription get higher usage limits than those on the free plan. If you sign in to Windows 11 and Edge with the same Microsoft account that’s associated with Microsoft 365, this is a nice bonus.

Finally, because you’re syncing through your Microsoft account, your conversation history and other activities in Copilot will sync between the Edge-based Copilot and other Copilot apps you may use in Windows 11, a Mac, a mobile device, or on the web. It’s all one Copilot, so to speak.

Toggle the Copilot pane

Copilot appears in a pane on the right side of the Edge window. It’s almost identical to the full Copilot app in Windows 11. It’s constrained to that space within the browser, but you can resize the pane as needed, too.

To toggle this pane on or off, click the “Chat” button in the Edge toolbar. You can also click the right side of this button, called “Copilot menu,” to access the Summarize page or Talk to Copilot and Share tab directly.

Keyboard shortcut: You can toggle the Copilot pane on/off more quickly by typing Ctrl + Shift + . (period).

Common Copilot capabilities

Copilot is a deeply capable experience with new features coming online all the time, and trying to stay completely up-to-date with that is difficult. But some of the key Copilot capabilities you should know about include:

Chat. Unless you’re viewing an article or PDF file, Copilot in Edge will display with a standard Chat interface. You can use one of the provided hints as a starting point, type a prompt in the chat box, and do all standard AI assistant interacts. Less obvious, perhaps, the “Attach” (“+”) button to the left of the chatbox provides a way to add images or files, generate an image, start deep research, use connectors, and more. You can also click the “Talk to Copilot” button to interact with the AI using your voice.

Access previous Copilot conversations. Click the “Open sidebar” button in the top left of the Copilot sidebar to display your conversation history with Copilot (yes, a sidebar within a sidebar) and other options.

Learn more about an article on the web or a PDF. When you open an article on the web, the hints above the chat box will change to indicate things you might want to do with this article, like get a summary, generate a podcast, and so on. And it will assume when you chat that you want to converse about the article you’re viewing.

Create a podcast from a webpage. This option examines an article or PDF file you’re viewing in Edge and creates an audio summary–a “podcast”–so you can listen to that instead of reading it all (or using the Reader Mode feature Read aloud to listen to the whole thing verbatim). These summaries can take time to complete, but Edge will notify you when it’s ready, and the podcast will be available in your conversation history in any instance of Copilot later.

Access Copilot Tasks, Health, and more. You can access unique Copilot experiences like Tasks, Health, Shopping, and Pages from the Copilot sidebar.

Create or restyle a photo or image. You can use Copilot in Microsoft Edge to create new images or restyle an existing photo or image. There are a couple of ways to do that, but the “Imagine” option in the Copilot sidebar provides a nice frontend to these capabilities.

Reading Mode

Microsoft Edge provides all the standard reading features for the web that you expect, but it also goes well beyond that by offering a Reader Mode experience for web articles that includes a Read aloud feature that works with both web articles and PDF files. It’s one of the best features in Microsoft Edge.

To use Reader Mode, navigate to a web article you wish to read and click the “Enter Reader Mode” icon that appears in the right of the Address bar.

Keyboard shortcut: You can enter Read Mode more quickly by tapping the F9 key.

In Reader Mode, Microsoft Edge displays the text and graphics of the article in a themed, minimalist layout without any advertisements or other distractions. A toolbar at the top provides access to the following features:

Read aloud. As its name suggests, Read aloud reads a web article aloud to you. It’s like listening to an audiobook, and not at all robotic. In fact, some of the voices Microsoft provides with Read aloud sound quite natural. To get started, click the “Read aloud” button in Reader Mode: The Read aloud controls will appear in the toolbar and Microsoft Edge will begin reading the article aloud to you, highlighting the current word in yellow as it goes. You can use the navigation buttons to pause/play and jump forward/back one paragraph. And you can use the “Voice options” button to control the playback speed and choose a voice.

Translate. This button lets you translate the article into any of the dozens of languages this feature supports.

Summarize, Explain, and Chat with Copilot. These three buttons use Microsoft Copilot to help you learn more about the article you’re reading. Clicking any of them will open the Copilot sidebar and prompt the AI assistant accordingly.

Settings and more. This button resembles a gear and lets you customize the font, font size, column width, and theme colors used by Reader Mode.

Tip: Unfortunately, you can’t configure Reader Mode to appear automatically.

Price tracking and other shopping features

Though you can add popular shopping extensions as you can with any browser, Microsoft Edge provides built-in shopping features like price tracking, price history, price comparison, and cashback.

Tip: By default, Microsoft collects your shopping-related browser data and uses it to deliver personalized ads. You don’t want that, so turn this feature off by navigating to Edge settings > Privacy, search, and services > Privacy and disabling the option “Allow Microsoft to save your browsing activity.”

This functionality appears when you visit a compatible retailer with Microsoft Edge, when you will see a “Shopping in Microsoft Edge” (pricetag) icon in the right side of the address bar.

Tip: The “Shopping in Microsoft Edge” icon will often display a red badge as an overlay that indicates how many coupons are available. And it will often display promotional animations to the left of the icon with text like “This site has coupons!” and simlar.

You can tap the icon to open the Shopping sidebar, which provides a few tabs. Among those you might see are:

• For you. Here, you can track products and see price drops.
• Insights. This tab displays information about the retailer and, if you’re viewing one, the product you see in the main browser pane. You can begin tracking the price of an individual product here and, when available, view pricing data over time.

• Cashback. Microsoft offers a cashback feature through its Microsoft Rewards program, so this tab provides cashback-related information. If the product you’re viewing doesn’t apply, it will display links to top cashback offers.

Better theme customization

In addition to the color theme choices and downloadable themes common in other web browsers, Microsoft Edge also offers two unique theme-related features, both found in Edge settings > Appearance. They are:

Image theme. Next to “Theme” is a set of two choices, Color theme and Image theme. If you select the latter, you can configure a theme with a background image–your own or a choice of many built-in–and associated colors. If you choose to use the built-in images, it will refresh daily by default so you always have a new theme each day.

AI Theme Generator. This unique option opens in a new tab and lets you create your own theme using AI. You can prompt it with an idea you have for a theme, click “Surprise me” to get a random theme, or choose from the project templates at the bottom, which you can take as-is or modify as needed.