Exploring Certain Features and Tweaks in Windows 10’s Microsoft Edge

In our previous tutorial, we have shown the different ways in launching the new browser in Windows 10 called Microsoft Edge and we’ve also show the steps that are involved in changing its default search engine from Bing to Google Search. This new browser that has been introduced along with the release of Windows 10 more than a year ago is really a better one than Internet Explorer in certain ways but there are still many more features of it that needs to be explored so you can maximize its use in case you’d like to give it a test in your Windows computer.

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For instance, it is capable of pinning certain pages to Start and just like other browsers, you can also choose to set a default Homepage for it so you won’t need to enter the URL of the site that you visit often every time you want to start with your browsing routine. There are also some other things that are just awesome about Microsoft Edge and that’s what we’re going to talk about in this tutorial. What features makes Microsoft Edge stand out among the rest and how can you take advantage of these features to improve productivity and enhance your overall user experience? These are just some of the questions that we’re going to try to answer in this article so be sure to get your Windows 10 machine fired up and be ready to follow the steps that we’re going to show below.

Launching Microsoft Edge in Windows 10

There are plenty of ways that are available for launching Windows 10’s default browser called Microsoft Edge and we’ve shown all of these available methods in our previous tutorial but in order to save you time from jumping from one tutorial to the other just to learn how to launch this browser, we are going to show two of the easiest methods in accessing it.

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First, if you are using a newly bought Windows 10 computer, you should expect the Microsoft Edge quick launch icon to be already pinned on the Taskbar as you can see being highlighted on the screenshot above. It is impossible that this icon would be missing because it is the default settings for every Windows 10 operating system that’s installed in every computer. However, if you are using a machine that has already undergone some personalization tweaks, this quick launch icon might already be unpinned from the Taskbar which is often done by power users to free up some space on the Taskbar.

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If this is the case, you can launch Microsoft Edge quickly by first accessing the Start Menu. To launch this menu, just press the Windows key on your computer’s keyboard or click on the Start Button and once it launches, just look for the Microsoft Edge application tile on the right hand portion of the Start Menu screen as shown on the screenshot above. Again, it would be impossible not to find this tile on the Start Menu because it is pinned there by default unless it has already been unpinned as in the case of the quick launch icon which can also be removed from being pinned on the Taskbar.

These are two of the easiest ways that are available in launching Microsoft Edge in Windows 10 and in case you can’t find both the quick launch icon on the Taskbar and the application tile on the Start Menu, you can use the other methods in launching Microsoft Edge that we have shown in our previous tutorial.

How to Pin Webpages to the Start Menu

One of the awesome tricks that you can do with Microsoft Edge is the ability to pin webpages to the Start section or the right hand portion of the Start Menu where application tiles are found. This is only possible with Microsoft Edge and not on any other browser since it is Windows 10’s built-in browser. Doing this trick is easy and very much straightforward.

You can start by first launching Microsoft Edge using any of the methods that we’ve shown above and once it opens, you will need to browse to the webpage that you want to pin to Start. Just enter the website URL into the address bar that is found on the top then hit the “Enter” key in order to launch the website. Once it launches, you will need to simply click on the “More” icon which is represented by three dots or “…” as you can see being highlighted on the screenshot below.

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After you click on the “More” icon which is found at the top-right portion of the Microsoft Edge Window, you should be able to see a menu that contains different options and in order to pin the webpage that you have just accessed into the Start portion of the Start Menu, all you need to do is click on the option that says “Pin this page to Start” as you can see being highlighted above. Right after clicking on this option, a prompt will then pop-up on the center of the Microsoft Edge Window which says “Do you want to pin this tile to Start?” and in order to have the webpage pinned, just click on the “Yes” button that is found on the prompt as you can see on the screenshot below.

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Then after hitting “Yes”, you can now check the Start portion of the Start Menu and you should now find a tile representing the webpage. The next time you want to access the webpage/website again, you won’t need to be launching Microsoft Edge and entering the URL into its address bar because a simple click on the tile from the Start section of the Start Menu will open the website in Microsoft Edge!

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Launching InPrivate Browsing Tabs

Another awesome feature of Microsoft Edge is called InPrivate browsing and it is designed for people who are quite paranoid about making all their web activities and browsing in private or untraceable! When you use InPrivate browsing, your browsing date such as cookies, history or even temporary files will not be saved on your computer or mobile device and once you are done browsing, Microsoft Edge would automatically delete all temporary data and files from your device right after all InPrivate browsing tabs are closed.

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This is really an awesome tool for those who want covert browsing most of the time either because they don’t want to get caught lingering on certain websites or just purely protecting some important credentials which are entered in certain websites while browsing. To launch a new InPrivate browsing tab, all that you need to do is launch a regular tab in Microsoft Edge then click on the “More” icon which is found just below the “Exit” or “X” button at the top-right portion of the Microsoft Edge Window as shown on the screenshot below.

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After clicking on the “More” icon/button, a menu will appear just below it where you will simply need to click on the option that says “New InPrivate window” and voila! A new InPrivate Window should launch in an instant and you can start browsing privately without leaving any trace in Microsoft Edge’s browsing history.

The Zoom Feature

Are you having a hard time reading the regularly sized texts on Microsoft Edge or viewing smaller images vividly because your computer or device screen is quite small? This is a problem to older aged users and if you know someone who has this struggle while browsing with Windows 10’s default browser, you can teach them to use the “Zoom” feature in Edge. There are two ways in accessing this feature. First, you can view the Zoom in and Zoom Out buttons by pressing on the “More” icon/button that is found on the top-right portion of the screen as shown below.

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After clicking on “More”, a menu will appear and from here, you should be able to find a “Zoom” option which has a (-) and a (+) button on its right as shown on the screenshot above. Clicking on the (-) button will zoom out the texts and images on the Microsoft Edge Window while clicking on the (+) button zooms in everything. If you don’t want to be doing this then you can use the CTRL – and CTRL + keyboard shortcut combinations for zooming out and zooming in respectively

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Casting Videos and Other Media to Device

The awesome features of Microsoft Edge doesn’t end with pinning webpages to the taskbar or being able to zoom in and zoom out some stuff that it has opened because you can also cast videos, music and even webpages to other devices that are connected to your computer via Bluetooth or other connections such as VGA wire or even through your network. Doing this is also a simple and straightforward process and involves clicking on the “Cast media to device” option that appears on the menu which launches whenever you click on the “More” icon/button that is located at the top-right portion of the Microsoft Edge Window as you can see being highlighted on the screenshot below.

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After clicking on this option, you will be able to see a Window that shows a list of devices to which you can cast the media that is currently opened in Microsoft Edge. From here, all that you need to do is click on your device of choice and the media will automatically display or play on the device that you have selected.

How to Open Webpages in Internet Explorer from Microsoft Edge

Lastly, there is also a feature in Microsoft Edge that will help you use Internet Explorer in case you really miss the browser and you want to be able to use it again in your Windows 10 computer. To do this, you will first need to launch Microsoft Edge then access any webpage in it. Once the webpage is open, you will need to again click on the “More” icon/button that is found at the top-right portion of the Microsoft Edge browser screen as you can see on the screenshot below then on the menu that would appear, simply click on the option that says “Open with Internet Explorer”.

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Right after hitting the option, Windows 10 will launch Internet Explorer and have the website that you have accessed in Microsoft Edge opened in it as shown on the screenshot below. Now, you can enjoy the old browser with the help of the new browser in your Windows 10 machine.

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Changing Microsoft Edge’s Homepage

Another tweak that can be done with Microsoft Edge is changing its homepage from the default which is Bing to Google.com. To accomplish this tweak, you will again need to open Google.com first by entering “google.com” into the browser’s address bar and once the site launches, simply click on the “More” icon/button that is found at the top-right portion of the screen then from the menu that would appear, simply click on “Settings”.

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Next, you will now be able to view the Settings for Microsoft Edge and the tweak that we want to perform is found in this section right under the “Open Microsoft Edge with” option and from here, simply click on the dropdown box under it where it says “Start page” and an options box will appear which shows the other options that are available for the homepage setting of the browser.

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From this options box, simply click on the one that says “A specific page or pages” and after you do so, an input box which asks for the site URL will appear just below the selected option as you can see below.

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From here, simply enter the website URL of the site that you want to set as homepage then hit the “Save” button that is found on the right of the URL input box. After this tweak, you can relaunch Microsoft Edge and voila! It should now open the site that you have set as your new homepage!

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More Great Features to Watch Out for in Microsoft Edge!

Microsoft Edge is still a relatively young browser compared to its leading competitors but as you can see, it now has more than enough features that can easily make it become a browser of choice to Windows 10 users. The good thing about it is that Microsoft and other third-party developers are still making more and more improvements and innovations to the browser which means that we can only expect even more features to be added to it in future Windows 10 updates. The Anniversary Update which has recently been released has brought much improvements like extension support and many others and we’re excited for newer updates and what they would change in Microsoft Edge to make it better!

It turns out that being the last isn’t really a negative thing because being the youngest gives you the opportunity to look at the failures and aspects of those who have gone ahead and improve from those points. That’s exactly where Microsoft Edge is standing right now and we can see that it is in a good vantage point! What feature in Microsoft Edge do you like best? Do you know of a trick that can be done with it which we failed to mention in this tutorial? Share that trick with your fellow readers by taking advantage of the comments section below. You can also get all our latest tutorials and articles straight to your inbox by signing up for our newsletter! That’s all for now and see you in our next tutorial only here on WindowsTechies.com!