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Microsoft Edge Annoyances revisited

Ghacks published the article Microsoft Edge Annoyances back in mid-2016. Edge was about a year at that time, and it was still largely unusable (for me) then and there.

The article that you read right now looks back at the annoyances to find out if Microsoft resolved them. I will mention other issues that I have with Edge that I did not mention back then.

I use Edge on my Surface Pro 4 laptop almost exclusively to get a feel for the browser. Things have gotten better in the past year as far as I can tell.

Lag

Edge lag fix

Microsoft did fix or reduce some of the issues that got on my nerves back in 2016. The lag that I experienced when opening new tabs has been greatly reduced for instance. Edge still takes more time than, say Firefox or Chrome, to open a new tab page.

I found a solution for the remaining lag issue, however. Simply set the new tab page to load a blank document instead of “top sites and feed” to speed this up significantly.

You can change the appearance of Edge’s new tab page with a click on the settings icon displayed on the page. There you may switch to  “a blank page” at the top to resolve the issue.

Copy and Paste

I don’t experience copy and paste errors anymore in Edge. Edge would “forget” copy and paste operations in the past, but that seems to be a thing of the past.

The selection process when clicking on the address bar of the browser was not improved, however. A click on any position marks the full address right now. If you hold down the mouse cursor to select part of the URL, you will notice that the selection jumps because of Edge adding the protocol to the URL.

I don’t know what Microsoft’s reasoning is for not fixing this. Maybe it is because a minority of users selects part of the address in the address bar of the browser.

Context Menu

edge context menu

The Edge context menu has not improved at all. It lists a handful of options only with many important ones missing.

There is no refresh option, no option to save a page, no bookmarking choice,  and no option to navigate back or forward.

Lastly, you are stuck with Bing Search when you right-click on a selection.

Customization

Things have not changed in regards to customization. Edge is like Google Chrome in this context; the browser UI cannot be changed.

There is still no option to remove interface elements that you never use; I’m eying you “make a web note” and “share.”

Microsoft did fix the missing address bar on the new tab page at least.

Edge new annoyances 2018

Microsoft made some fixes to Edge, but most annoyances of 2016 are still present in the 2018 version of Edge.

Since I use Edge more on a day to day basis, I stumbled upon other annoyances or issues that I would like to share.

Lack of extensions

Edge did not support browser extensions right away, but they are supported now by the browser. The Microsoft Store lists 80 extensions at the time of writing. You get lots of content blockers and password managers, some extensions for developers, a userscript loading extension, and some productivity enhancing extensions.

Microsoft revealed some time ago that it focuses on quality over quantity. This approach helps protect users from malicious extensions, something that Google Chrome is plagued with quite a bit.

It means on the other hand that the offering pales in comparison. Sure, you get important extensions and can install them, but if you need something else, you are out of luck.

Want a screenshot extension? Not available. An extension to give you more control over the removal of browsing data? Does not exist. New Tab Page add-on? Nope.

The situation will improve over time obviously, but it seems unlikely that Edge will ever have a massive extension store.

You cannot view certificates in Edge

edge certificate

Microsoft Edge comes without options to view the full certificate of sites. You can click on the lock icon but the information that Edge displays when you do is limited.

Users need to switch browsers to check certificates. Even Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser supports this.

Making Edge an all-purpose tool

Microsoft turned Edge from being a tool for web browsing to something that is more than that. Edge is the default program to read ebooks on Windows 10 for instance.

I ran into a related issue in 2016. Edge would lose all tabs when I opened PDF documents in the browser. Microsoft appears to have fixed this.

My main gripe with making Edge more than a browser is that I think Microsoft should focus on improving the browser part first before it starts to expand it.

Now You: Do you use Microsoft Edge?

 

This article was first seen on ComTek's "TekBits" Technology News

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