What you need to know
- Microsoft wants to make Edge less bloated by decluttering its Settings page.
- The company intends to add a new quick-access panel on the landing page for Edge Settings for easy accessibility and navigation.
- Microsoft intends to compress its long list of Edge Settings options by grouping them into subsections like a table of contents in a book.
Microsoft Edge is arguably one of the best Windows 11 browsers. However, users have often placed Microsoft under fire for making the software bloated with “unnecessary” features that might not be useful in the everyday use case.
As it happens, Microsoft might be on course to fix some of these issues. According to a spot by the folks over at Windows Latest, Microsoft announced that it’s revamping Microsoft Edge’s Settings, seemingly making them more organized (via TechRadar).
On the Microsoft 365 roadmap website, the company registered the anticipated changes under an entry titled: Microsoft Edge: Elevating top settings and improving settings page navigability. The company further details the steps it intends to take to make Microsoft Edge more user-friendly, including the addition of a new quick-access panel on the landing page for Edge Settings.
The panel will feature the most commonly used actions in the Settings menu for easy accessibility and navigation, allowing you to make changes and tweaks to your Settings configurations with fewer clicks. As highlighted in the entry, the changes are expected to start rolling out in October 2024 — but as is often the case, these plans may be subjected to change.
Microsoft also plans to bring one-click shortcuts for the most common options to Microsoft Edge’s Settings submenus, including System and Performance or Appearance.
Read more: Microsoft has scrapped Edge’s big UI refresh with rounded tabs
Finally, the tech giant also intends to compress its long list of Settings options by grouping them into subsections — similar to a table of contents you’d find in a book.
Browser wars continue…
Comparing Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome’s Settings pages, it’s apparent that the latter seems well put together and easier to navigate. Admittedly, for less tech-savvy users, it might be a tad difficult to identify the exact location of a specific setting in Google Chrome. However, it features a search bar to meet this specific need.
On the other hand, Microsoft Edge presents its Settings page in a cluttered manner, forcing the user to navigate through the page before identifying the specific option they are looking for. Similar to Google Chrome, Edge also features a search bar to make the process less daunting.
Image 1 of 2
To this end, these are much-welcomed changes to Microsoft Edge’s user experience and might perhaps present a new avenue to lure or get users to make it their default browser in Windows 11, potentially giving Google Chrome’s dominant market share a run for its money.
