Edge Browser: Hidden Features Revealed and Efficient Plug-in Recommendations

Article directory

    • I. Introduction
    • 2. Edge’s various tricks
      • 2.1 Enable Edge split screen function
      • 2.2 Restore the page before the last close directly after starting the Edge browser
      • 2.3 Solve the problem that the Edge browser cannot synchronize account content
      • 2.4 Open vertical tabs (recommended)
      • 2.5 Set label grouping (recommended)
      • 2.6 Set the label sleep time (recommended)
      • 2.7 Tips for using the new tab page
        • 2.7.1 Change the background of the new tab page
        • 2.7.2 Changing layout settings
        • 2.7.4 Solve the problem that the new tab page cannot be customized
    • 3. Edge browser plug-in recommendation
      • 3.1 How to set the browser plug-in
      • 3.2 Commonly recommended Edge browser plug-ins
        • 3.2.1 Adblock Unlimited Ad Blocker
        • 3.2.2 Download Manager download tool plug-in
        • 3.2.3 Google Translate in Right Click Google Translate plugin
        • 3.2.4 Microsoft Rewards
        • 3.2.5 FireShot – webpage screenshot tool (highly recommended)
        • 3.2.6 YouTube? bilingual subtitles subtitle plug-in (highly recommended)
        • 3.2.7 Sider – ChatGPT Sidebar with GPT-4
    • 4. Data comparison of major mainstream browsers

1. Foreword

Before work, I was almost a heavy user of Mizalla Firefox, because Firefox is the default browser on the Linux desktop. The first time I came into contact with it, I fell in love with Firefox browser. Later, after using Chrome for work, I found that whether it is performance, In terms of power consumption and functionality, Chrome is undoubtedly ahead of other browsers. After that, the Edge kernel was changed to Chrome’s kernel, and gradually began to try to use Edge as an auxiliary browser.

From my personal point of view, if I write a long blog post about a browser, I feel that I can’t write much in terms of a function of surfing the Internet. Therefore, combined with my own experience, this article introduces my usual understanding of Edge Some experience and skills in browser usage.

2. Various tricks of Edge

2.1 Enable Edge split screen

Using Edge’s split-screen feature, users can split the browser window into multiple areas, and load and display different web content in each area. In this way, it is convenient for the user to view and compare multiple web pages simultaneously in the same window, thereby improving work efficiency.

How to enable it: Open a tab, enter edge://flags/#edge-split-screen, the setting is enabled, and it will take effect after restarting the browser.

The split screen function is really novel. For example, when we use IDEA or XShell, we have the split screen function, which can help improve efficiency. However, in terms of personal experience, the split screen of the browser is not as good as buying an external monitor. On the one hand, the monitor of my computer itself is so big, and the screen itself of a notebook is small. If you connect an external monitor, it will perfectly solve the problem, and it will be more comfortable to use. Of course, if you are right, you are right.

The effect after clicking the split screen:

2.2 After starting the Edge browser, directly restore the page before the last close

If you have such a need, you opened 10 tabs in the Edge browser before shutting down the computer, but you want to keep these 10 tabs before the next startup, then you need to see the settings in the picture below, you can Achieve the desired effect.

2.3 Solve the problem that Edge browser cannot synchronize account content

Sometimes you may find that your Edge account has been logged in, but the sync button is gray instead of green, resulting in browsing history, favorites, passwords, etc. cannot be saved and synchronized.

The first case, “Your browser is managed by your organization” (Your browser is managed by your organization), is similar to my situation

Enter edge://policy in the browser and press Enter.

If you do have a configured policy under Microsoft Edge Policies, just delete it in the registry.

Solution:
Open the Registry Editor (press WIN + S, enter regedit), and enter:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft

Delete all the folders with the word “Edge” on the left, and then restart the computer and open Edge.

Second case, enter edge://sync-internals/ in the address bar, there is no value in the Server URL, and the device cannot be synchronized at this time.

The solution for this situation:

Modify the hosts file of Windows, add:

52.167.253.237 activity.windows.com
52.167.253.237 edge-enterprise.activity.windows.com
52.167.253.237 edge.activity.windows.com

Open edge://sync-internals/ again, and you can see that there is a value in the Server URL, indicating that it can be synchronized normally.

2.4 Open vertical tabs (recommended)

By default, the tabs are horizontal, and if you have a lot of tabs open, the columns will get smaller and smaller and stacked together. Opening the side vertical tabs perfectly solves the problem of indistinguishability and stacking. The opening method and effect are as shown in the figure below.

Operation method: Right-click the navigation bar or any tab page, and then click the “Open vertical tab page” option.

The effect after opening is as follows:

2.5 Set label grouping (recommended)

If you find that there are still many page options after opening the vertical tab page, it is recommended that you set tab page grouping

The method of setting grouping is as follows:

Multiple grouping effects:

Expand the group effect:

2.6 Set tab sleep time (recommended)

By default, Edge’s tabs go to sleep after 1 hour of inactivity. You can set it according to your own situation. This setting can not only save power consumption, but another benefit is that tabs after sleep are in an inactive state, which will reduce CPU and memory usage. Therefore, it is recommended to set up your own situation.

Setting method: Enter the Edge setting interface, click “System and Performance” in the left setting menu, under “Optimize Performance”, make sure “Use sleep tab to save resources” is set to “On”, and then click “Specify time Next to “Put inactive tabs to sleep after measuring”, you can choose the time, and I choose to go to sleep after 30 minutes.

2.7 Tips for using the new tab page

2.7.1 Change the background of the new tab page

As shown in the figure below, if you want to change the background of the new tab page, you need to click a small icon in the lower right corner, and you can select the background after entering.

2.7.2 Changing layout settings

If you need to change the layout of the new tab page, or the number of rows of quick access links, etc., directly click the gear button in the new tab page and set it in the pop-up window

2.7.4 Solve the problem that the new tab page cannot be customized

In this case, your browser may be managed by your organization, which is similar to what was mentioned in Section 2.3: “Your browser is managed by your organization”.

Solution: Open the registry, go to Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Edge, delete the Edge folder, and restart the computer.

3. Edge browser plug-in recommendation

In the old version of IE browser and early Edge (before the replacement of the Google Chrome kernel), the plug-in function of the browser is not (simple) exhaustive (straight) human (garbage) meaning (garbage), but after Edge switches to the Google Chrome kernel , almost all Chrome plug-ins can be ported to Edge, here are some commonly used plug-ins recommended by individuals.

3.1 How to set up browser plug-ins

First, click on a puzzle icon in the upper right corner of the browser, the plugin menu will pop up, and then click “Open Microsoft Edge plugin” in the new window.

After entering the plug-in store, you can directly search for the plug-in you want, or click on the category or recommend to try it out, as shown in the figure below.

3.2 Commonly recommended Edge browser plug-ins

3.2.1 Adblock Unlimited Ad Blocker

Adblock is a plug-in installed in almost all my browsers, which can filter out almost 99% of advertisements. Of course, there are stubborn ones, and some need to write a small script program by myself, but Adblock has basically solved the problem of using browsers every day. part.

3.2.2 Download Manager download tool plugin

I also use this plug-in in both Edge and Chrome. It changes the download rules of the default browser. For example, after downloading by default, a bunch of download windows will be stacked under the browser. Use this plug-in to perfectly manage downloads.

3.2.3 Google Translate in Right Click Google Translate plugin

This requires a scientific posture before it can be used. If your network is not working, then it is recommended that you install a Youdao dictionary.

3.2.4 Microsoft Rewards

I only started installing this plug-in in 2023. Microsoft’s Rewards can be learned on Baidu. It can be roughly understood as, if you use bing or Microsoft-related, you will get some points, and these points can be exchanged for things. You can simply understand It is similar to plucking wool.


3.2.5 FireShot – Webpage screenshot tool (very recommended)

This is an embedded webpage screenshot tool. My own computer has two screenshot tools, one is FastStone Capture installed on the computer, and the other is FireShot for webpages. This tool can take screenshots of webpages with one click, including scrolling, etc., for design Or there are some web pages that want to keep pictures for archiving, it is very convenient to use this plugin

You can choose a variety of web page screenshots, such as the visible area, or all the scroll bars, or you can choose a screenshot of the area yourself. FireShot has a paid version, but I personally feel that the free version has met my needs.

3.2.6 YouTube? bilingual subtitles subtitles plug-in (very recommended)

The subtitles plug-in was recommended to me by my colleagues. This plug-in is strongly recommended to everyone. If you often study on Youtube, but suffer from incomprehension of English or other languages, this plug-in comes with Bilingual translation.

3.2.7 Sider – ChatGPT Sidebar with GPT-4

Sider’s ChatGPT can choose model 3.5 or GPT-4. When using it, it is the same as many plug-ins. After clicking, a chat dialog box will pop up on the right side. You can choose the dialogue mode and calculation model version according to your own situation.

Like the Chrome browser, after this plug-in is installed, there are also embedded Q&A results, as shown in the following figure:

4. Data comparison of major major browsers

Here I checked the statistics of China and Worldwide statistics from statcounter. There is no suspense.

Source of statistics: Click here.


Data in China


Worldwide data 

[Author] bluetata
[Original link] https://blog.csdn.net/dietime1943/article/details/130788225
[ Last Updated ] 05/21/2023 16:43
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