10 Most Useful Microsoft Edge Tips, Tricks, and Quick Shortcuts

Are you a Microsoft Edge user? If you’re using the Edge browser for whatever reason, there are some nice tricks, shortcuts, and workarounds you can use to make the most of it. Here are the 10 most useful Microsoft Edge tips, tricks and quick shortcuts that you should know and that may be useful in your daily browsing activities.

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1) Launch Edge using a hotkey

It’s easy to open Microsoft Edge using the desktop shortcut, but why not use a keyboard shortcut to boot? Follow these simple steps to create a keyboard shortcut for Microsoft Edge.

  • Step 1: Right-click on Microsoft Edge desktop shortcut and click Property.

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  • Step 2: Click the Shortcut tab and go up Hot key text box. You will notice that no keyboard shortcut has been assigned for Microsoft Edge.
  • Step 3: Assign a shortcut by pressing any key on the keyboard. By default, CTRL + ALT will be a prefix for the selected hotkey. For example, if you choose And as a shortcut, you will need to press CTRL + ALT + E to launch the Edge browser.

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  • Step 4: Click To apply And OK to save it.

You can now launch Microsoft Edge using the keyboard shortcut.

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2) Change the download location

Don’t want to use the default save location for Microsoft Edge downloads? You can easily change the file download path and keep your downloads in a safe place or wherever you want. Here’s what you need to do to change the default download location in Microsoft Edge.

  • Step 1: Launch Microsoft Edge browser on Windows or Mac.
  • Step 2: Click on the three dots in the upper right corner and go to Settings as shown.

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  • Step 3: In the left pane, click Download. Click Change on the right side as shown. Set the download location from here. You can also choose the cursor Ask where to save each file before downloading it so that you are asked where to save each time you download items.

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3) Reopen the tabs from the last browsing session

Whether you clicked the close button by mistake or turned off your PC, you realize the tabs are gone. Flipping through the tabs is great, but once you get out, you lose them. Don’t worry, you can’t get them back with a simple trick. Pick up where you left off and bring the closed tabs back to the new Microsoft Edge.

  • Step 1: Launch Microsoft Edge on your Windows or Mac.
  • Step 2: In the top right corner, click the three dots and then click Settings.

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  • Step 3: In the left pane, click Start, home and new tabs and choose Open the tabs of the previous session on the right side.

This will allow you to restore the last tab or a group of tabs you opened before pressing the close button. The next time you open Edge browser, it will automatically reopen the last tab / tabs.

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4) Change the default search engine

Is your Microsoft Edge browser showing search results in Bing / Yahoo or any other you don’t prefer? Microsoft Edge comes with Bing as the default search engine, however, you have the option to change it to anything you want, such as Google. That’s how.

  • Step 1: Launch Microsoft Edge, click on the three dots in the top right corner and go to Settings.

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  • Step 2: Click on Privacy, research and services and scroll all the way down to find the address bar settings.
  • Step 3: Click on Address bar and search and change the Search engine used in the address bar from the drop-down menu.

5) View saved passwords

Have you forgotten your login credentials for the websites you visit? Microsoft Edge saves your website login passwords so you don’t have to remember them (if you’ve chosen it), so the next time you visit the website, the browser automatically fills in your data and logs you in. These login credentials can be seen whenever you want, here’s how.

  • Step 1: Launch Microsoft Edge, click the three points in the upper left corner and select Settings.
  • Step 2: If you’re signed in with a Microsoft account, your passwords are synced, go to Profiles -> Passwords. Here you will see all logins saved in Microsoft Edge.

6) Disable location authorization

While browsing, there are several websites that ask you for specific permissions to improve your browsing experience. Among them, some ask you to allow access to location information when prompted. But if you want to disable these permissions, you can just disable location permission in Microsoft Edge.

  • Step 1: On Microsoft Edge browser, go to three points as shown and click Settings from the list.

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  • Step 2: In the left pane, click Cookies and site permissions to access permissions for the websites you visit.
  • Step 3: Now, click on Position on the right side to change the location permission.
  • Click the Delete icon to remove the saved location permission for a specific website. You can also turn off the slider to permanently block location permission for websites.

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7) Use extensions in InPrivate mode

Whenever you browse the Microsoft Edge browser in InPrivate mode, you cannot use the installed extensions. But if you are looking to use them in private browsing, it is possible. Here’s how to use extensions in Microsoft Edge’s InPrivate mode.

  • Step 1: In Microsoft Edgego to three points in the corner and click Extensions -> Manage Extensions.
  • Step 2: Under Installed Extensions, choose the extension you want to run in InPrivate mode.
  • Click on Details and check the box Allow in InPrivate to use the extension in InPrivate mode.

You can now use the extension while browsing privately.

8) Always run in InPrivate mode

If you don’t know, you can use Microsoft Edge’s InPrivate mode by default when you launch your browser. You can always browse the Internet in InPrivate mode without leaving a trace of history, cookies, passwords and other data.

  • Step 1: Go to The Microsoft Edge desktop shortcut And right-click to select Property.

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  • Step 2: Under the Shortcut tab, locate the file path in Objective.
  • Step 3: To add -in private at the end of the file path in the Destination text box. Make sure you don’t change anything else in the path, just add the keyword at the end and click OK.

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Now launch Microsoft Edge browser and you are in InPrivate browsing mode by default, you no longer need to choose the InPrivate mode option every time to open. Note that InPrivate mode will only start from the link you edited. If you start from the taskbar or Start menu, Microsoft Edge will start normally.

9) Remove extensions

Browser extensions can be great especially if you want to add certain features and functions to your browser, but too many installed extensions can slow down your browser and it is advisable to remove some extensions you don’t use.

  • Step 1: In Microsoft Edge, Click on three points in the corner and choose Extensions -> Manage Extensions.
  • Step 2: Under Installed Extensions, choose the extension you want to remove.
  • Step 3: Click on To remove to remove extensions from the browser.

10) Change the site permissions

There are a lot of websites that ask you for specific permissions for better functioning and to improve your browsing experience. If you’ve allowed these permissions, you can manage them in the Microsoft Edge browser and remove or change site permissions with just a few clicks.

  • Step 1: Launch Microsoft Edge and head to the three points at the corner. Click on Settings from the drop-down list.
  • Step 2: In the left pane, click Site permissions to access permissions for websites you have visited and allowed permissions.
  • Step 3: On the right side, click the permissions you want to change. You will see a list of websites here, you can choose to do it To allow or To block specific permissions for websites. Eliminate the ones you deem unnecessary.

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In this way, you can take control of the permissions required by these websites when you browse the Internet using the Microsoft Edge browser.

That’s all for now. These are some of the best and most helpful Microsoft Edge quick tips, shortcuts, tricks, workarounds, and features that you should know. I want more? Go to our How-to Guides section to find more such content.

Here are some suggested things if you are using Microsoft Windows 11.

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