Microsoft plans to significantly streamline app configuration in its Edge browser.
Windows Latest noted that the official roadmap website For Microsoft 365, there is now an update for Edge that informs us that the browser settings are being refreshed and better organized.
In the roadmap article ‘Microsoft Edge: Higher settings and better navigability of the settings page’, the software giant explains what streamlining measures are being implemented and that the rollout of these changes is expected to begin in October 2024.
The first step Microsoft is taking is a new quick access panel on the Edge Settings landing page. This puts one-click shortcuts to your most commonly used actions front and center in the menu that first greets you when you open Settings.
Second, when you dive into a submenu in Settings, such as System & Performance or Display, this also has the same one-click shortcuts for the most used options.
Finally, Microsoft plans to break down the long lists of options you’ll find in Settings into smaller subsections, similar to the table of contents of a book.
Analysis: A step in the right direction
This is all intended to make finding changes in Edge much easier, and we think it’s a good idea. Navigating through settings can sometimes be a painful task, and having shortcuts to all of your most-used options right up front is incredibly convenient. No, it’s not a move that’s going to suddenly make Edge more popular than Chrome, but it’ll help (and Edge is actually a good product as it is – it’s at the top of our best web browsers list, after all).
Note that there are no changes to the actual functionality of Edge’s settings. This is a reorganization of the way they’re presented, with a healthy dose of handy one-click shortcuts.
In a sense, this is a takeaway from Chrome, as Google’s browser is generally more tightly organized when it comes to settings (and even in the most cluttered areas, Chrome certainly doesn’t fare worse than Edge).
It’s also worth noting that while the rollout will begin in October, Microsoft is referring to the early testing stages of the revamped Settings panel. It may take some time for the work to make it through testing and into the release version of Edge, of course – and some of the work in preview may never see the light of day. Mind you, we have a feeling this will make the cut, as Edge could use a boost in the organization of its options.
