If you want to use Microsoft Edge from anywhere, you must enable and use the Edge bar feature. It helps you get a compact Microsoft Edge browser that you can use from almost any screen. Here is how you turn on the Edge bar and use it on Windows 11/10.
What is Edge bar?
Edge bar is a sidebar in the Edge browser that can serve as your mini browser to perform functions like searching, browsing, checking, emails, weather, news, etc. It lets you access Outlook, LinkedIn, etc. The most important thing about this Edge bar is floatinga and you can move it from one place to another and position it anywhere on the screen. Whether you want a fully functional window or a floating icon, you can find both on your screen. The next big thing is that you can add any of your favorite websites to the menu. Let’s say that you want to add a bookmark to open in the browser. In such situations, you can add that website link and open it with one click.
Edge bar features and options
There are tons of options and features included in the Edge bar. However, here is a brief list you might find handy:
- Find weather information. You can get the weather forecast of your desired location.
- Find the latest news. You can customize the news panel, add or remove any website as per your requirements.
- Access Bing search engine. You can search for anything on the Bing search engine. Whether you want to search for a text, image, or anything else, everything is possible.
- Find your emails. You can access an Outlook email account, manage email, read, delete, or do anything you want. All these things are possible in the Edge bar.
- Access LinkedIn account. If you use the LinkedIn account a lot, you can manage it from here.
- Add custom websites. You can add any website and open them in the Microsoft Edge browser.
- Get floating icon. You can get a floating icon for the Edge bar that opens the fully functional panel once you click it.
- Pin Edge bar. When you open the Edge bar for the first time, you can find it pinned on the right side of the screen. However, you can unpin it and move it to any other position.
How to enable and use Edge Bar
To enable and use Edge bar, follow these steps:
- Open the Microsoft Edge browser and open Settings.
- Switch to the Edge bar tab.
- Click the Open Edge bar option.
- Search for anything by clicking the Bing icon.
- Click the plus icon to add a new website.
- Switch to the LinkedIn tab to log in to your LinkedIn account.
To know more about these steps, keep reading.
First, you need to open the Settings panel in the Microsoft Edge browser and go to the Edge bar tab. Then, click the Open Edge bar option.
You will see a panel like this:
Now, you can use the Edge bar like mentioned above. Let’s say that you want to search for something on Bing. For that, click on the Bing icon and enter your keyword.
Or let’s assume that you want to access your Outlook email account. For that, click on the Outlook icon and sign in to your account. Similarly, if you want to access your LinkedIn account, you can access the same.
Add Favorite website to Microsoft Edge Sidebar
As mentioned earlier, it is possible to add or pin any website. For that, click the plus icon and enter the website URL along with the name.
Then, click on the newly added icon to open the website on the browser.
Talking about the settings, it doesn’t have many, but you can find all the essential options here. For example, you can switch between Vertical layout and Search only layout. On the other hand, you can enable or disable the floating button.
If you want to customize the news topics or widgets, you need to click the settings gear icon and click on the Settings option.
Then, you can find the Microsoft Edge browser with all the topics you can include or exclude from the Edge bar.
In case you want to open the Edge bar automatically when the computer starts, you can open the Settings panel in Microsoft Edge and toggle the Automatically open Edge bar when the computer starts button.
How do I enable the Edge Bar?
To enable the Edge bar, you need to open the Settings panel in Microsoft Edge. Then, switch to the Edge bar tab and click on the Open Edge bar option. It will open a panel on the right-hand side of your screen.
Read: How to set up your Edge Wallet
Where is my Edge bar?
By default, Microsoft Edge doesn’t enable the Edge bar on Windows. However, you can show it from the Settings panel. For that, open the Settings, go to the Edge bar section, and click on the Open Edge bar option.
That’s all! Hope this guide helped.
Read: How to enable or disable Visual Search in Microsoft Edge.
