Browse the Web with Microsoft Edge

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About this lesson

Learn how to personalize and browse the web with Microsoft Edge.

Quick reference

Browse the Web with Microsoft Edge

Use Microsoft Edge to browse the web. 

When to use

Edge is the latest web browser from Microsoft. We use it whenever we want to visit websites on the internet. 

Instructions

Edge is Microsoft's new and improved web browser, developed to eventually replace the infamous Internet Explorer. Edge comes pre-installed with Windows 11 and we can find it pinned by default to the taskbar. 

Browse the Web with Edge

Edge is not that different from other web browsers we might be familiar with.

  • Click on the Edge icon in the taskbar to launch. 

At the top, we have the URL or address bar. We can type in a web address here to go directly to a specific website. 

In the middle, we have an area titled Search the web. We can type anything in here, a keyword, a phrase, a company name, and when we press Enter, Edge will search the web and produce a list of search results. 

  • Type Microsoft into the search bar. 

A link is shown in blue. If we hover our mouse over a link and see a hand icon, it means the link is clickable. Each time we go to a new web page, we can use the Back button in the top left-hand corner to go back a screen or click Home to go back to the Edge home page. We also have a Refresh button here to reload the current page. 

Tabs

Each web page we open shows in its own tab in Edge. We can open additional web pages in other tabs instead of opening new windows each time. This ensures our web pages are easier to manage and switch between. 

  • To create a new tab, click the + icon or press CTRL+T. 
  • To close a tab, click the X. 

We can re-organize tabs so they appear in a different order by dragging and dropping them. 

Tab Options

We have many options when it comes to organizing tabs and changing how they work. 

  • Right-click on any tab to view the contextual menu. 
Tab Groups

We can group one or more tabs together and color code the group. 

  • Click Add tab to group. 
  • Click New group. 
  • Give the group a name and choose a color from the palette. 

These tabs are now grouped together and can be managed as one. To remove a tab from a group, right-click and select Remove from group. 

Pin and Mute Tabs

Pin Tabs

We can pin tabs that we need to refer to quickly. 

  • Right-click on the tab. 
  • Choose Pin tab. 

The tab will be pinned in the top left-hand corner of the Edge window. 

Mute Tabs

We can mute a tab if we want to silence any audio that might be on the web page. 

  • Right-click on the tab. 
  • Choose Mute tab. 

Collections

We can add tabs to collections to organize them into groups. 

  • Click the Collections icon in the top right-hand corner or press CTRL+SHIFT+Y. 
  • Click Start new collection. 
  • Give the collection a name. 
  • Click Add current page. 

We can move additional pages to existing collections. 

  • Right-click on the tab. 
  • Hover the mouse over Add all tabs to collection. 
  • Choose the collection. 

Save to Favorites

A common thing to do when working in a web browser is to save pages you visit often to favorites. This makes them easy to access next time. 

  • Open a new tab and navigate to the web page. 
  • Click the star icon next to the address bar or press CTRL+D. 
  • Click the three dots and select Favorites or press CTRL+SHIFT+O to open the Favorites pane. 
  • Click the pin icon to pin the pane to the right-hand side of the screen. 
  • OR, click the three dots, select Show Favorites bar, and Always to display favorites across the top of the browser. 

Clear Browsing History

Every web page we visit is logged and stored in Edge. We can go to History to quickly revisit pages we have looked at in the past. Sometimes, we may want to clear our browsing history if we have any privacy concerns or if we are sharing our PC. 

  • Click the three dots in the top right-hand corner. 
  • Click History or press CTRL+H. 

The History pane will open. We can use the drawing pin icon to pin this to the left-hand side of the screen. 

  • Click the three dots. 
  • Select Clear browsing data. 

We can choose a time range to clear, we can clear our download history, we can clear cookies and other site data and we can clear cached images and files. 

  • Click Clear now. 

Private browsing

What if we want to visit websites that we don't want to be stored in History? We can use an InPrivate Window. This type of window protects our privacy and doesn't log the websites that have been visited when using this window to browse the internet. This is useful if we are using a PC in a public place such as a classroom or a library. 

  • Open a new tab. 
  • Click the three dots. 
  • Choose New InPrivate window or press CTRL+SHIFT+N.

Hints & tips

  • We can press the keyboard shortcut F5 to refresh a web page. 
Login to download
  • 00:04 Edge is the latest web browser from Microsoft.
  • 00:07 And we use it whenever we want to visit websites on the Internet.
  • 00:11 Developed to replace the infamous Internet Explorer, it comes preinstalled with
  • 00:16 Windows 11 and you should find it pinned to the taskbar by default.
  • 00:20 So let's launch Edge and have a quick look around the interface.
  • 00:25 So this is the icon just here.
  • 00:27 Let's click once to open up Edge.
  • 00:30 Now, Edge doesn't function much differently from most
  • 00:33 other web browsers you might use.
  • 00:35 It does have a really nice slick looking interface that can of course be completely
  • 00:39 customized.
  • 00:40 For example, you can see some websites that I've added on the start page here or
  • 00:45 the homepage that I visit often.
  • 00:47 Just above, we have a Search the web bar where we can type in our keywords or
  • 00:51 our search terms in order to run a search on the Internet.
  • 00:54 And then right at the top, we have our URL bar.
  • 00:57 So if we want to type a web address directly into the web browser,
  • 01:01 this is where we come.
  • 01:02 So I'm just going to do a quick search for Microsoft.
  • 01:06 Let's hit Enter, and it runs a search of the Internet using Bing.
  • 01:10 And we can click on any of these links to go to that specific webpage.
  • 01:15 Now, notice when I clicked on this link it opened in a new tab at the top.
  • 01:19 And this is what we have in Edge and most other browsers these days,
  • 01:23 is tabbed browsing.
  • 01:25 So we can open up new web pages in different tabs running across the top.
  • 01:30 So if I open up another tab, I can click on the plus at the top here or
  • 01:35 press Ctrl T.
  • 01:36 This is going to give me a new tab and I can perform another search.
  • 01:40 So maybe I'm looking for some information on William Shakespeare.
  • 01:46 Let's select it, and I'm going to go to the Wikipedia page.
  • 01:50 Now, if you don't like the fact that every time we click on a link it opens up a new
  • 01:54 tab, then you can customize that in settings.
  • 01:58 Now, you'll find your settings for Microsoft Edge all the way over in
  • 02:01 the right hand corner, where we have these three dots.
  • 02:04 And if we go towards the bottom, there is our settings option.
  • 02:07 We can open this up, and this is another application that I have set to use
  • 02:11 the dark mode, and then we can go through and take a look through each of these.
  • 02:15 So in settings, I can do lots of different things.
  • 02:18 If I click on appearance in this left hand menu,
  • 02:21 this is where I can change it from dark to something completely different.
  • 02:25 So let's change it to Island Gateway, or sorry,
  • 02:28 Island Getaway to get a completely different look and feel.
  • 02:31 I'm also going to switch it to light mode to make it a little bit brighter.
  • 02:37 We can customize things like our start page, our homepage and
  • 02:40 also add tab layouts from down here, and
  • 02:43 we have countless other settings that we can change.
  • 02:46 Now, I'm not going to spend too much time going through all of these, I just highly
  • 02:50 recommend that you go through and set up your preferences so they suit you.
  • 02:54 Let's close down settings for the time being.
  • 02:57 Now, the final thing about tabs is that we can simply close them by clicking on
  • 03:01 the tiny little cross in the top corner.
  • 03:04 Also know there is a keyboard shortcut for this of Ctrl+W.
  • 03:08 If I click on that tab, it's going to close them down.
  • 03:11 We can also right click on any tab to view a contextual menu.
  • 03:15 So I can create a new tab, I can duplicate the tab, I can move the tab,
  • 03:20 I can even pin it.
  • 03:21 A one thing that can be quite useful is creating tab groups.
  • 03:25 So if you have a number of different tabs open that are all related to the same
  • 03:30 thing, then you can say, Add tab to new group, and
  • 03:33 you can give the tab group a name.
  • 03:35 So maybe I want to call this one Microsoft.
  • 03:39 I'm going to choose this nice pink color and when I click away,
  • 03:43 this is now effectively a group.
  • 03:46 I could grab the search, I could drag it to make it part of this group.
  • 03:51 So this just really helps me keep all of my tabs organized into different groups
  • 03:55 making them easier to find.
  • 03:57 I'm going to open up another web page and let's just go to the BBC website.
  • 04:02 To know if the BBC website is something that I visit every single day,
  • 04:05 I can choose to pin this tab.
  • 04:07 So if we right click again, I can pin the tab, and
  • 04:10 it kind of puts it as a small little icon all the way over on the left hand side.
  • 04:14 So if I've clicked on a completely different tab and I want to get back to
  • 04:19 that BBC tab, I can simply click it and it's going to take me back.
  • 04:22 So my recommendation is to pin all the websites that you go to frequently.
  • 04:28 Another useful option can be the Mute option.
  • 04:31 If we right click again, we have a Mute tab option.
  • 04:34 And what that will do is it will mute any audio that occurs on this page.
  • 04:39 That can be quite useful if you're browsing the web at work or
  • 04:42 maybe if you're in a meeting and you don't want audio to play.
  • 04:46 Now, we can also organize our tabs into what we call collections.
  • 04:50 So if we go over to our icons on the right hand side,
  • 04:53 this one just here is the collections option, keyboard shortcut CTRL SHIFT Y.
  • 04:58 If we click the +, we can create a new collection.
  • 05:04 I'm going to give my collection a name, let's just call it Microsoft, and
  • 05:09 press Save.
  • 05:11 And now I can add different web pages to this collection.
  • 05:15 So if I click the + just here,
  • 05:17 it's going to add the current page that I'm clicked on.
  • 05:21 If I go to a different page, I can click on +, and
  • 05:24 it's going to add that page as well.
  • 05:27 So when I click on this particular collection,
  • 05:29 it's going to show me both of the pages that I've added into that collection.
  • 05:34 It's just another way of organizing your webpages and
  • 05:37 being able to access them quickly.
  • 05:40 The other way that you might want to bookmark important web pages is to add
  • 05:44 them to your Favourites.
  • 05:46 If we go to a webpage, so let's go back to the BBC webpage, what I can do is
  • 05:51 in the URL bar, I can add this page to my Favourites, keyboard shortcut Ctrl D.
  • 05:58 If I click this, I get a chance to rename the way that this looks, so
  • 06:02 let's just say BBC and I can choose to add it into my favourites.
  • 06:07 Now, if we choose to add it to the Favourites bar and click on done,
  • 06:11 what we can then do is display the Favourites bar at the top of the window.
  • 06:15 So let's click on the three dots, let's go to Favourites,
  • 06:19 three dots again and show Favourites bar.
  • 06:23 So I'm going to say, Always, and
  • 06:25 now you can see I get this bar at the top with that webpage at it.
  • 06:29 If I go to the Microsoft page and add these to Favourites,
  • 06:32 I'm going to add it again to my Favourites bar.
  • 06:34 Let's just call this Microsoft, click on done, and
  • 06:37 I get that little link just there.
  • 06:40 And this is in general how I like to work.
  • 06:42 I'm a big fan of the Favourites bar, I like adding in all of my web pages,
  • 06:46 and then being able to toggle between them.
  • 06:48 Now, another thing that you might want to do is clear your browsing history.
  • 06:53 Remember, when we're looking at different websites and web pages,
  • 06:56 Windows 11 is logging everywhere that we're visiting.
  • 07:00 And this can be really useful if you want to backtrack and
  • 07:03 maybe find a web page that you access yesterday or the day before.
  • 07:07 It's quite useful to be able to go into your history and find that webpage.
  • 07:11 So where is our history located?
  • 07:13 Well, once again, if we go to the three dots in the top corner,
  • 07:17 we have a History option just here, Ctrl H.
  • 07:20 This is going to show us all of the sites that we've recently accessed, and
  • 07:24 we can simply click on them to return to that site.
  • 07:27 Now, in some cases, we might want to clear all of our browsing history and
  • 07:32 remove all of those items.
  • 07:34 And a good example would be if you're using a public computer.
  • 07:37 So if you're a student who does a lot of work in maybe a library and
  • 07:40 you use the library computer,
  • 07:42 you don't necessarily want everybody seeing the websites that you visited.
  • 07:46 So if we click on the three dots at the top here,
  • 07:49 we can choose to clear our browsing data.
  • 07:52 We can choose which items we want to clear, so
  • 07:54 I'm going to clear everything which includes Browsing history,
  • 07:58 Download history, Cookies and Cached files, and I can choose Clear now.
  • 08:02 When you're using the Internet, you're effectively being tracked in some form.
  • 08:07 So if you want to browse and remain anonymous,
  • 08:09 then you can open an in private window.
  • 08:12 So this is quite useful if you want to do things like log in to your online banking.
  • 08:16 You don't want really any of that to be tracked, so
  • 08:18 it's always preferrable to open a private window.
  • 08:21 Once again, we can click on the three dots, and we have New tab,
  • 08:25 New window, or New InPrivate window.
  • 08:29 So now I can safely search the Internet and nothing is being stored or tracked.

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