Trying Microsoft Edge

There are three tech sites that I receive newsletters from that I actually look at. You know, sometimes you sign up for just junk mail, well these sites are extremely helpful and if I have computer issues I check them first. They are all very competent with broad databases and fairly deep knowledge. I suggest bookmarking them if not signing up for their newsletters. They are How To Geek, Ask Leo, and Ask VG. Lots and gobs of helpful, free advice for beginners to experts.

On How To Geek I was reading that Microsoft’s built-in browser, which used to be Internet Explorer but with the advent of Windows 10 has become Microsoft Edge, has changed. This seemed like a yawner to me at first because my experience with Microsoft Internet Explorer had always been like in this cartoon.

But what caught my attention was that Microsoft is using the Chromium Project for its browser engine. It means faster browsing in Edge than it ever had before and that you can customize it like you can Google Chrome. You can read about it in the article How to Install and Use Extensions in the New Microsoft Edge. It made me want to experiment with it and see if it would work for me.

Switching browsers can be a real pain and even though they think they made it easy, I still ran into a couple of hassles. In the beginning it was still pretty slow loading but it seemed as if my computer’s OS was saying, “Really? You want to try this out? Really? Oh, boy, oh, boy, oh, boy! What do I do?”

Importing my favorites from Chrome was easier than I remembered from the last time I tried this experiment, but I still had to do some putzing to get it to my Favorites bar. It really did seem sluggish at first, like it didn’t know what it was supposed to do. There are some features of Edge that I do like and will probably actually use, like Setting Tabs Aside for later. If I’m working on something I have a kajillion tabs open (Well, maybe not a kajillion, maybe just half a kajillion) and I have to leave, I can quit where I’m at and go back and save them for later. I can make notes on the page and share them as well.

Besides, there is also the real, underlying reason. No, nothing like privacy concerns or anything serious like that. In my opinion, if you are on the Internet you have already kissed your privacy goodbye (I just saw a headline that said, “Amazon boss Jeff Bezos’s phone, ‘hacked by Saudi crown prince‘”.) No, the one thing that it provides is new opportunities for putzing and diddle-potzing.

Remember, a good book once said, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”