Favorite websites in Edge

Do you manually type in the web address of a beloved website every time you browse the web? It is much more convenient to save such sites as Favorite. This means that the link will be placed in a separate place in the browser. Click on it and the relevant website will open. This article is about working with Favorites in the Edge browser.

Edge is the default Internet program of Windows 10. The browser is the successor of Internet Explorer. That program is very outdated and no longer suitable for internet use. It was wildly popular. Edge isn’t nearly as popular. That’s a shame, because the program has been greatly improved. Since the beginning of 2020, the new version of Edge has been distributed to users of Windows 10. It works faster than the first edition. There are many fun, useful features that deserve your attention, including Favorites.

Favorites are actually a collection of folders in Edge that store web addresses of sites you like to visit. Instead of opening a site via Google each time or typing in the address yourself, you save the website. By default, there are two folders in Edge to store websites: the Favorites toolbar and Other Favorites. But you can also create folders yourself. For example, to separate favorite sites about your hobby from sites for banking.

Edge has no requirements for Favorite sites. Any site you open can be added to Favorites. Be selective about it, because a list with dozens of favorite websites does not work well and does not provide a clear overview.

Add a website to the Favorites like this:

• Open the desired website.
• On the far right side of the address bar, click the button with the star and plus sign.
• A window will open containing the name of the website. Check that the name provided is short and sweet and shorten it if necessary.
• Click on the menu behind ‘Map’.

Now there are two options by default: the Favorites toolbar and Other Favorites. The toolbar is discussed later in this article. For now, we’ll choose the other default folder.

• click on Other Favorites.
• click on Ready.

The website has now been added to the Favorites.

Open a website that is in the Favorites as follows:

• Click on the button with the three dots at the top right.
• click on Favorites
• click on Other Favorites.
• Click on the desired website. It will open immediately.

Other ways to access the Favorites:

• Click the star and dashes icon to the right of the address bar.
• Or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+O.

The Favorites bar is a bar below the address bar. You can drag and drop loved websites into it or add them through the menu. A shortcut to the added website will appear below the address bar. Click on it to open the respective website. Websites can be added or removed from the toolbar as desired. The name of the shortcut can also be changed.

The toolbar can accommodate a limited number of websites. If there are too many, the sites that no longer fit will be hidden in a menu. So put the websites you use most on this bar and collect the other sites in the Other favorites.

Is there no toolbar below the address bar yet? Or do you not see it on every open tab? Then make the toolbar visible as follows:

• Click on the button with the three dots at the top right.
• click on Institutions.
• In the left pane, click Appearance.
• Click the drop-down menu next to ‘Show Favorites Toolbar’.
• click on All the time.

For new users, the Favorites bar is still empty, or it says that it may contain website links.

To put a shortcut to a website on the Favorites toolbar:

• Open the desired website.
• On the far right side of the address bar, click the button with the star and plus sign.
• A window will open containing the name of the website. Check that the name provided is short and sweet and shorten it if necessary.
• Click on the menu behind ‘Map’.
• click on Favorites Toolbar.
• click on Ready.
• The website is now on the toolbar. Click the link to open the corresponding website.

It is also possible to drag a site to the Favorites toolbar. To do this, click on the small icon to the left of the web address and drag this image to an empty spot on the toolbar. When a thick vertical line appears, release the mouse button.

The order of the shortcuts in the Favorites bar is not fixed. Determine it by dragging the listed websites to the desired location.

Is there a link that is no longer used? Then remove it:

• Right-click the website name in the Favorites bar.
• click on remove.

The list of favorites can become very long over time. Sites can be less liked or they are better placed in another folder within the Favorites. Then it is useful to edit the Favorites, i.e. to manage:

• In Edge’s address bar, type “edge://favorites” (without quotes).
• Press Enter.

This can also be done in another way:

• Click the star and dashes icon to the right of the address bar.
• A menu will open, click on the three dots ‘More options’.
• click on Manage Favorites.

The existing folders are listed in the left pane. By default, these are the Favorites Toolbar and Other Favorites.

• Click on any of these folders to view the contents.

In the right pane are the added favorites. Several things are possible with this:

• Is there a Favorite that you no longer like? Then click on the cross to the right of it. The website will disappear from that folder. At the top of the screen will appear an option to undo deletion, if it was done by accident.
• Add a new folder. Click on the left first Other Favorites and then on Add folder. Give the folder a suitable name and click Save. The (sub)folder is added. When saving a new favorite, the new folder is also available as a save location.
• Have you created multiple folders and should an existing Favorite be saved there? Then drag favorite websites from the list to the desired folder.
• Are there a lot of websites in the Favorites and you want to get rid of the duplicate entries? Then click on the three dots ‘More options’. click on Remove duplicate favorites > remove.

Edge has another interesting new feature: Collections. Sorts websites by subject and collects parts of them, such as images. The operation is different from Favorites. More about it can be found in the article ‘Collections in Edge’.