Microsoft Edge is a feature-rich browser, but the default settings don’t offer the best experience to users. There are many areas where Edge can work better for you by just tweaking the settings. You can enhance your privacy, boost browser performance, customize the UI to your liking, and improve productivity, among other things. We have compiled a list of the Microsoft Edge settings you should change to get the most out of the default browser on Windows 11/10.
1. Enable Strict Tracking Prevention in Edge
First and foremost, you should enable “Strict” tracking prevention in Microsoft Edge to block all kinds of trackers and scripts on the web. Unlike Balanced and Basic, the Strict mode blocks a majority of trackers including harmful ones that appear as ads and media content but includes a tracker or script to track your web activity.
To enable Strict tracking prevention, open Settings from the three-dot menu in the top-right corner. Under, “Privacy, search, and services”, choose the “Strict” mode. That’s it.
2. Turn On Scareware Blocker in Edge
Microsoft recently introduced an AI-powered “Scareware Blocker” on Edge, which protects your PC from full-screen scareware pop-ups. These kinds of pop-up ads often show alarming messages with aggressive audio, warning you that your computer has been hacked. It also hijacks the keyboard and asks you to call a support number or download malicious remote software to fix the issue.
Microsoft is using on-device ML models to detect such sketchy websites on Edge and protect you from online scams. Whenever such sites are detected, Edge will exit the full-screen mode and give the control back to the user, informing the user about suspicious activity. Surprisingly, Scareware Blocker is disabled by default, given that it’s an important feature.
To enable Scareware Blocker on Edge, open Settings and move to “Privacy, search, and services.” Now, scroll down and enable “Scareware blocker” under Security.
3. Change Default Search Engine in Edge
Microsoft has made it harder to change the default search engine on Edge. The company wants users to stick to its Bing search engine, now with Copilot. The setting is buried deep under “Search and connected experiences,” which makes it harder for users to locate the crucial setting.
Nevertheless, you can simply go to edge://settings/search and change the search engine to Google or DuckDuckGo.
You can also try the new ChatGPT search as your default search engine on Edge. Make sure to change new tab searches to “Address bar” in the next drop-down menu.
4. Disable Copilot Sidebar in Edge
While Microsoft has dialed down on pushing Copilot to Edge users, the Copilot button still appears beside the menu. Some users don’t prefer to use Copilot, therefore, want to remove the button for a cleaner look. You can change this setting in Microsoft Edge and disable the Copilot sidebar entirely.
Paste edge://settings/sidebar into the address bar and hit Enter. Here, disable the toggles next to the “Show sidebar button” and “Always show sidebar”. This will turn off Copilot in Edge.
5. Make the Homepage Cleaner in Edge
My biggest gripe with Microsoft Edge is that it tries to push several useless junk on your homepage, including news feed, widgets, content, weather information, and whatnot. All I want is a clean slate to browse the web without any distractions. So my number one recommendation would be to tune up the homepage settings in Edge to make it absolutely junk-free.
You can click on the cogwheel icon in Edge on a new tab, and turn off Quick links, widgets, news feed, weather, and background image. This will make the homepage cleaner and you can focus on your work without any content being thrown in your face.
6. Block Third-party Cookies in Edge
Despite using the “Strict” tracking prevention mode in Edge, the browser doesn’t block third-party cookies. You will need to manually change this setting in Edge to block websites from storing third-party cookies. Third-party cookies are unrelated to the website’s core service, and it’s mainly used for tracking the user’s web activity.
So, go to edge://settings/content/cookies and turn on the “Block third-party cookies” toggle. You are done.
7. Disable Browsing Data Sharing
I absolutely hate that Microsoft tries to migrate your browsing data from other browsers to Edge. If you are not careful during the setup, the Edge browser automatically syncs your browsing history, bookmarks, passwords, cookies, and other data from other browsers like Chrome.
If you want to prevent Edge from syncing the browsing data of other browsers, you need to change this crucial Edge setting. Copy and paste edge://settings/profiles/localBrowserDataShare into the address bar and press Enter. Now, simply disable the toggle next to “Share browsing data with other Windows features”.
8. Turn off Background Apps and Extensions
This is a crucial Microsoft Edge setting that you must change to free up system resources on your computer. Do you notice that even when you close Edge, it continues to run in the background on your PC? It’s because various extensions and web apps powered by Microsoft Edge are running in the background.
You can toggle off the “Continue running background extensions and apps when Microsoft Edge is closed” option under “System and performance” to disable it.
Alternatively, you can head to edge://settings/system and disable the toggle directly. This will prevent extensions and web apps from running in the background after you close Edge.
9. Enhance Privacy in Edge
In case you are unaware, Microsoft uses your Edge browser data like browsing history, web activity, favorites, web content, and more to show you targeted ads. Besides this, your web browsing data can be used by Microsoft to show curated news, shopping recommendations, and more.
If you don’t want Microsoft to use your private browsing data for ad purposes, you can change this setting in Edge. Under “Privacy, search, and services”, turn off the “Personalization & advertising” feature. In addition, disable the “Search and service improvement” toggle to further improve your online privacy.
10. Block Media Autoplay in Edge
Often, we come across websites where audio or video plays automatically and totally disrupts the user experience. Media autoplay also consumes more resources and bandwidth and slows down your computer. Thankfully, Microsoft Edge offers a setting where you can simply turn off media autoplay for websites.
Just head to “Media autoplay” under the “Cookies and site permissions” setting and choose “Block” from the drop-down menu.
11. Block Notifications
Browser notifications are rarely useful. If you are not using WhatsApp or similar messaging apps in Edge, it’s better to block notifications altogether. After all, browser notifications are mostly used by scammy websites to bombard users with warnings, spam, and endless alerts. It also helps you focus and reduce interruptions.
To block notifications in Edge, open edge://settings/content/notifications and turn off the first toggle. Now, websites won’t be able to send notification requests to you.
12. Customize Mouse Gestures in Edge
Finally, Mouse Gesture is an important setting you should configure in Microsoft Edge to improve your productivity. The browser lets you assign various mouse gestures for different actions. You can choose gestures for closing the tab, re-opening a closed tab, refreshing the page, switching between tabs, and more.
Simply go to edge://settings/mouseGesture and assign gestures to your liking. It can make a ton of difference when you are navigating multiple tabs in Edge.
So, these are the Microsoft Edge settings you should change to improve your overall web browsing experience. While I still prefer Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge is an excellent browser with some neat features. It simply requires some tuning to bring out the best performance out of the browser.
While we are it, go through our list of the best Microsoft Edge flags to try new and exciting features. Are there any other settings you suggest changing to optimize the experience? Do let us know in the comments below.
