MICROSOFT EDGE
Speed up browsing using Edge’s secret settings
Like Chrome and Firefox, Microsoft’s latest web browser harbours a page of hidden experimental settings and configuration tools. You can access these by typing about:flags in the address bar and pressing Enter. There aren’t as many options here as in other browsers, but there are some potentially useful hacks to exploit. Flags can be unpredictable, so if Edge starts behaving oddly after making a change here, return to the ‘about:flags’ page and click ‘Reset all flags to default’.
One flag that’s definitely worth experimenting with is ‘Enable TCP Fast Open’ – tick it under Networking (see screenshot below), then restart Edge. TCP Fast Open (TFO) is a newer protocol for connecting to networks that can improve page-loading speeds by up to 40 per cent, according to Google ( www.snipca.com/22501).
2Boost performance with experimental tweaks
If you’re browsing on a PC with lots of RAM installed, you could take advantage of an Edge flag that improves performance by letting the browser use as much memory as it likes. Open the ‘about:flags’ page (as described in Tip 1), tick ‘Allow unrestricted memory consumption for web pages (this might impact the overall performance of your device)’, then restart Edge. If your PC starts to slow as a result, return to this option untick it. Another flag worth trying for a performance boost is ‘Enable experimental Javascript features’. This may speed up page-loading on some sites by supporting the use of Javascript features that are still in development.
3Disable Flash
Turning Flash off can not only improve page-loading speeds on many animation-heavy sites, but can also make Edge much more secure by preventing hackers from exploiting Flash’s seemingly endless flaws. In Edge, click the menu button (three dots), click Settings, ‘View advanced settings’ then click the slider under Use Adobe Flash Player (see screenshot above right) to disable it.
4Protect your privacy when voice or video chatting
When you use a browser to connect to web services that use WEBRTC (a series of protocols often used for many real-time communications, such as voice or video chat), there’s a real possibility that the connection may reveal private information about you, such as your language, operating system and – worst of all – your local IP address. This makes it possible for a hacker to intercept this data. Edge has a feature that can make voice- and video-chat sessions more secure, but it isn’t enabled by default. To switch this on, open the ‘about:flags’ page and scroll down and tick the ‘Hide my local IP address over WEBRTC connections’ option, then restart your browser.
5Use a free tool to manage your bookmarks
One thing that Edge isn’t great at is handling bookmarks – or favourites, as Microsoft calls them. You can open the Favourites bar by clicking the Hub icon (three lines), then the Favourites (star) icon, but actually doing much with your bookmarks – such as organising and managing them – is fiddly.
Step forward Edgemanage ( www.snipca.com/22505), a small, free tool that lets you easily arrange, import, edit, export your favourites – and more. It’s very simple to use – just make sure that Edge is closed before you launch it. Any changes you make in Edgemanage will be reflected in Edge’s Favourites bar next time you open the browser. One useful bonus is the ability to back up your favourites – just click Utilities, then Backup Database (see screenshot above).
6Make Edge easier to use with Mouse Gestures
Edge is built with touchscreen users in mind and, while it’s possible to control it with a standard mouse or trackpad, desktop PC users miss out on the handy gesture controls that those using tablets and touchscreen devices get. Install the free extension Mouse Gestures ( www. snipca.com/22506, see screenshot below left), however, and you can vastly improve navigation without the need for touch controls. While browsing, for example, hold down the right mouse button and ‘swipe’ to the left to simulate swiping back to the previous page. You can also use gestures to scroll, navigate through tabs, refresh a page, reopen closed tabs and more. Once installed, click the menu icon (three dots), Extensions, Mouse Gestures, then Options to see all the gestures available and to customise them.
7Restore the missing Home button
Microsoft has a habit of killing off buttons that people love. In Windows 8 it was the Start button, and in Edge it’s the Home button – the handy icon that returns you to your home page from wherever you are. Thankfully, you can restore the Home button – just click the menu icon (three dots), Settings, ‘View advanced settings’ then click the switch under ‘Show the home button’ (see screenshot above). In the dropdown menu that appears, you can choose where the Home button takes you – to the Start page, to a new tab or to a specific web page (you can specify any URL in this option).