The Edge browser has Edge users on edge
We still haven’t decided on whether we like Edge or not. Darcy hasn’t weighed in on it yet, but I can tell you right now, Edge is not going to replace Chrome on my Windows 10 laptop. However it is the default browser for Windows 10 and Microsoft doesn’t want you to know that Opera, Chrome and Firefox all run well on Windows 10 and it’s not very hard to make any of them your default browser.
HOWEVER…
Those who stick with edge are going to discover the Microsoft has made it difficult to change the home / start page in Edge, and even more difficult to get rid of Bing as the default search engine for Edge. We know why Microsoft is doing this – to make up for giving Windows 10 upgrades to users for nothing. Lots of money in them thar searches, just ask Google. So if Microsoft can bury the settings to change your home page or search engine in a convoluted labyrinth of illogical settings dialogs, why not? You’re just a user, and they are Microsoft. (See all those who think I have returned to being a Microsoft bottom kisser, I am certainly not, I tells ya!)
Follow the serpentine road to changing your Edge Home Page to something, anything else – hopefully http://thundercloud.net/start/
Edge uses three horizontal dots as it’s menu icon. So click on it to start changing your settings.
Click the three dots, and then click “Settings”. See?
But wait there’s more. Now tick the circle next to “A specific page or pages” under ” Settings/Open with.
Enter the Web address you want to use and your home page and click the + sign to add it. Now, click the X next to anything else you see there other than the home page you want. No more Apply/OK for you – this is the 21st century. Now we have + and x – and you better learn to like it, I tells ya.
Now, if you leave Top Sites alone you may see what looks like a page of little ads, which it may well be until you have used Edge long enough to have some history to put there as little images, every time you click a new page. If you don’t like seeing little pictures or little ads, choose “Blank page” . That way you’ll see nothing when you open a new tab. (I was just thinking….do you remember that diet soda called Tab? Wonder what happened to it? My rich, but fat aunt, use to drink it all the time. She passed away a long time ago, but I don’t think it was the Tab that did it.)
Now that you’ve done all of he above, you’ll want to change your default search engine to anything other than Bing, right?Right! So now, look below and notice the red arrow pointing to Advanced settings/View advanced settings. Got it? OK now click “View advanced settings” .
Whoa, Buckerooos, this is not changing your search engine is it? Nope. We are getting there. I told you Microsoft buried the change your search engine dialog deep in this labyrinth of woe.
But there are some settings you may want to look at. Notice the clever Android/Apple-like on-off switches. Just peruse the images below – you can see what the on-of switches do, right?
Now if you look you’ll see Bing (www.bing.com) is the search engine in the box. If you try to change it by clicking ” Add ” (not shown) nothing happens. Nope. Nothing at all happens. You have type the web address of the search engine you want to use e.g. www.google.com, www.duckduckgo.com, (heaven forbid you want www.yahoo.com ) in the address bar of Edge and actually go to the site. Then when you press Add you’ll see the name of the site listed and you can then click Add and it does something – for instance in the case below, it makes Google my default search engine…sayonara Bing buddy!
I got tired of the light theme and turned on the dark Edge theme. Trust me, by the time you dig down this deep, you’re going to be in a dark mood too.
Moving right along…
Now you can have only one default search engine at a time, however you can add as many search engines as you want.
See below – Google is our default search in Microsoft Edge — but — what if we want to make our default something else like DuckDuckGo?
In Edge type www.duckduck.com in the Edge address bar and press Enter. You should be, hopefully, on the DuckDuckGo home page.
Now Click ” Add new >” (see below):
DuckDuckGo will appear like magic…see the green box below….
If you want to make DuckDuckGo your default, click “Add as default” . If you just want to add DuckDuckGo to your list of search engines just click ” Add”.
Presumably, you can add any search engine you like even if it’s Moe’s Mighty Search and Bar or Susan’s French Bread & Goat Butter search…or even, woe is you, Yahoo search 🙂
Now, hopefully you have learned how to change your home/start page in Edge, how to change the default search in Edge, and to what lengths Microsoft goes to try to keep you from doing either.
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Works GREAT on Windows 10 too!
I had one incident of not being able to change my home page with IE on windows seven . it was a trial for sure , But I got it done after removing all traces of msnbc as the start page . I don’t have screen shots but it was pretty involved getting the right home page set it always went back to MSNBC W/ Bing right there as the search so I wonder if that was a preview of coming attractions for windows 10 .
We’re old folks now, so like to stay with what we know (like flip phones instead of smart phones, eh). It took 1.5 hours to upgrade from 8.1 to 10, we just sat and watched the circles circle. Then came time to use the browser. Firefox is our choice. Unbelievable…it took another 1/2 hour to get it setup. Grrr. Now we have a smooth-running laptop, nicer than 7, much nicer than 8.1 and Gmail and games and all other old familiar stuff works just fine. WE WILL deal with a few “privacy” issues ’cause this laptop is upscale, touchscreen, with camera, microphone, etc. (WUDO you gotta stop being nice to Microsoft). We never did, and maybe never will, use Edge; and we only use Internet Explorer to download Firefox to use on XP/Vista/7/8/8.1, so we one time per install used Internet Explorer (I already said that, eh). BTW, wife uses Bing news (not Bing search). If you use Firefox on 7/8/8.1 it’ll be there on 10, just not set up as default browser.
I decided to stick with Internet Explorer. I couldn’t get my Favorites Bar to line up in Edge and decided to keep what I was most familiar with, as I have a lot of favorites in different categories/folders on my Favorites Bar. So far, this works for me. (I was pleasantly surprised that IE was still there and everything was the same as I had it setup in Windows 7).
Thanks so much for this new “lesson” on Windows 10 EDGE. Even though I have my upgrade “reserved” I will assume it may take a while before MS notifies me–I just hope it’s before I kick the bucket!
Thanks again and you can be sure, I’ll “stay tuned in” to C-8 ALWAYS!
I want menu, command, and status bars in Edge like I have in IE. Microsoft hasn’t responded to my comment.
My Lastpass is not working with Edge. My husband started the download this morning and it’s still going. Rebooting did not help. You can’t get it to start over. So . . .
I don’t think we are going to know about Edge for a while. To me it can go in a lot of directions right now (good or bad). Especially when it is so bare bones as it is right now. I’m not using it at this time as it is right now. I will be making updates to it as Microsoft goes along trying to set it up more, but it is not going to be my default browser at this time. I just don’t think it is ready yet. At least for me.
Wish I had received this 24 hours earlier. I just removed Windows 10 (using your instructions) because I could not get on with Microsoft Edge!!!!! Will re-install and try this.
Naturally I will use the Thundercloud start page as I have been doing for at least 10 years
Wonder what happened to google creating an operating system?
They have…Android is a Google OS and Chomebooks use Chrome OS. Both Android and Chrome OS are by Google. And geesh, people trust Google about as little as they trust Microosft.
The worst feature is the lack of decent control over resizing the window.
It may be good for those using a tablet however there is no way I’m going to do any serious software development on a tablet. I doubt that the Microsoft developers use tablet for coding the operating system.