New options added to the latest Edge Dev build

Apr 8, 2020 19:50 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft has updated Microsoft Edge Dev with a new option that allows users to create site exceptions for the automatic browsing data cleaner.

First and foremost, a few words about this tool. As you most likely know already, just like most other browsers, Microsoft Edge can be configured to automatically remove browsing data when closing the app.

This means that when closing Edge, information like the browsing history, passwords, cache, cookies, and others are automatically purged, which means that no traces are left on your device. This is an important privacy feature, and it exists in the majority of browsers, including Firefox and Chrome.

So technically, if you want to always start from scratch, you can easily enable this feature in Edge. But what if you want some sites to keep their data in Microsoft Edge?

Beginning with the latest Microsoft Edge Dev build, you can actually add websites to the list of exceptions in the browser, technically instructing the app to remove browsing data but to ignore the one that belongs to the pages you define in the settings screen.

Of course, the whitelist needs to be defined manually, but this makes total sense given it’s mostly supposed to provide you with better control over the automatic browsing data remover. In the future, an option that could be added to a more straightforward screen, such as in the address bar, could also come in handy when the auto browsing data cleaner is enabled in Edge.

Before anything, you can enable the automatic browsing data cleaner from the following path:


Microsoft Edge > Menu > Settings > Privacy and services > Clear browsing data > Choose what to clear every time you close the browser
This menu lets you choose from a wide variety of browsing data, such as browsing history, download history, cookies and other site data, cached images and files, passwords, site permissions and others.
Microsoft Edge on Windows 10

You can enable any of them with just a simple toggle in this screen (and click the toggle again to disable them).

To configure exceptions, what you need to do is enable the toggle for:


Cookies and other site data
Once you do this, a new section called “Do not clear” shows up, along with the following description:

You've allowed the following sites to save and read cookies on your device. Cookies for these sites won't be cleared when you exit the browser.

You can simply click the Add button and then provide the URL of the site you want to add to the exceptions.

Keep in mind that this feature is currently available exclusively in the Dev build of Microsoft Edge, but it should make its way to the stable version of the browser in the coming updates. There’s no ETA as to when this is projected to happen, but a new stable Edge should land any day now, with another major update due in mid-May.

Thanks to the migration to Chromium, Microsoft Edge is now available on both Windows and Mac, and it’s believed a Linux version is also in the works. Today’s new feature obviously made its way to both platforms, so the steps mentioned above can also be used to add sites to the exception lists on Mac as well. Of course, once the Linux version is finalized, the same functionality will be offered here too.

The Chromium Edge is the new default browser on Windows 10, replacing the legacy version by default once installed. The Canary, Dev, and Beta, builds, however, can be installed alongside the stable version.

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Microsoft Edge on Windows 10
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