Microsoft Edge is without a doubt evolving, and every new update brings more and more improvements to the way we use the app.
It doesn’t always come down to things you see, as Microsoft is also working on under the hood tweaks that further polish the experience with Edge.
Just look at sleeping tabs, for instance. This new feature pushes Google’s freezing tab system to a whole new level, allowing the browser to provide Windows users with a substantially reduced memory usage, while also offering better battery life and other benefits.
The official estimates pretty much speak for themselves.
“The Microsoft Edge team is on a mission to create a browser that keeps up with you and never slows you down. To us, delivering world-class performance means better speed and responsiveness, all while using fewer system resources. To improve the memory and CPU usage of the browser, we’ve launched ‘sleeping tabs’. Just like a good night’s sleep allows you to stay focused and productive the next day, sleeping tabs helps optimize your browser’s performance by freeing up resources for the tabs you’re really using,” Microsoft said.
“Using sleeping tabs on Microsoft Edge typically reduces memory usage by 32% on average. It also increases your battery life as a sleeping tab uses 37% less CPU on average than a non-sleeping tab. Although individual device performance varies depending on configuration and usage, we’ve heard from users that this decrease in resource and battery usage has improved their browsing experience.”
But as I said, it doesn’t always come down to major new additions, but also to little improvements that have their own role in the way you interact with the browser.
And once such small revision is part of the latest Microsoft Edge Canary build, as the software giant has added a warning to let you know you’re about to close multiple tabs.
In other words, if you have more than a tab running in Microsoft Edge, you should now see a notification that you’re about to close them all when quitting the application.
This is something that’s been around for a while in other browsers, and it’s definitely a good thing Microsoft is adding it to Microsoft Edge too, though for the time being, it’s not exactly clear when it’s supposed to go live for everyone in the production channel.
In the meantime, the good news is you can actually give it a try today, all using nothing more than the Canary build of the browser.
So the first thing you need to do is update to the latest Microsoft Edge Canary 89 build and reboot the browser. Next, in the address bar at the top, type this code:
edge://flags
This screen provides you with access to the experimental flag section, which essentially means you’re about to play with features that aren’t ready for prime time.
The one we’re talking about here is called:
Ask Before Closing Multiple Tabs
Use the drop-down menu on the right to switch it to enabled, and as per TechDows, you’ll have to reboot the browser to save your changes.
Everything is now ready, so the next time you launch the browser, you should be able to go to Settings > Appearance to find a new toggle called “Ask before closing multiple tabs.” If you enable this setting, the next time you close the browser with multiple tabs active in the application, you should see the warning that should have been there from the very beginning.