Beef up Microsoft Edge with my favorite add-ons
Microsoft Edge has developed into a robust and effective browser since its debut back in 2015. And that's especially true since it moved to Chromium a couple of years ago. But any browser can use a helping hand to be even more useful. And one way to achieve that is through the right extensions, aka add-ons. Though the Chromium version of Edge can handle any extension from Google's Chrome Web Store, Microsoft also offers a healthy array of add-ons for Edge.
If you'd like to check out Microsoft's add-ons for Edge, open the Edge browser and surf to the Edge Add-ons page. Here, you can browse and search for specific add-ons by name or category. When you spot an add-on you want to try, select it and click the Get button. Click the button for "Add extension," and the add-on is installed (Figure 1).
Figure 1: Adding the Office extension.
To view or work with the add-on from the Edge toolbar, click the Extensions icon (the one that looks like a puzzle piece). Click the eye icon next to the extension to show it on the toolbar. Depending on the add-on, you should be able to use or access it from its toolbar icon. To manage the add-on, click the Extensions icon and select "Manage extensions." From the Extensions page in Edge, you can view details about the add-on, turn it off temporarily, or remove it entirely (Figure 2).
Figure 2: Managing your installed extensions.
Now, here are some of my favorite Edge add-ons.
Office Online
Here's a handy add-on for those of you who use Microsoft Office, either the paid version or the free web-based flavor. The Office add-on provides access to your Office applications and documents directly from Edge. After installing this extension, click on its toolbar icon and sign in to your Microsoft account. Click the icon again and you now can access the online editions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneDrive. The screen also displays a few recent documents for you to open. And you can access even more documents and upload files to your online space.
Microsoft Editor
Whether you're composing an email online or a tweet on Twitter, sometimes you could use a good spelling and grammar checker to flag errors. The Microsoft Editor add-on does just that. With this one, you can opt to check spelling, grammar, or both, and in any one of several different languages. Compose an email in Gmail, Yahoo, or another online email program; write a post on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, or any other site; and the Microsoft Editor will underline any potential typos or mistakes. Click the underlined word, and the add-on suggests alternative words or lets you ignore the flagged word. You can also turn off the checker for specific websites.
Bookmark Sidebar
Want a quick way to view and open your bookmarks in Edge? The Bookmark Sidebar add-on can help. With this one, your bookmarks will appear in a sidebar so they're easily accessible. You can choose between a left and right sidebar location and toggle the style between light and dark. You then decide how you want to trigger the sidebar -- left click, right click, mouseover, or clicking on an icon. After you trigger the sidebar, just click a bookmark to launch the page. You can sort the list of bookmarks alphabetically, by most used, by recently used, or by recently added. And you can add or remove folders and bookmarks.
Infinity New Tab
By default, opening a new tab in Edge takes you to a Microsoft page that may or may not be useful. If you want a more effective new tab page, the Infinity New Tab add-on will supply it. When you install this add-on, your new tab page gets icons that display the weather, show your to-list, display your notes, retrieve your bookmarks and browsing history, take you to the add-ons page, and more. You can create multiple screens for the new tab page and scroll from one to the next. You can also customize each page by editing, adding, and removing individual icons.
Print Friendly & PDF
Printing a webpage is often problematic, as most pages just aren't designed to be printed. Rather than struggle to print an uncooperative page, turn to the Print Friendly & PDF add-on. This one will generate a print-friendly version of your current page. From there, you can directly print the page or save it as a PDF. If you don't like the format, simply adjust the font, size, alignment, and line height, and turn images on or off.
Ghostery
You'll find lots of ad blockers in the Edge Add-On store. One that I've always liked is Ghostery. The free version of Ghostery will remove ads from any webpage and block website trackers, thereby protecting your privacy and potentially speeding up your web browsing. To see Ghostery in action, browse to a site where you're likely to be served ads and tracked. Click the Ghostery icon on the toolbar, and it will tell you how many trackers were stopped. A detailed view reveals the specific ads and trackers that were blocked. You can turn certain features on and off and tell the add-on to trust your current site so that it won't block any ads or trackers.
DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials
Another solid privacy extension, the DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials add-on offers a lot of useful features. DuckDuckGo will block hidden third-party trackers, stop email trackers that try to trace your email address to your browsing activity, force unencrypted websites to use an encrypted (HTTPS) connection, change your search engine to DuckDuckGo Search, and tap into Global Privacy Control (GPC) to tell websites not to sell or share your personal data. To see it work, browse to a website and click the DuckDuckGo icon on the toolbar. The add-on tells you how many trackers were blocked and gives the site a privacy grade. Click the window to see why it received a certain grade and the names of the specific trackers that were blocked.