There are many experimental features in Microsoft Edge you can enable using its edge://flags feature. These flags have many uses, which range from changing your browser window appearance to productivity and privacy features, and accessing developer settings.
If you’re an Edge user, consider enabling our following selection of flags which are among the best Microsoft Edge flags you can find among any browsers.
Also read: Microsoft Edge (Chromium Version) vs Google Chrome
How to Enable Edge Flags?
To enable and access Edge flags, simply enter the following in the URL bar. You will have to restart Edge every time to ensure the flag is working properly.
edge://flags
To find a specific flag, you can find them with the search bar or use Ctrl + F in the browser window. There is no need to remember any other commands. You can easily disable any of these settings if you no longer need them. You can also use the “Reset all” option to switch to default Edge settings.
Also read: 7 Free Ad Blockers That Perform Well on Microsoft Edge
1. Previews Allowed
Every website is rife with hyperlinks and anchor text and all manner of things designed to keep you clicking around the site (yep, we do it too). Not all links are informative about what you’re actually clicking though, so this flag generates a preview snippet so you don’t have to click the link before seeing where it actually takes you.
It’s a good way of saving a bit of time, and if the link is just clickbait and doesn’t deliver on what’s promised, then you can find that out before giving the page your precious clicks!
2. ClickOnce Support
ClickOnce is a useful Windows component that allows the smooth deployment of any application without administrator permissions. Only Internet Explorer and Edge Chromium browsers provide native support for this unique feature.
Once installed, ClickOnce will easily deploy and update software on devices with minimal user interaction. You only have to click a link in a web page, and it is deployed on the side. The programs can be installed without any user configurations, such as file locations, what options to install, and so on.
3. Enable Sharing Page via QR Code
Do you want to share a webpage on your screen via a QR code? Edge lets you do that with a simple flag for this purpose.
Once enabled, you only need to right-click on the webpage to create a QR code for it as shown here.
The QR code is ready to be shared, and you can download the image to be sent across to anyone on their phones.
4. Focus Dark Mode for Web Contents
Do you prefer a dark mode on your browsing screen? Your wish has come true with this brilliant Edge flag that supports easy rendering of dark themes of different combinations.
There are different types of dark mode to experiment with: the default mode turns everything on your browser screen pitch black. If you need something less invasive, choose from “selective image inversion” to “selective inversion of everything.” You can always disable these settings once you don’t need the dark mode anymore.
5. Parallel Downloading
This is one of the best features on Edge Flags to accelerate the downloading of your files. Once enabled, the parallel downloading feature splits the file to be downloaded into separate tasks, making the job faster than you could if you tried downloading the files in one go.
6. Tab Groups
Do you want each tab to look different from the others? The idea is to associate a similar task for a bunch of opened tabs. This way even if you opened many more tabs during your browsing, you can still circle back to the tab groups that have some meaningful association.
To enable Tab groups, simply right-click on top of any tabs that you want inserted in the group. Bundle them together as you wish.
7. Anonymize Local IPs Exposed by WebRTC
Privacy lovers rejoice! If you’re using any WebRTC applications such as Google Meet, Facebook Messenger, Discord, or GoToMeeting, you may want to conceal your private IP address. You can now use Edge flags to obfuscate these local IP addresses with a feature called dynamically generated Multicast DNS (mDNS).
8. Smooth Scrolling
You may have heard of smooth scrolling. It’s a feature that lets you improve the scrolling quality and speed on Edge. This helps you navigate through a page smoothly, no matter what the page size is.
No matter how large and extensive a webpage is, you will feel a noticeable impact in the scrolling effort, which makes it much easier to navigate.
9. Credit Card Autofill Ablation Experiment
Another privacy feature that has many takers. If you don’t want your browser window to remember your credit card details for each new transaction, you must enable this autofill ablation experiment feature. There will be no more autofill suggestions for credit card numbers.
10. Heavy Ads Intervention
Sometimes, heavy advertisements on some websites can hog your device resources. Edge allows you to disable such heavy ads by unloading them, thus minimizing the consumption of CPU, GPU, and bandwidth. If you’re considering adding an ad-blocker extension, you might try this feature first as it will really lighten the burden on your system resources.
11. Fill Passwords on Account Selection
This is a useful privacy feature to manage Microsoft Edge autofill settings. For sensitive websites, you may prefer filling in the passwords every time rather than having Autofill suggestions. You can do that on Edge easily with this flag.
If you miss the Autofill feature for common websites, such as Gmail, you can easily disable the above flag.
Microsoft Edge is proving itself as a versatile browser with a complete set of features, just as you would find in Chrome or Firefox. The use of flags is surely going to make your browsing experience more fun and engaging. You can also install Chrome extensions seamlessly in Microsoft Edge now. Beyond that, there’s a whole bunch of features that make Edge worth trying.
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Sayak Boral –
Staff Writer
Sayak Boral is a technology writer with over eleven years of experience working in different industries including semiconductors, IoT, enterprise IT, telecommunications OSS/BSS, and network security. He has been writing for MakeTechEasier on a wide range of technical topics including Windows, Android, Internet, Hardware Guides, Browsers, Software Tools, and Product Reviews.
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