Microsoft Edge brings new features and improvements with every update for desktop and mobile platforms. One of the recent additions is the Sidebar, which aims to increase your multitasking abilities.
The sidebar is a customizable widget that you can use to do a quick Bing search, get news, weather updates, access your favorite websites, and more.
We will show you how to enable, use and customize the Sidebar in Microsoft Edge in Windows 11. So let’s get started.
How to Enable Sidebar in Microsoft Edge
First, let’s see how to enable the Edge bar in Microsoft Edge.
Stage 1: Launch Microsoft Edge on your computer. Use the three-dot menu icon in the upper right corner to open Settings.
Step 2: Use the left pane to go to the sidebar. To your right, turn on the switch next to ‘Automatically open sidebar when computer starts’.
Associated with it. The sidebar opens automatically every time your computer is turned on.
If you do not intend to open the Sidebar initially, you must open the Sidebar manually. To do this, open Microsoft Edge. Click the three-dot menu icon in the top right, go to More tools and select Launch Sidebar.
How to Use Sidebar in Windows 11
In the sidebar, use the top search box to quickly search for Bing or visit a website.
Visiting a website in the sidebar gives you the feeling of a mini browser. Buttons at the bottom help you go back, forward, visit the homepage or refresh the webpage. You can also open the web page in a browser window from here.
By default, the Sidebar shows you four different tabs: MSN (Microsoft Network), Bing, Outlook app, and LinkedIn. But you can add more tabs as you see fit. Click the Plus icon to the right of the Sidebar to add a new tab.
Similarly, to delete a tab, right-click on it and select Uninstall.
Finally, click the cross icon in the lower right corner to close the sidebar. Alternatively, you can also minimize the Sidebar from here.
How to Customize Sidebar in Windows 11
The sidebar also offers several customization options that you can use to get the best possible experience. Keep reading to learn more about them.
Hide or Show Sidebar
By default, Windows automatically pins the Sidebar to the right side of the screen. However, you can use the Auto Hide option to shrink the Sidebar when not in use.
However, it will not hide the Sidebar completely as you will see a thin vertical Sidebar on your right.
Pin or Unpin Sidebar
If you don’t like the idea of the Sidebar always occupying part of the screen, you can unpin the Sidebar and turn it into a floating widget.
You can also turn the Sidebar widget into a floating button when you’re not using it. For this, click on the gear icon and select ‘Enable floating button’.
You can place the floating button anywhere along the edge of the screen.
Change Sidebar Layout
The sidebar gives you several different layout options. You can use ‘Vertical layout’ (the default option) or use ‘Search only layout’, which is similar to Mac’s featured search.
To change the layout of the sidebar, click the gear icon and choose your preferred layout.
Customize the Sidebar Feed
Don’t like what you see in your sidebar feed? Do not worry. You can customize your Sidebar feed to define the news, updates, and sources you want to see in your news feed. Here’s how.
Stage 1: Open the sidebar and click the gear icon to open Settings.
Step 2: In the browser window that opens, click the Personalize button next to ‘Personalize Sidebar feed’.
Stage 3: Under My Interests, explore various topics and tick the ones you want to follow.
Similarly, you can define your interests by liking or disliking a story in the news feed. Click on the three-dot menu icon on the story card to select ‘More stories like this’ or ‘Less stories like this’. You can also hide stories from a particular website from here.
If you want to see your sidebar feed in a different language, click the translate icon and then use the drop-down menu to choose a language for it.
Let’s Live On The Edge
The sidebar is another attempt by Microsoft to promote Microsoft Edge over the competition (mainly Chrome). But if you’ve noticed that you like widgets in Windows 11, you’ll also like the Sidebar.
