Microsoft Edge Settings and Flags to boost performance : Part 2
Microsoft Edge on Windows Setting Tweaks
Microsoft Edge on Windows Performance Tuning : Adjust Settings to increase performance and reduce IO/CPU load on Windows 10+
The majority of users merely use the standard functionality of the Microsoft Edge browser instead of exploring the many valuable choices and enhancements that are available. You should set aside some time to explore the fantastic capabilities of the Edge browser that are concealed behind settings. Use the Microsoft Edge web browser on platforms including desktop, laptop, Android, and iOS mobile phones.
Click the "three dots" in the top right corner of the screen to access Microsoft Edge settings.
Use Find (Ctrl + F or F3) in the top right corner of the browser, enter your search term, and hit enter to find it.
Optimize Memory Usage and Battery Consumption of Device
Sleeping Tabs and Efficiency Mode | Two Ways for Boosting Device Performance
Microsoft Edge provides two main ways for improving performance of your device; Sleeping Tabs and Efficiency Mode.
Through both settings, Edge releases trapped memory resources for tabs which are inactive for some time and thus saving battery. You can control this time (for Edge action) in performance settings; say 15 minutes, 30 minutes, or some hours. However, when you turn ON the Efficiency Mode, the browser automatically activates Sleeping Mode relatively fast; say around 5 minutes after there is no activity in the tab.
When a tab becomes faded, it means, it has released CPU resources which now can efficiently be used somewhere else, where they are needed most, for example some media editing software. It is very useful when you have opened multiple webpages of websites, and you are busy in some specific website opened in a tab; so, browser will still utilize CPU and energy resources for the tab where a webpage is visible, but it will release resources for the tabs, you are not interacting with since some time.
On the other hand, Chrome does not provide such optimizations and may use excessive battery power as noted by a Chrome user in this support page.
How Much Memory and CPU Resources Are Saved by Sleeping Tabs?
Just hover mouse over any sleeping tab and it will display the information telling you the amount of memory and processing resources it saved. It is quite beneficial for the working and performance of your device.
According to a recent official Windows article:
“On average, each sleeping tab saves 85% of memory and 99% CPU for Microsoft Edge.”
How to Access Efficiency Settings in Edge Browser?
Clicking the Heart symbol in the toolbar of Edge browser. To control settings for Sleeping Mode and its time intervals, click Heart symbol and then select three dots (ellipsis) in small window and select ‘manage performance settings’.
You can also access those settings by clicking three dots in top right corner of web browser, then Settings and System and Performance.
For Which Devices Efficiency Mode Should be Activated?
No need to activate Efficiency Mode for desktop computer (connected through mains supply). For desktop computer, it is enough to just activate Sleeping Tabs for efficient utilization of resources. However, you can activate Edge Efficiency Mode for all other battery-operated devices such as laptops.
Tracking Prevention
I have turned ON the toggle button next to ‘Tracking prevention’ option.
Privacy
I have turned ON the toggle next to ‘Send "Do Not Track" requests’ option.
Diagnostic Data
Turn OFF the ‘optional’ diagnostic data.
However, you can turn OFF this optional diagnostic data. You will have to restart your computer for this change. You can do this through your Windows computer settings: Click Start → Settings → Privacy → Diagnostics and feedback → under diagnostic data select on ‘Required diagnostic data’ to turn OFF the optional diagnostic data sharing. To Access the same settings in Microsoft Edge mobile browser, click ‘three dots’ (…) on bottom of phone screen, Settings → Privacy and security → Diagnostic data.
Search and Service Improvement Data
I don’t mind turning the button OFF next to ‘Search and service improvement’ option. It is
Personalize your web experience
I have turned OF the toggle button next to this option so that Microsoft does not show me relevant ads.
Enhance Performance and Speed of Edge Browser
Settings → System and performance.
Steps to Improve Performance and Speed of Microsoft Edge Browser
★ Watch Video on YouTube → Boost Performance and Speed of Microsoft Edge
Follow these steps to improve speed and performance of Microsoft Edge.
‘Preload pages for faster browsing and searching’ = ON.
Preload the new tab page for a faster experience = ON
Continue running background extensions and apps when Edge is closed = OFF
Turn ON the Startup Boost.
Turn ON the
‘Save resources with sleeping tabs’ and ‘Fade sleeping tabs’.
‘Use hardware acceleration when available’ = ON
If Edge is slow or often crashes, TURN THIS OFF.
Turn on efficiency mode: OFF else Battery = ON I keep it turned OFF on my computer. However, if you are using a battery-operated device like a laptop, you can turn it ON.
Put inactive tabs to sleep after the specified amount of time: = 15
Preload Pages and Startup Boost in Microsoft Edge
★ Watch Video on YouTube → Preload Pages and Startup Boost in Microsoft Edge. Should You Enable It?
Preload pages for faster browsing and searching. = OFF
edge://settings/system’ / Startup boost = OFF
For faster web browsing, user should also turn ON the toggle next to ‘Preload the new tab page for a faster experience’ option. This tweak can be accessed by typing or pasting (edge://settings/startHomeNTP) link in Edge browser.
For faster page loading, based on predictive preloading in background, you can also turn ON the ‘Startup Boost’ feature in Edge browser, by entering ‘edge://settings/system’ in Edge and hitting ‘Enter’ and then toggling ON the button next to ‘Startup boost’ option.
Should You Turn ON ‘Startup Boost’ and ‘Preload Pages’ in Edge Browser?
Normally, I prefer to keep the ‘Startup Boost’ and ‘Preload Pages’ options turned ON in Edge browser for faster browsing experience.
However, please keep in mind that though limited, this feature uses memory resources (RAM, SSD or HDD) as well as internet data for preloading of webpages in background.
Therefore, if you have limited data package, then you can turn it OFF.
How to Keep a Website Activated Always in Edge Browser?
Edge browser has great feature of sleeping tabs to save CPU and data resources from inactive tabs.
However, we do not want some important websites to sleep after a set time. You can tell those websites to your Edge browser in settings through below navigation path.
Click Three Dots for ‘Settings and More’ (or press Alt+F) in top right corner of Edge browser → Settings → System and performance → Optimize Performance → Never put these sites to sleep.
Here you can enter URLs of websites which you want always active to get continuous notifications
Settings : Quiet notification requests
How to Hide/Show Performance Button in Microsoft Edge?
Settings → Appearance → Select which buttons to show on the toolbar: → Performance Button.
To access settings for enhancing performance and efficiency of your device, you can hide or show the ‘Performance button’ by toggling it in settings of Edge browser.
Performance enhancement means that Microsoft Edge browser saves both memory (CPU) and battery consumption of the device. When you turn ON the performance button, it appears on the right side of address bar in toolbar. It looks like a heart filled with pulse symbol.
Fix the New Tab page
By default, Edge’s New Tab page looks a lot like MSN of yore, sporting a bunch of news, ads, and promoted links. This clutter may potentially be a source of reduced performance in Microsoft Edge.
Open a new tab in Microsoft Edge and click the gear icon in the top-right corner of this page. Now, use the following settings:
- Layout: Focused
- Quick links: Off
- Background: Off
- Show greeting: Off
- Office sidebar: Off
- New tab tips: Off
- Content: Content off
Other Settings
- edge://flags/#enable-system-notifications = disabled
- edge://flags/#enable-quic = disabled (privacy) enabled (speed)
- Be aware that DoDo wants this OFF
- edge://flags/#disable-accelerated-video-decode and
- edge://flags/#disable-accelerated-video-encode
- edge://flags/#edge-global-media-controls = enabled
- edge://flags/#enable-parallel-downloading = enabled
- edge://flags/#smooth-scrolling = enabled
- edge://flags/#back-forward-cache = enabled
- edge://flags/#edge-experimental-tracking-prevention-features = enabled
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Disable or Replace ntp.msn.com
The exact URL, which is called every time you open a new tab, is ntp.msn.com. Unlike Google, Edge Chromium doesn’t offer any local page, which would load a lot faster. However, you can block the URL via the Host file. Follow our guide on how you can edit the Hosts file,
Do this and then navigate to edge://settings/onStartup and then add about:blank against Open a specific page or pages under On Startup settings.
Some More Interesting Tweaks of Favorites in Edge Browser
Click on ‘Favorites’ + click ‘three dots’ : options such as importing favorites from another browser or removing duplicate links from favorites.
In the Favorites Bar, you can right-click any folder to see more interesting options; for example, you can open all Favorites links at once in a window.
In Favorites Bar, click any folder, then hover your mouse on any link and then right-click and you will see many useful options such as to edit, copy, cut or delete a specific link from the favorites.
