How to Enable and Use Edge Bar in Microsoft Edge

Microsoft started rolling out Microsoft Edge version 98, with it comes several improvements and new features. One of the new features in the latest version is the Microsoft Edge Bar which is a floating sidebar that allows you to multitask with ease.

Microsoft Edge Web widget was an experimental feature now renamed to Edge Bar, which is a sidebar to the right side of the screen that enables users to check the weather, see news headlines as well as visit their favorite websites right from the desktop.

In this guide, we will see what is Microsoft’s Edge Bar, how to enable/disable it, and how to use it.

What is Edge Bar?

Microsoft Edge Bar is a feature in the Edge browser which is basically a mini Edge browser that sits on the right side of your screen. This feature is similar to the Microsoft News and Weather widget but it’s more than that. It can work both as an extension of the Edge browser or an independent widget that displays content even when the browser is closed.

Edge Bar is an MSN/Bing-powered floating window or a sidebar that can be pinned or docked to your desktop as part of the Windows screen. It is a fully customizable widget with various modes, that lets you view or access your favorite websites, news feeds, weather, stocks, and more without opening the full browser window. It can be set as a sidebar that is pinned permanently to the edge of the screen, a resizable floating window on the desktop, a search-only bar, or minimized to a floating button.

It offers information and news feeds from various personalized user interests such as sports, technology, gadgets, markets, etc. The Edge bar also includes integrated Outlook, LinkedIn, and Bing buttons that allow you to switch between apps.

How to Enable Edge Bar in Windows 11 or Windows 10

If you want to pin Edge Bar to your screen or open Edge Bar right from Windows startup, you can enable it from the Edge browser settings. Here’s how you can do it.

First, open the Microsoft Edge browser on your computer and click on the three-dot (Ellipse) icon at the top right-hand side of the browser window. Then, click on the ‘Settings’ option from the drop-down menu.

On the left-hand side pane, click on the ‘Edge Bar’ tab, and then on the right side, you will find an Edge bar setting page where you can manage it. Now, all you need to do is click on the ‘Open Edge bar’ option and it will launch the Edge bar.

Alternatively, you can click on the ‘Ellipse (…)’ icon in the Edge browser, then ‘More tools’, and select ‘Launch Edge bar’.

Either, it will open the Edge bar and pin it to the right side of the screen. When it happens, whatever window is opened in your screen will auto-adjust to fit the Edge bar in the screen.

You can also set the Edge bar to launch every time your computer starts. To do that, go back to the Edge bar setting page in the Edge browser and turn On the ‘Automatically open Edge bar when the computer starts’ option.

To close the Edge bar, simply click the ‘Close’ button at the bottom right corner of the Edge bar.

Alternatively, you can click the ‘Settings and more’ (gear icon) button and select ‘Close’.

You can also close the Edge bar by right-clicking the icon in the Taskbar corner overflow and selecting ‘Quit’.

How to Personalize Edge Bar Feed

You can personalize what kind of news, information, and updates you want to see in the Edge bar feed by adding interest to your feed and liking stories from the news feeds.

To add interest to the Edge bar feed and manage interest, click the ‘Settings and more’ button (Gear icon) and select ‘Settings’. Or open the Edge browse, click on ‘Ellipse (…)’ icon > ‘Setting’s > ‘Edge Bar’.

Then, click the ‘Personalize’ button next to the Personalize your Edge bar feed option.

Alternatively, you can click the ‘Personalize’ button (Pencil icon) at the bottom of the Edge bar.

This will open up the My Interests page on the MSN website where you can add, remove, and manage interests to personalize your feed. Here, you will see a list of topics under different categories.

You can add interest to your feed by clicking on a topic.

You can also add your own topic to your list of interests by searching for a topic in the search field under Discover Interests and clicking on it.

You can view as well as remove your interests under the Followed interests section.

If you wish to remove a topic that you no longer want to see in your feed, simply click on the topic under Followed interests to remove it.

You can further personalize your feed by liking, disliking, and blocking stories from the news feed in the Edge bar.

When you see news or information you like in the Edge bar feed, click the ‘Ellipse’ (…) icon on the lower right corner of the news and click the ‘More stories like this’ (Like) option. By doing this Edge bar will show more stories related to that topic.

If you see a story that you don’t like or are not interested in, you can dislike that story by clicking the ‘Fewer stories like this’ option instead.

If you wish to block news from a certain source that you don’t trust (For example, Fox News), you can block or hide that source from your feed. To do that, click on the ‘Ellipse’ (…) icon on the lower right corner of the news and select the ‘Hide stories from …’ option.

Then, click ‘Hide’ to confirm hiding stories from the selected source.

This will hide all the stories from the selected provider and refresh the feed.

If you change your mind and want news from a blocked source to show up again, go to the My interests page by clicking the ‘Personalize’ button and then unchecking the source you want to unhide under the Hidden sources section.

How to Customize Edge Bar

You can customize the Edge bar by changing language, changing widget mode, enable/disabling auto-hide. etc.

To change the language for the news feed as well as the Edge bar interface, click the ‘Language’ icon at the bottom and choose a language from the drop-down.

To auto-hide the Edge Bar, click the ‘Enable autohide’ button (below the Gear icon) at the bottom right corner of the Edge bar.

This will not fully hide the bar, you will still see a small vertical bar (size of the taskbar) to the right edge of the screen as shown below. To view the full Edge bar, just click any of the four icons (MSN, Bing, Outlook, LinkedIn) at the top of the bar.

To disable auto-hide for Edge Bar, click the ‘Disable autohide’ icon at the bottom right corner of the Edge bar.

By default, when you open the Edge bar it is automatically pinned to the right side of the Windows screen. This bar is permanently fixed to the edge of the screen no what window or app you open until you minimize or close the bar. If you unpin the bar, it will only be visible on the desktop as a floating widget and you will only see a floating button on the rest of the screens.

To unpin/pin the Edge bar to the Windows screen, click the toggle the unpin/pin button (above the minimize button) at the bottom right corner of the Edge bar.

When you unpin the Edge bar, it will shrink down to a small floating button with the edge browser’s icon and a sticky floating window on the desktop only. The floating button will be present on the screen of all windows until you manually close the Edge bar or restart the system. When you click on the floating button, it will show you a resizable floating edge bar window.

If you click away, it will disappear and it can be accessed from the desktop.

If you wish to switch profiles or manage profiles in the Edge, click the profile icon in the bar and select a profile. To manage profiles, click the ‘Profiles’ option and it will open the profile setting page in the Edge browser.

The Edge Bar has three different layouts which include:

Vertical layout
Search Only layout
Floating Button

By default, the Edge bar is set to Vertical layout when you launch it. To change the layout, click the ‘Settings and more’ button (Gear icon) and select the layout.

Search Only layout

When you select the ‘Search only layout’ option, this is how the Edge Bar will look. It will have a search field (powered by Bing), profile button, rewards, Settings, and close button. It is a movable search bar stuck to the desktop.

You can type your search query and press Enter and it will open the results in the Microsoft Edge browser window.

Floating Button

To enable/disable the floating button, click the ‘Settings and more’ button and select ‘Enable floating button’.

When the floating button is enabled, you will see a small floating button just above the taskbar corner whenever you minimize or unpin the Edge bar. It will be visible no matter where you go until you close the edge bar. If you click the floating button, you will see a resizable Edge bar window.

How to Use Edge Bar

Using Microsoft Edge Bar is simple and easy. By default, Edge Bar shows weather, stocks, current sports event (like Olympics), traffic, top stories, etc. After personalizing your feed, you will see updates and news based on your personalized interests along with weather, stocks, etc. When you click on a news feed, it will open that news on the MSN website in the full Edge browser.

At the top of the Edge Bar, you will see four tabs: MSN (where you will see news and updates, Bing (search engine), Outlook app, and LinkedIn app. You can easily switch between MSN news, bing search, your Outlook mail, and LinkedIn app all from the Edge bar while multitasking with other works.

At the bottom of the bar, you will see a ‘Refresh’ button and a ‘See more’ button. Click the ‘Refresh’ button to refresh the feed and click the ‘See more button’ if you wish to see the entire feed on the MSN website in the full windowed Edge browser.

To search for something in the search engine, simply type your query or URL of a website in the top search field and press Enter. As of now, the Edge bar only lets you search results in the Bing engine and it does not allow you to change the search engine.

The Edge Bar works like a mini browser, when you enter your query, you will see results in the bar as you would in a full browser. You could scroll down the results and select a website or result to open it in the Edge bar.

As long the website has a responsive design, it will auto-adjust to fit the Edge bar window.

You can go back to the previous page or the next page using the ‘Back’ and ‘Forward’ buttons.

You will also see a ‘Home’ button, a ‘Refresh’ button, and an ‘Open in browser’ button. To go to the home screen of the Edge bar, click the ‘Home’ button.

To view the current website or search result in the full Microsoft Edge browser, click the last ‘Open in browser’ button as shown below.

You can save a story or news you like from the feed by clicking the ‘Save for later’. The saved posts will be available under the ‘My Saves’ section on your MSN profile.

Add New Tab to Edge Bar

You can also add any website to Edge Bar permanently by adding a new tab. For example, you can add your favorite sports website or stock website to the Edge Bar from there you can take a glance at the updates on the website.

To add a website to the Edge bar, click the ‘Add tab’ right below the LinkedIn icon and enter the ‘URL’ and ‘Name’ for the tab in fields. Then, click the ‘Add’ button.