Microsoft Edge’s new sidebar widgets are actually worth using

 It’s like a control panel for Windows functions.

- MARK HACHMAN

If you use Microsoft Edge (fave.co/ 3tJIdC2), you may notice something new to the right of your browser as of late last week: a small vertical sidebar of icons. Some, specifically a collection of widgets called Tools, are actually worth using.

Adding sidebars functionality isn’t new; other browsers, such as Vivaldi (fave.co/ 3QrFw1B), have made it one of their centerpiece features. And Edge, too, has offered sidebar functionality for some time, with the ability to search for a term in a sidebar, so as to avoid the need to move to a new window or tab. But the new icons are essentially a control panel for many of the functions you’ll use in Windows.

First, if you want to turn the Edge sidebar off, you can: there’s a small window-ish icon to the bottom. Click it, and the sidebar will slide closed. To reenable it, simply go to the ellipsis (…) menu in the upper right and navigate down to “Show sidebar,” or use the Ctrl+Shift+slash (/) shortcut instead to toggle the Edge sidebar on and off. First, though, the Edge sidebar is worth exploring.

At the top of the column of icons is a Search icon, with the same functionality that you’ll find in the Widgets menu that appears in the lower right corner of your screen. It’s a web search, nothing more, nothing less. Microsoft is playing a bit fast and loose with your content preferences here, however: Edge’s Search box says “Search with Bing,” and it won’t respect your preference for another search engine, like Google.