In brief: Do you ever wish for a second, less-useful taskbar in Windows? Microsoft thinks you do, which is why the company is testing the ability to detach Edge's Sidebar feature and attach it to the side of your Windows 10 or 11 desktop.
As spotted by GeekerMag, the latest Edge canary release (114.0.1791.0) adds a new function to Edge that allows browser users to remove the Sidebar and stick it to the side of the Windows desktop. The process is performed by clicking a Detach button next to the Settings icon in the bottom-right corner of the bar.
The Edge Sidebar is customizable, allowing users to quickly access Search, Tools, Games, Office, Shopping, Outlook, and more. You can also pin your favorite websites to it. But the feature's most popular function these days is the recent addition of the GPT-4-powered "Copilot" AI assistant, which is opened by clicking the Bing Chat icon. It can chat, offer insights, and compose messages just like other generative AIs. It can also create images at a user's request.
Being able to stick the Edge Sidebar onto the Windows desktop might be something some users actually appreciate (let us know your thoughts in the poll below). But then some could see it as Microsoft yet again adding something that nobody asked for to Windows.
While a lot less invasive than some of the features Microsoft often introduces, this one looks like another push by Redmond to get more people off Chrome and onto Edge. This year, it has added a web video upscaler that works on Nvidia and AMD GPUs, integrated the Adobe Acrobat PDF rendering engine, and introduced several AI features.
It seems Microsoft's additions to Edge are improving its popularity slightly. Statcounter writes that the browser's global market share reached 4.64% in March, up from 4.46% during January.
Another new feature Microsoft might introduce to its OS (Windows 11 only) that's causing debate was discovered earlier this week. It appears that the Redmond firm is planning on changing the Print Screen button into a key that opens the Windows 11 Snipping Tool.