Microsoft’s Edge browser (Project spartan) has been in the news before and after its launch with Windows 10. And as expected it didn’t disappoint many of us. Microsoft has lost a huge share of the browser market with its previous browser Internet Explorer, but the new browser comes here to rescue Microsoft.

Edge browser packs a lot of handy and useful features which makes it stand in the position the of the main competitor to top list browsers Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. Let us see some of most important features of this new browser.

1. Speed and Simplicity

2. Cortana Integration – Find information quickly

Microsoft launched Windows 10 with Cortana and Edge browser as some of its major improvements. And another interesting thing is Combination of both. Cortana is now integrated into the new browser. You can now find information Quickly inside just as you type in URL bar.

3. Web Note – Save webpages and Take notes

You ever had problem, saving a webpage for offline reading?
To save webpages you have to install a browser extension and then save as pdf, open it in a pdf reader.

But in Edge browser, you don’t need any extensions to save webpages. When you save a webpage, it will be saved as a screenshot of the Full webpage will be added to your browser reading list.
That’s not all. You can Write notes, Doodle, Highlight important points, Crop the webpage.
To save a web page:

1. Open a page you want to save and click on Web Note icon.
2. To write any notes or highlight text or crop web page by clicking on desired icons. And then click on Save button. You can also share it by clicking on the share button.
3. To view saved pages click on hub button (icon with 3 horizontal lines) in the browser toolbar and Go to Reading list.

4. Reading mode – Read in a clutter free Environment

Websites & Blogs, besides getting beautiful day-by-day also including more and more clutter like Widgets, Ads and other things. Which in turn distract your reading experience.

Now here come the Reading mode. Edge browser has a dedicated reading mode, when activated removes all the Ads, widgets and other clutter and shows you only the Main content. The Main content is Centred and looks clean with a plain background, quite comfortable for reading.

Credit: Microsoft.com

To activate reading mode on a specific webpage, click on the Book Icon present in the URL / Search bar. You can also Adjust the font size and Background colour for the reading mode.

Just Go to Menu (3 dot icon) > Settings > Reading. Under reading, you can set the font size to small, Medium, Large and Extra large. And can set the Reading view Style to Default (light orange), light (white), Medium (light grey) and Dark (Black).

5. In-Built Sharing Feature

The new Edge browser has another handy feature, In-built option to share webpages right without leaving / closing the browser.

When you reading something on the internet and would like to share it with your friends through email or On Facebook, Twitter. It works similar to that in android. You can share the webpages with the apps installed on your Windows PC (from windows store).

To share Open a webpage and Click on Share button and a list of installed apps will be displayed. Then click on the app you want to share with and you are done. But note that for Example, if you want to share on Facebook, you should have Facebook app installed.

Final Words……
In spite of having some great features, being Windows 10 Exclusive and the lack of Extensions are major cons. As it is just the first version, we can expect the extensions in the coming days.

So what about you, Are you using the Edge browser? What do you think about it, Is it missing anything? Please share your opinions in the comments section below.