I hate Edge!

I hate Edge! a reader asks…

I recently upgraded to Windows 10 from Windows 7 on my Lenovo laptop PC. Everything is working fine and I’m happy with Windows 10 except for one thing. I just hate the new Edge browser! In Windows 7 I used Internet Explorer and it was fine. I had my favorite add-ons working just fine. But that disappeared in Windows 10 and all I have is this Edge browser which doesn’t run my add-ons. I’m not keen on moving to Chrome or Firefox, but I may have to. Any advice?

Microsoft Windows 10 doesn’t advertise it, but Internet Explorer 11 is still available, it just doesn’t show on the All Programs menu. You have to search for it. The main search box just to the right of your Windows 10 Start button (the 4 white panes) says “Ask me Anything” – click in that box and type “Internet Explorer”. You’ll see the desktop app icon appear above in the search results. Before you just click on it, you should do two things:

1. Right-click on the Internet Explorer app and select (left-click) Pin to Start. Repeat and select Pin to Taskbar. That makes it easier to find.
2. Set it as your default web browser by searching for “Default Apps” and opening that window. scroll down the right-side till you see the section “Web Browser”. Click on the Edge entry there and select Internet Explorer from the list, then close that window.

One caveat about #2 above, if you do a web search from the taskbar’s search box, it will bring up the Edge browser. If you don’t want to use Edge at all, open Internet Explorer and then start your online search.

Please note that the most recent update to Windows 10 does not add support for add-ons or extensions (in case you heard that rumor). Support for extensions and add-ons is being tested out for developers at this time, and Microsoft hasn’t said when they’ll push that feature to consumers using Edge in Windows 10. So for now, your choices are Internet Explorer 11, or a non-Microsoft web browser like Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox.