SOLVED: What’s That Icon On Microsoft Edge Browser?

If you are new to Microsoft Edge as a browser you might be surprised to find that under the hood it’s actually running on Google Chrome which is why so many of the features are so similar. However there is still a pile of new icons and new features in Microsoft Edge that many people just don’t understand.

Note that we also have a short video explaining the 10 cool features of Microsoft Edge that you have today but probably aren’t using. From marking up PDF’s to having the page read to you with a French accent there’s a lot of Microsoft Edge Browser features most people don’t know about that could really save you time or improve your browsing experience.

The icons around the address bar are explained in the screenshot below and the details below that.

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1. SHARED WORKSPACES: Workspaces is a new feature in 2023 which you will see if you have signed in to the browser (see #20 WHO IS SIGNED INTO EDGE below). Workspaces lets you share the browser with other people in real time. It’s kind of like screen sharing but not quite. Other people can open tabs and everyone in your group or workspace gets the same common history and favorites too. Workspaces is pretty cool.
2. SET TABS TO HORIZONTAL OR VERTICAL: Do you want your tabs to be on the left side of your browser rather than on the top? If so then just click that button. Nearly all computer screens are quite wide these days so using real estate on the left and the right makes a lot more sense than burning up the top and the bottom with toolbars. If you haven’t tried it before, try it right now. It’s also very good.
3. WEBSITE TABS: The next section is where all of your tabs go.
4. ADD NEW TAB: If you weren’t aware you can open more than one web page at a time by using tabs. The day you used to have to open a separate browser but today you can click the little Plus Sign + to the right of your existing tabs.
5. IE MODE: Internet Explorer Mode will not generally appear and it will become less and less relevant in the future. IE mode is designed mostly for corporations to let their staff use really old internal web pages and web apps that require features that are only available in IE.
6. MINIMIZE MAXIMIZE CLOSE: Hopefully everybody understands what the minimize maximize and close buttons do so we won’t waste your time here.
7. GO BACK TO PREVIOUS PAGE: The arrow pointing to the left in the browser lets you go back to the previous page. If you’ve gone backwards you may also see an arrow pointing to the right allowing you to return to the page you just left from.
8. REFRESH THIS PAGE: If the information on the current web page is stale or not displaying properly you might want to press the refresh button. Personally I just press the F5 key which is the shortcut.
9. SECURITY: The security lock or lack thereof, to the immediate left of your web address URL tells you weather the page you are on is using SSL to encrypt the traffic between the browser and the server giving you that web page. It’s quite rare that you will not see the lock icon on all web pages today (even if it’s completely unnecessary like it is on this page because you are not entering any information), because Google and other search engines D rank web pages that are not using SSL to secure traffic.
10. USE APP INSTEAD OF WEBPAGE: The icon with three blocks and a plus in the top right hand corner is the USE APP icon which is telling you that there is an application you could use instead of using this web page. Personally I avoid additional apps but sometimes they have some very useful features that the browser just doesn’t and you might want to take advantage of them.
11. COUPONS ARE AVAILABLE: If you see a little blue price tag with a number in it, just to the right of the web site URL field, It is telling you that you can click on it to learn about coupons or discounts that are available on that specific web page. the little number on the blue price tag tells you how many discounts Edge thinks might be applicable.
12. READ OUT LOUD: If you click the icon with an A and two curves to the right of it, Microsoft Edge will read every word on the pages main content to you, out loud. you can choose the voice and the accent you would like it read to you in and you can even speed it up and slow it down. Read out loud is a very useful feature that I use quite a lot.
13. TRANSLATION: If you see a lowercase a with a squiggle beside it, That is telling you the page you are on is being translated. Microsoft Edge browser can instantly translate dozens of languages into dozens of other languages and it does a pretty good job of it.
14. ADD / REMOVE FAVORITE: The star icon In edge is to add or remove a webpage from you favorites (what used to be called Bookmarks). If the star is filled with color like blue the page you are on is already in your favorites. If the star is not filled in with the color, the page you were on is not in your favorites but you can add it just by clicking on it.
15. ADD-IN’s & EXTENSIONS: The puzzle piece icon lets you see what add ins and extensions are currently running. Like nearly all browsers today, Microsoft lets developers create their own add-in tools. Many add-ins and extensions are free, some require payment and still others may be written by companies just for their employees.
16. FAVORITES LIST: The star with three lines to the right of it icon will show you all of your favorites and let you manage your favorites. You can add, remove, rename, reorder, and delete your favorites by pressing that star icon.
17. COLLECTIONS: Collections are similar to favorites but the idea here is that these are pages you haven’t finished or even started reading yet.
18. ESSENTIAL STATISTICS: The hard icon with a line through it and hopefully a green check mark at the bottom right is the browser essential statistics button. If you press that it will tell you tech statistics that most people don’t care about but people like me really do. For instance it will tell you how many tabs are “sleeping” because they have not been clicked on in a while, and how much power that is saving.
19. FEEDBACK: The small circle with half of a big circle below it and a text bubble to the top right of it, is the button you press if you want to send Microsoft some feedback. Microsoft actually reads this content and cares enough to fix problems, enhance existing browser features, or develop new ones altogether.
20. SIGN IN: The sign in icon is either the words sign on or a graphic of your choosing. You might ask why you would want to sign into your browser as opposed to just your computer. The reason to do that is because your browser information like your history and passwords and what web pages you’re on rate the second can be transferred in real time between multiple devices, like your cell phone desktop PC and a laptop computer. This is a feature I use every day and like very much.
21. SETTINGS: The three dots near the top right corner of the Microsoft Edge browser will take you to all of the hundreds of settings. Everything from clearing your browser history to turning features on and off to adding, deleting or viewing saved passwords can be seen by clicking those three dots.
22. BING ICON: The blue stylized B ribbon icon in the chat bubble takes you to Chat GPT and if you’re not familiar with that today you will be tomorrow. Microsoft signed a $10 billion deal with ChatGPT to provide all of its users with generative AI capabilities. You can ask Bing to write you a 2000 word report on the different Battery technologies that Tesla uses and it will do it in front of you in just a few seconds, for free.

There are always new icons coming into Microsoft Edge as new features are developed and some of the icons we have described will be changed or taken away in future versions but as of todays date, but what we have shown you covers 95% of what 99% of you will ever see.