How to use the Microsoft Edge sidebar to optimize your Bing search, Office, games, and more experiences?

If you think all the unnecessary features Microsoft is testing in the Edge browser are unnecessary or bloatware, the company has come up with a side Sidebar to quickly access them. Note that this sidebar is different from the Office sidebar we covered previously.

Sidebar in Microsoft Edge

As of now, the sidebar is visible out of the box in Microsoft Edge without any flags being enabled. It provides buttons for accessing the following Microsoft features.

Bing Search

We recently reported that Google Chrome has received a side panel to view Google search results without leaving the current page you are on. This feature is similar to Edge Sidebar Search, and Microsoft has now integrated Bing search into Sidebar. This provides an experience similar to Chrome Side Search.

Get started using Bing Search in the Microsoft Edge sidebar

1. Open Microsoft Edge
2. Click the Search button on the sidebar and perform a search. Sidebar Search is powered by Bing, even if you change the default search engine in your browser to Google, this will not change to Google.
3. Clicking the Search button will hide the Search pane again.
   

Discovery

The Discovery feature has been available in the Edge browser for a while. This is now also integrated into Edge’s sidebar to provide more information about a page or site in an active tab. It also displays news.

Tools:

Microsoft Edge has a built-in math solver. Recently, Edge has added convenient tools such as Calculator, Unit Converter, and Internet Speed ​​Test in the tool pane of the sidebar.

Click the Tools button in the sidebar and give it a try.

Games:

The Games Pane provides free access to surf games and over 100 popular games on MSN.

The entire game panel is divided into "Editor's Picks", "Popular Games" and "Microsoft Classics" sections.

The Popular Games section includes Microsoft Solitaire, Microsoft Jewel, 2048, Chess, and Wordament, while the Classics section includes Microsoft Suduku, Micorsoft bubble, Microsoft Jigsaw, and Microsoft Minesweeper for you to play.

Microsoft Office Software:

After the office Sidebar, Microsoft Edge integrates Microsoft Office into the Sidebar to access office Apps, and the office pane also displays recently opened documents. This is nothing more than a promotion for Office 365 subscriptions.

Appearance:

After adding Outlook to the new tab page, Microsoft is also bringing its email service to the sidebar.

Click the Outlook icon on the sidebar, then sign in to your Microsoft account or enter your password when prompted.

After that, you can view and send emails from the Outlook pane that opens on the right.

How to hide or show the sidebar in Microsoft Edge

Micorsoft offers several ways to hide the sidebar in Microsoft Edge: for example, it includes options in the menu as well as in settings and provides Hotkeys.

Use any of the following options to move the sidebar away from you.

1. Click the menu and select "Hide Sidebar"
2. Click the option above the gear icon in the sidebar to hide the sidebar
3. Use the Ctrl Shift / keyboard shortcut to hide or show the sidebar.
4. Alternatively, navigate to Settings>Appearance>Customize Toolbar and toggle the "Show Sidebar" button.

Microsoft also provides a setting to control the notifications displayed by sidebar apps. You need to disable the "Allow sidebar apps to show notifications" switch in the appearance settings.

How to customize the sidebar in Microsoft Edge

Finally, Microsoft Edge also allows you to manage the features you want to display in its sidebar.

To do this, click the icon and toggle the switches for Search, Discovery, Games, Microsoft Office, and Outlook.

Note: By default, Etree is not displayed by default, you can configure the sidebar display.

Here’s how the Etree aka Eco Tree feature works in Edge: When you use Microsoft Edge to plant a virtual tree, a real tree will be planted by a respected Kenyan company Organization or project company planting.

As of now, the sidebar function is provided in Edge 102 canary for testing. Meanwhile, the Edge bar has been missing from Canary lately, and we're not sure if Microsoft has plans to replace it with the Sidebar, which is also a possibility.

Final Words:
If you complain about Microsoft Edge as bloatware, most features are optional and not enabled by default. Now, Microsoft is bringing Bing Search, Games, Microsoft Office, Discover, and common tools like calculators, unit converters, speed tests, and Outlook email services to the sidebar of the Edge browser.

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