With the Windows 10 Creators Update, Microsoft Edge picks up a new “Set these tabs aside” capability that helps you declutter the browser by managing open tabs.

Note: This tip is derived from the Windows 10 Field Guide, which is now being updated for the Windows 10 Creators Update.

Edge users who have too many open tabs and wish to declutter the view can now do so: With the Creators Update, you can set all of them aside, essentially hiding them, so you can work with a clean browser window. Tabs that are set aside are grouped together and can be accessed individually later. Or you can restore hidden tab groups in their entirety.

Note: Tabs that are set aside are saved in Edge, and will be available later if you close and reopen the browser, or even if you restart your PC.

To set all of the visible tabs aside, find and select the “Set these tabs aside” button in the upper-left of the Edge window.

To see how this can be useful, imagine you are researching a topic online. Over time, you open more and more tabs, cluttering the view.

Over time, you might want to work on something else. You could open a new browser window, of course, or just close all of the tabs. But if you wish to return to those tabs later, you can set them aside instead.

To do so, press the “Set these tabs aside” button. The tabs disappear, and the “Tabs you’ve set aside” button, to the left of the “Set these tabs aside” button, is colored to indicate that tabs have been set aside.

To view the tabs that have been set aside, select the “Tabs you’ve set aside” button. The “Tabs you’ve set aside” pane appears, showing the group of tabs you just set aside.

From here, you can do the following:

Restore all of the tabs. If you’re ready to begin working with all of the tabs you set aside again, select the “Restore tabs” link.

Restore one tab. To view any tab you’ve set aside, simply select it normally. This will remove the tab from the “Tabs you’ve set aside” group and will display that page normally in the browser.

Close all of the tabs in a group permanently.” To close all of the tabs in a group and remove them from “Tabs you’ve set aside,” select the Close (“X”) button in the top right of the tab group in the “Tabs you’ve set aside” pane.

Add the tabs to your Favorites. To add the tab group to your Favorites, select More (“…”) and then “Add tabs to Favorites.” A new folder, named “Tabs from [today’s date],” will be added to Favorites. Note that doing so does not remove the tabs from “Tabs you’ve set aside.”

Share the tabs. Edge lets you share one or more tabs with others. I will discuss this functionality in another tip.

Set other tabs aside. If you put tabs aside and begin researching another topic, you may find yourself in a situation where you wish to put another group of tabs aside for later. This works normally, but these new tabs will be stored in a separate group in the “Tabs you’ve set aside” pane.

Tagged with Microsoft Edge