How to Enable/Disable Microsoft Edge Vertical Tabs

While Microsoft Edge is based on the Chromium source engine, it tries its best to differentiate itself from its counterpart Google Chrome. And more often than not, it can do so quite effectively.

With the addition of new features at regular intervals, it always stays in the limelight and is probably a step ahead of other Chromium browsers. Continuing this tradition, it has added another feature to its rich collection.

It is dubbed as Vertical Tab allows you to shift all your tabs to the left menu bar instead of the earlier horizontal one. As a result, the horizontal bar with your tabs will only display the currently opened tab’s name and icon.

Apart from that, there are a couple of other handy options baked into it that we will be discussing here.

Related: How to Use and Organize Microsoft Edge Collections?

But first, let’s check out the steps to enable this new Vertical Tabs feature in the Microsoft Edge browser.

Enable Edge Vertical Tabs

The option to enable vertical tabs is not enabled by default. However, we can enable it from the Appearance setting.

Here are the steps to enable vertical tabs on Microsoft Edge:

1. Launch the Edge browser on your PC.
2. Click on More  for the menu list.
3. Select the Settings option from the list.
   
4. Click on the Appearance tab from the left menu bar.
5. Scroll down to the Customize toolbar section.
6. Click on the Turn on the button next to Show vertical tabs for all current browser windows.
   
7. Enable the Show tabs action menu toggle button.
   It will enable the tab’s action menu in the header.
8. Click on the Tabs actions menu, and select the Turn on vertical tabs option.
   

All your tabs will shift to the left menu bar, and tabs in the header will be disabled.

Customize the Vertical Tabs

Now that you have enabled this functionality let’s check out the steps to make full use.

First off, as you might have noticed, all the vertical tabs are condensed, with only their icons visible by default.

However, you could quickly expand them by hovering your mouse cursor over these tabs. Doing so will make the title of the tabs visible and bring up the associated tab preview window.

Moreover, there’s also an option to keep the vertical tab in its expanded state all the time. For that, you need to click on the Pin icon situated at the top right.

Turn Off Microsoft Edge Vertical Tabs

If you wish to revert to the original horizontal tabs at any point, you can disable the verticle tabs option.

Here are the steps to disable vertical tabs on Microsoft Edge:

1. Launch the Microsoft Edge browser.
2. Click on the Tab Actions menu in the vertical bar.
3. Select the Turn off vertical tabs option.
   It will shift the vertical tabs to their original horizontal top space.

If you want to disable the tab actions menu permanently, open Microsoft Edge’s Settings > Appearance and disable the Show tabs action menu option.

It will remove the tab actions menu and shift the horizontal tabs to their original position.

Bottom Line: Microsoft Edge Vertical Tabs

So with this, we conclude the guide on enabling Vertical tabs in the Microsoft Edge browser. It is a welcome move from Microsoft to incorporate this unique but handy feature into its browser.

As per my personal usage experience, I initially found it reluctant to switch since the horizontal tabs were all used since the initial phase. However, it soon became my preferred choice after giving it a try.

Related: Google Chrome vs. Microsoft Edge: Which is Better?

What are your views about the vertical tabs in the Edge browser? Are you willing to make a switch?