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I had been using Firefox whenever I could in the last years, but I'm forced to use Edge in Windows now. Still it seems (to me) the Edge is not designed for serious work, becuase so many simply things seem so hard to do, like this:

When having multiple tabs open, I'm having real trouble to find out which tab it actually is. Here is a partial screenshot of Edge's "title bar":

Edge Browser Title Bar showing many tabs

My version of Edge is Version 112.0.1722.46, and it seems I'm using the standard theme.

As it seems, Edge sometimes highlights the current tab, as can be seen here:

Edge Browser Title Bar showing one tab highlighted by "X"

Firefox

OK, to be fair, I distributed my tabs in Firefox to multiple windows, each having a plenty of tabs open, but have a look at one of those windows:

Multiple tabs in Firefox 102, some parts highlighted in yellow

You'll notice a few differences:

  1. The page's (tab's) title is displayed in the title bar
  2. The current tab is highlighted by a "frame" around its title
  3. There are horizontal scrollbars allowing to scroll in your tab list (using the mouse wheel)

Maybe it answers the two questions:

  1. Can it be done better?
  2. How can it done better?
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  • What would you expect Edge to do better with so many tabs?
    – harrymc
    Commented May 9, 2023 at 8:00
  • I can't replicate this on Windows 10 21H2, Edge version 113.0.1774.35. The active tab shows in a light colour and with that many open, the icon is replaced by the close icon (X). What version and theme are you using?
    – Crimsonfox
    Commented May 9, 2023 at 8:15
  • @harrymc I want the current tab to be highlighted in some way.
    – U. Windl
    Commented May 9, 2023 at 9:03
  • @Crimsonfox Amazingly Edge actually highlights the current tab as you described, but not in all cases all the times. I haven't found the rules yet, but I'll update the question.
    – U. Windl
    Commented May 9, 2023 at 9:05
  • 1
    I think I found one condition: When you open an "internal tab" (like "Settings") the current tab is not highlighted. When switching via tab search to another tabs, then sometimes the current tab is not highlighted either. Even if you close the "Settings" tab again, sometimes the then current tab is not highlighted. Maybe it has to do with the number of tabs open and the relative position of the tab within the list, but I really don't know. It's hard to reproduce in a consistent way.
    – U. Windl
    Commented May 9, 2023 at 9:20

2 Answers 2

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If the current color theme of Edge does not emphasis enough the current tab, you may experiment with other color themes or build your own.

Changing the theme is done this way :

  • Click the three-dots menu and select "Settings"
  • Click "Appearance" on the left
  • Select the theme color by clicking on it
  • The effect is immediate.
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  • When I tried it, the "overall" colors changed, but it had no noticeable effect on highlighting the current tab. Unfortunately. Or did I misunderstand your instructions?
    – U. Windl
    Commented May 9, 2023 at 9:30
  • I don't think you misunderstood - the current tab color is a variant of the overall color. There used to be more customization but it disappeared. Perhaps the Vertical Tabs feature would be useful to rather see the tabs in list format.
    – harrymc
    Commented May 9, 2023 at 10:10
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As it seems, Edge only adds a limited set of tab icons to the title bar (something like 80, subject of window width, it seems). Once your tab is "right of" that list, the current tab is no longer indicated in the title bar.

Also it seems the tabs can be selected via Control+PageUp and Control+PageDn in a "modulo-like" manner (switching to the last when doing down on the first, and switching to the first when going up on the last). There can exist tabs where one only sees the URL input field to change (despite of the page contents, of course), but not the window title bar.

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  • I wasn’t able to replicate the behavior if I used vertical tabs.
    – Ramhound
    Commented May 10, 2023 at 11:40
  • Can you explain? If I use vertical tabs I also do not see the current tab highlighted. Maybe propose an answer with a screenshot.
    – U. Windl
    Commented Nov 8, 2023 at 10:01

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