Microsoft Edge will finally discard inactive/sleeping tabs automatically, but users can reload them anytime

Microsoft Edge will soon automatically discard inactive/sleeping tabs, allowing the browser to consume less power and run better. According to the latest entry in the Microsoft 365 Roadmap, Edge will receive a couple of new policies in May 2024, allowing users to set up the browser to auto-discard tabs.

It can be done through the new AutoDiscardSleepingTabsEnabled policy which automatically enables when the SleepingTabsEnabled policy is enabled.

Tabs that have been sleeping for a long time will be discarded to save memory. When a user navigates back to a discarded tab, the tab will need to be reloaded. This can be managed through the AutoDiscardSleepingTabsEnabled policy. This policy will be enabled if the SleepingTabsEnabled policy is enabled.

Microsoft

This is excellent news for those Internet browsers who have tens of tabs opened in Microsoft Edge. We often forget about many tabs out there, allowing them to chew on memory, which makes our devices slower.

With this new policy, all those tabs that haven’t been used in a while will be discarded, and if users want to go back to them, Microsoft Edge will reload them. This comes with a drawback: all the browsing information of that tab will be lost, so filling up tables, or reading an article means users will have to restart the process.

However, it’s not inconvenient compared to the memory that’s been used by having all those tabs open in the first place.

The new policies are coming in May. But Microsoft Edge is also getting some other useful features: for instance, users will be delighted to know that the browser will skip ads when translating video’s audio and subtitles.

We don’t know yet if Microsoft intended Edge to skip ads when translating, but it’s happening, and it could the browser the advantage it needs over its competitors.