Forum Discussion
Edge Collections - Star To Collect - bad idea not to include a remove option
I noticed in the newer versions of edge collections "Start to collect" - After searching I've found this to be a very bad addition to collections. Collections actually got me away from pocket but wi...
I gave up a while ago and just switched over to Pocket for saving and tagging items. I moved every item in my collections out to Pocket. They have a nice browser extension, and since it's a Mozilla product, they won't inundate you with irrelevant ads or other GUI nonsense. Best of all, it's portable and can be used in any browser.
Because this annoyance has riled me for some time now, I recently switched to Chrome. Nevertheless, I do open Edge every once in a while to see whether Microsoft has finally ditched this unwanted feature. Alas, nothing has happened so far. A few days ago, I then decided to reset Edge and start anew. To my surprise, I have run into two new frustrating issues:
- Every time I open Edge, a privacy settings statement with prompt opens, which I have to confirm. I have not been able to find a way to stop this. This is incredibly annoying!
- Nine unwanted Direct links are displayed on the start page. Even If I remove each one individually, they reappear every time I restart Edge. This is similar to the Start to Collect disaster. Microsoft is shoving things down my throat that I simply don’t want.
I feel like I’m in a bad movie. Does anybody have a solution to at least my last two problems?
mercerlivede There are extensions out there which give a blank home page.
In a world where you can just type a search term in the address bar who needs a home page anyway ?
The failure to remember that you've answered the privacy thing suggests you're deleting all cookies every time you exit.
You bring up an interesting option: Deleting cookies when exiting Edge. That would seem to explain the privacy statement prompt and the unwanted direct links. I checked that setting, and, surprisingly, none of the seven options were activated, i.e. nothing is deleted. Nevertheless, your tip got me thinking: for some reason, Edge does not remember my manual changes; that is why these things keep re-appearing. I then decided to log out of my Microsoft account, thereby stopping synchronization to the Cloud. I then once again cleared out my browser cache and checked that the Edge option Personalization and Ads was disabled. Out of frustration, I turned off my notebook and did not turn it on again until the next day. Lo and behold: no privacy statement to confirm and no direct links. Honestly, I still don’t fully understand what happened, but your tip steered me in the right direction. Thanks!
I had tried that in the past too but after a couple of days, the image suggestions appear again. However it is still crazy we have to find workarounds because Microsoft is violating our privacy and not listening to customer complaints. They could remove this frustrating and annoying feature in minutes
I remember reading a review of Windows 11 where the author complained about MS actively looking for ways to insert revenue-generating ads into the OS. I believe this has become a priority for MS and this Start to Collect nonsense is another example of this new priority. We have to complain and hope it matters because it really feels like MS is looking to see how much invasive content, aka spam, people will tolerate.
(Remember when you could buy a television without worrying about ads in the setup menus? I guess people didn't complain when they started that nonsense and now it's commonplace.)
- I would completely nuke the profile folders. Quit Edge completely, then delete (or rename) the existing profile folders. To see where it is, go to edge://profile-internals/, and it'll tell you where on your PC or Mac the profile folder is.
To fix the new tab screen, I've long ago switched to Tabliss. It's an extension that I use in Chrome, Edge, and Firefox. Very customizable, and you can export and import settings so that your browsers match. See more here:
https://tabliss.io/
