Edge Insider moves web app installs to Windows 10 top level after feedback

Laurent Giret

After listening to feedback from Edge Insiders, Microsoft has changed how web apps appear on the Windows 10 Start Menu. The new Chromium-based browser allow users to quickly install web apps from the browser’s ellipsis menu, but until now these web apps were somewhat hidden in an Edge app folder in the Windows 10 Start Menu.

That wasn’t really great for discoverability, and Microsoft has changed it to make web apps installs show up at the top level of the Windows 10 Start Menu. This change is automatic on the Canary and Dev channels, and it doesn’t require an app update.

Web apps are quite a big deal in Microsoft Edge, especially since the company adopted the Chromium open source project to improve compatibility with modern web technologies. However, it’s quite a bumpy road so far, as there are some surprising compatibility issues with some of Google’s web apps such as Google Docs or Google Meet. Unfortunately, that’s the kind of issue that could make it difficult for some Edge users to finally leave Google Chrome behind.