Microsoft Edge Insider Canary channel gets a memory-saving tab freeze feature, 20 new profile pictures

Arif Bacchus

If you’re living on the edge thanks to the Edge Insider Canary channel, you’re in for some news. Version 79.0.307.0 was recently released, and it brings a new tab freezing feature, options for new profile icons, as well as an interesting bug (via Techdows.)

As is usual for these Canary releases, some of the new features bring bugs and will be hidden behind flags. One of those is a bug where the icon for the browser is broken. As pointed out by Eric Lawrence on Twitter, the icon for Canary now appears as the default icon for Google Chromium.

Anyway, to access to the new profile icons, you’ll need to have multiple profiles set up in Edge Canary. You can then visit the Edge settings menu, and then click on profiles. From there, you can then click on the  “” next to where it says Sign out, and then choose the Edit option.  You’ll then be able to choose one of 20 new icons, themed towards animals, foods, and more.

To get the new tab freezing feature is a somewhat more complicated process. However, it might be worth enabling, if you have many tabs open. It will automatically freeze tabs that are open in the background for more than five minutes. This will save memory, and increase the efficiency of the browser. You’ll need to enable the flags below with these steps.

  1. Go to edge://flags
  2. Use the sear bar on the top, and enter in Freeze
  3. When you see the Tab Freeze tag, click where it says Default and switch it to Enabled
  4. Restart the browser

Please, be aware you can have the option to permanently freeze tabs, or just unfreeze every 10 seconds after 15 minutes. This might be an option you’ll want to enable if you’re depending on something in the tab, like music, or a video.