Stopping Microsoft Edge from automatically downloading files

Recently Microsoft has been losing its browser market share to the likes of Google Chrome and other browsers. To recapture the lost market share, Microsoft has developed the new Microsoft Edge Browser. It has been the new default browser in Windows 10 and replaces the age old Internet Explorer. Though some of the code is still based on Internet Explorer yet Microsoft Edge features numerous improvements, both visual and underhood. It includes new rendering engine, better html5 support, cortana support, download manager etc., It also offers impressive performance. Despite all this, users are complaining a lot of Edge. There always have been minor setbacks, that are keeping users away from it. Thanks to the Insider Preview Program, Microsoft can now address the potential issues of its products.

Coming to the minor setbacks, of all I would like to point out the one that is haunting me the most i.e  whenever you click the download link, it automatically starts downloading content without the user approval. Even Google Chrome seems do to the same. A lot of users have been complaining about this since the first appearance of the edge.



As a result, in the latest Insider Preview builds of the Windows 10, Microsoft finally has implemented the feature to to stop it. Starting from Windows 10 build 14257, you can set Microsoft Edge to ask permission every time it wants to download a thing.

Here is how to do it.

How to Enable Ask before downloading

Step 1:  Open  Microsoft Edge Browser.

Step 2: Go to the following location in edge browser by pasting the path given below in address bar.

edge://settings/downloads

Step 3:  Now, turn ON Ask me What to do with each downloads Option

 

Edge Downloads Min

 



Since you enabled the feature now, Microsoft Edge will now show a confirmation box every time you click on a downloadable content. Clicking on the button “Save” will save the file to your default download location i.e C drive > Users > {user name} > Downloads. To download to different location, click on “Save as” and choose the  location as per your needs. And if you don’t want to download the file, just click on “cancel” and you are good to go.

Thanks to Insider Preview Program, users are now able to request their features and suggestions. We are finally seeing good overall improvement to the Windows Platform. Thank you guys for reading. Stay tuned for more!