This article shows how to turn off or disable the Follow Creators feature in Microsoft Edge.
Recently, Microsoft added a feature called Follow Creators to the Edge browser. It allows you to follow your favorite creators and get updates regarding their posts directly in the Edge browser. The updates appear in the Collections panel under the Following tab. To follow a creator, you just click the Follow icon in the address bar that appears when they visit the creator’s page. For example, the Follow Creator icon automatically appears on the address bar when you visit a YouTube creator’s page.
Though the feature is useful, not everyone needs it. For example, if you don’t use a specific feature, especially one that doesn’t directly contribute to your browsing experience, you might consider it bloatware. Additionally, it is found that this feature is inadvertently sending/leaking your browsing history to Bing regardless of whether you use Bing or Microsoft account. As you can guess, that is a big privacy issue.
Whatever the reason, if you don’t need or use this new feature, you can easily disable the follow creators feature in Microsoft Edge. This article shows you how to do it in simple and easy steps.
Table of contents:
How to disable Follow Creators in Microsoft Edge
If you no longer want to use the follow creators feature, you can disable it from the Privacy, Search, and Services settings page. Here are the steps:
- Open the Edge browser.
- Click on the three dots icon (menu) in the top right corner.
- Select the Settings option from the menu to open the Edge settings page.
- Click on the Privacy, Search, and Services tab on the sidebar of the Settings page.
- Scroll down to the Services section.
- Turn off the “Show suggestions to follow creators in Microsoft Edge” option.
- Restart the Edge browser.
- With that, you’ve completely disabled Follow Creators feature in the Edge browser.
(Optional) If you want, you can also turn off the “Show collections and follow content creators in Microsoft Edge” option. It will also disable the Follow Creators feature. However, it will also completely disable the Collections feature and removes the Collections icon from the Edge address bar. If you want to use the Collections in Edge, then I recommend you don’t turn off this option. After all, the how-to steps I showed earlier will get the job done without affecting the Collections feature.
Of course, if you don’t want to use Collections, you can turn off both the “Show collections and follow content creators in Microsoft Edge” and “Show suggestions to follow creators in Microsoft Edge” options.
How to Enable Follow Creators in Microsoft Edge
The follow creators feature is enabled by default. However, if you disabled it manually and want to enable it back, follow the steps below to enable Follow Creators feature in the Edge browser.
- Launch the Edge browser.
- Go to the Settings > Privacy, Search, and Services page.
- Turn on the “Show collections and follow content creators in Microsoft Edge” option.
- Turn on the “Show suggestions to follow creators in Microsoft Edge” option.
- Relaunch the Edge web browser.
- With that, you’ve enabled the Follow Creators feature.
As soon as you turn on both options, the Follow Creators feature is turned on. From now on, you can follow your favorite creators by clicking the follow creator icon on the address bar. Do keep in mind that the icon only appears when you are on the creator’s social page. Alternatively, click on the Collections icon, go to the Following tab, find your favorite creator, and click the Follow button.
—
That is all. It is that simple to turn off Follow Creators on Edge. If you like this article, check out how to enable and use split-screen in Edge and how to show or hide Microsoft Edge sidebar.
I hope this simple and easy Windows how-to guide helped you.
If you are stuck or need help, send an email, and I will try to help as much as possible.
