I’ve switched from Firefox to Microsoft Edge and I like it! Except I want to change the theme so that it’s a bit more snazzy on my PC screen. How can I change themes in MS Edge?
Microsoft Edge definitely supports themes and there are quite a few available for you to download and install – for free! – from the Chrome Web Store. Edge also has a number of attractive solid-color themes built-in to the browser too. Really, though, what most amazes me after all these years in the industry is just how many great Web browsers there are for the PC. From Chrome, Edge, and Firefox, you can branch out to Brave, Opera, Torch, Vivaldi, Tor, and others if you like to experiment. Of course, they’re all basically doing the same thing – rendering Web pages you visit – so one of the big differences is how deeply the browser is integrated into a particular ecosystem and, of course, which ecosystem. Chrome? Google. Edge? Microsoft. And so on.
What you don’t want to run anymore is Microsoft Internet Explorer. Yikes. 🙂
Back to MS Edge. Turns out that it’s basically built atop the core of Google Chrome (Chromium) so it supports all the same themes. And there are a lot of ’em!
FIND NEW MICROSOFT EDGE THEMES
To start out, a baseline. Here’s the default color scheme for Microsoft Edge on Windows 10:
Notice that I’ve jumped to the themes area in Customize Appearance. You can go there through settings (“•••” then “Settings” then “Appearance”) or just click here: edge://settings/appearance and you’ll see the solid color options.
Before you change themes, however, open a blank tab in Edge. It loops in to Bing and offers up a search box, cool background wallpaper and even some news:
Okay, back to that appearance / themes tab! Click and try out a few of the solid colors. They’re nice, basically changing the title bar color and that area. Here’s “bubblegum”, for example:
But you can do more!
Scroll down a bit and you’ll find this theme “option”:
Click on that and you’ll be taken to the Chrome Web Store, where you’ll see oodles of themes:
Scroll down and check out the featured themes, or try searching for a particular movie, sport, celebrity, or location you particularly love. I scroll down a bit and find a theme inspired by the great monster film The Megalodon:
There’s not really much of a preview, and the image shown will be part of the new tab background, but they’re easy to install and then uninstall if you don’t like them.
HOW TO INSTALL A MICROSOFT EDGE THEME: THE MEGALODON
Back to that huge, prehistoric shark! Click on the “Get” button adjacent to the theme you want to check out and it’ll prompt you to confirm you want to download and install this theme:
You can change your mind, but why not install it? To do that, simply click on “Add theme“.
After just a few moments, you’ll see the title bar and top portion of your Edge browser change, and a confirmation bar appear indicating that you have the new theme installed:
Can you see “Installed theme “The Megalodon”? Adjacent to it is a blue “Undo” button if you change your mind. Before you decide either way, however, open up a new tab! With this theme, it’s pretty fun:
That’s it. You are now likely to spend a half-hour or more trying and exploring all the many themes in the Chrome Web Store. Have fun, and remember that if you uninstall them all, you’ll go right back to that default (or you can just go to settings > appearance and choose the default too).
Helpful Tip: I’ve been writing about Windows for many years and have an extensive Windows help area. Please check it out to find lots of additional tutorials and guides while you’re here. Thanks!