Hi Dave! I’ve been trying to migrate from Microsoft Edge to the Tor browser on my Windows PC. The additional privacy and ability to avoid being tracked is very appealing. But how do I move my bookmarks across from Edge to Tor?
In an era when everything we do and share online seems to end up feeding an AI engine and being secreted away for later analysis by marketers, it’s entirely reasonable to pay more attention to privacy. Being more taciturn about what you share is smart, having a throwaway email address for signups, also smart. But jumping from one of the big browsers to Tor, a browser designed from the ground up to maximize privacy is a great move too. Interestingly, Tor is built atop Firefox, which means you can use Firefox themes and extensions (to some extent) but it’s still going to give you one of the best paths to maximal privacy.
New to Tor? Please check out my Intro to The Tor Browser tutorial.
While it’s hidden from you as a user, most modern Web browsers also store bookmarks and other user data in a standard format, which means that browsers can pretty easily scan and import your profile info from one browser into another. This feature is undoubtedly one that Tor picks up from Firefox and it’s fairly easy to use. Let’s have a look…
FINDING THE BOOKMARK MANAGER IN TOR
First off, if you don’t have Tor yet, you can download a copy for your computer here: TorProject.org
Since I haven’t yet imported my bookmarks either, when I launch Tor and go to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (a great organization to support if you’re concerned about online privacy and digital freedom):
Notice that there’s no bookmarks row along the top. You might see an “Import bookmarks…” link along the top, actually, which is a handy shortcut. If not, it’s good to learn how to navigate Tor anyway. Click on the so-called hamburger menu (the three tiny horizontal lines on the top right).
I’ve highlighted “Bookmarks” but have a quick glance at “Add-ons and themes” too; we’ll come back to that in a bit. For now, click on “Bookmarks” and a submenu will appear:
At this point you can see Tor conveniently preloads some bookmarks, but it’s the entry at the very bottom that’s of interest. Choose “Manage bookmarks” (or use the keyboard shortcut Control+Shift+O)…
HOW TO IMPORT BOOKMARKS INTO TOR
The Bookmark manager is a bit, err, rustic in its user interface, but it’s entirely functional. Click on “Import and Backup” to bring up yet another menu:
Finally, you’re in the right spot! Choose “Import Data from Another Browser…” and, you guessed it, yet another window will pop up!
It’s a bit surprising that a privacy-centric browser is ready to import the history and passwords from a different browser, but from a user experience perspective, it’s certainly convenient. Except I don’t want to import anything but my bookmarks from Microsoft Edge (and notice that’s a pop-up so you can choose a different browser if you’ve been using Chrome, Firefox, or something else).
The secret here is to click on the “+” adjacent to “Import all available data” which lets you choose what specific info you want brought into Tor:
I simply unchecked everything other than “Favorites”. A click on “Import” and after a fraction of a second, this appears:
I had no idea that I have 182 favorites in Microsoft Edge, but I got ’em all. If I wanted to, I could now use the Bookmark Manager to prune and trim. Or, like most people, I’ll ignore it and get along with my day.
Now, however, Tor looks a bit different:
A display very similar to what I had in MS Edge and Chrome. This makes it much easier to switch to having Tor as my primary browser too. Done. But… two more little things first!
FUN WITH THE TOR BROWSER
First off, if you’re thinking that the default white and grey theme is boring, remember you can always choose “Add-ons and themes” (or Control-Shift-A) from the main menu or go to “about:addons” to add a theme…
Tor has a few options already loaded, but if you go to the “Find more add-ons” you can search for a specific color, style, or theme from the huge Mozilla/Firefox library. I searched for “blue” and ended up choosing a dark blue theme that looks a lot more modern than the grey and white. Your taste will vary so it’s great that you can choose your own theme instead!
Finally, this is Tor so don’t forget you can always peek at your privacy router circuit with a click on the up and down arrow adjacent to the URL in the address bar too:
I’m also running a VPN since I’m on a public wifi network so there’s even one more level of obfuscation. All of this adds up to a lot of privacy online which is the same goal you have. And now ya know…
Pro Tip: I’ve been writing about Microsoft Windows for many years. Please check out my Windows help area for lots more useful tutorials while you’re visiting, along with my Spam, Scams, and Online Security area!