Add a splash of color to Microsoft Edge Dev or Canary with this new feature

By Sean Endicott
published

Microsoft Edge Dev and Canary now let you pick your browser's accent color.

Edge Dev Hero 2020 Newfeature
Edge Dev Hero 2020 Newfeature (Image credit: Daniel Rubino / Windows Central)

What you need to know

  • Microsoft Edge Dev and Canary now let you pick from a range of accent colors.
  • The setting has to be enabled through edge://flags in your browser.
  • The feature adds over a dozen accent colors to choose from.

Microsoft Edge Dev and Canary now allow you to pick from a range of accent colors for your browser. The feature is available once you enable an option within the edge://flags settings menu called "Enable picker for color based themes."

Usually, Microsoft Edge only has options for light, dark, or system themes. Once you've enabled the picker for color based themes, you can choose from all sorts of colorful themes. The option is a quick and easy way to add a splash of color to your browsing, and it's also nice that you can adjust it independently of other accent colors on your PC.

Source: Windows Central (Image credit: Source: Windows Central)

It's a small change, but one that adds a nice level of personalization to Microsoft Edge. There are basic options like light gray, dark gray, and dark blue, as well as some more splashy colors, like teal, mint, and pink. In fact, there are two different shades of pink available.

Here's how to enable the feature:

  1. Open Microsoft Edge Dev or Canary.
  2. Go to edge://flags through the address bar.
  3. Search "Enable picker for color based themes" through the search bar.
  4. Select Enable next to "Enable picker for color based themes."

Your browser will have to restart, but after that, you can then set your accent color through the themes section of Microsoft Edge's settings.

Download it now

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Microsoft Edge

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Sean Endicott
Sean Endicott
News Writer and apps editor

Sean Endicott brings nearly a decade of experience covering Microsoft and Windows news to Windows Central. He joined our team in 2017 as an app reviewer and now heads up our day-to-day news coverage. If you have a news tip or an app to review, hit him up at sean.endicott@futurenet.com (opens in new tab).

6 Comments
  • I love it.
  • Hmm I was expecting highlight colors, but I guess this is nice. I'll wait for it to get better, though. It doesn't change the context menu, or the settings button and pages. But it's still a flag, so hopefully this things will be there when they officially release.
  • I suppose I should provide this feedback on the dev website, but it drives me crazy that the colors in the previews aren't quite the same hue for the themes they represent. For example the Pink theme light color on the thumbnail has rgb of 206, 63, 113 but the applied theme light value has 214, 120, 153 which looks very different.
    It's been a long day, I think I need to chill.
  • Hey, everything is going to be okay, you'll be fine :) (I do get what you mean, it's frustrating)
  • I know it's time to relax when I redownload Affinity Designer just to use the eye-dropper tool to check color values.
  • A welcome feature. I'm ultra picky with colors/themes though. Back when I used Chrome and was more into themes, I could easily go through a hundred in the Chrome store before finding one I really liked. I need to learn how to create my own custom theme(s).