Microsoft Edge browser displays tab preview when you hover the mouse cursor on an open tab in the browser. The tab preview feature comes in handy when you have multiple tabs open and want to preview the content of a tab without switching to it.
The Edge browser received the tab preview feature with November Update for Windows 10. Microsoft Edge doesn’t offer a way to disable tab preview. However, you can turn off the tab preview feature by making the appropriate changes to Windows Registry. You can refer to our how to disable Edge tab preview feature guide for step-by-step directions.
Always show or hide tab previews in Microsoft Edge
In Windows 10 Anniversary and earlier builds, the Edge browser would display tab previews only when you hover the mouse cursor over a tab.
Starting with Windows 10 Creators Update (build 14997 or later), Microsoft has added a new way to always show or hide Edge tab previews. This means that you can now make the Edge browser always show tab previews. In other words, you no longer need to hover the mouse cursor over a tab to see the preview. The Edge browser shows previews for all open tabs as long as they are open.
A toggle button (up/down arrow) now appears next to the new tab button (+ button) which when you click turn on or off always show tab previews feature. When the tab preview is turned on, Edge will display previews for all open tabs. And if the preview feature is turned off, you will have to move the mouse cursor over a tab to see the preview of its content.
Of course, if you completely disable Edge tab preview in Registry, this new functionality won’t work at all.
In short, there is a new feature in Microsoft Edge browser to quickly always show or hide tab previews. However, not all users always like to see tab preview as tab preview thumbnails take a considerable amount of screen space.
Last but not the least, the new feature is available in 14997 and later builds of Windows 10 Creators Update only. The final build of Windows 10 Creators Update is coming in the first half of this year.