Restoring Microsoft Edge Favorites After a Windows 10 Upgrade

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Remember your transition to Windows 7? If so, you might remember the dreadful process of setting up your computer from scratch.

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Thankfully, switching to Windows 10 is a much less troublesome process. Most of your data and settings travel with you, so there’s not much you have to do to get your PC up and running.

 

Still, there are some details that Microsoft has seemed to overlook. Your Explorer/Edge favorites are one of them. If you’re a long-time Windows user with a preference for Internet Explorer, you’ve likely accumulated quite a few Bookmarks and Favorites.

You were likely disappointed to see them gone when you opened Edge for the first time. If this is the case, don’t worry, as there are multiple methods for getting them back.

1. Use the ‘Open with Internet Explorer’ function.

Microsoft Edge isn’t just a redesigned version of Internet Explorer. It’s an entirely new browser. But it has a feature that allows you to access websites separately with Explorer. Here’s how to do it:

1. Open Microsoft Edge.
2. In the upper-right corner of the screen, click the three-dot action button.
3. Close to the bottom, click More Tools.
4. Choose the Open with Internet Explorer option.

Instead of Microsoft Edge, you should see Internet Explorer the way it was before the update. This means that all your favorites and bookmarks should be there.

Since Internet Explorer is an outdated browser, you’re likely not going to want to use it over Microsoft Edge. For this reason, you should export your favorites to it. Here are the steps to follow:

1. Open Microsoft Edge.
2. Click the three-dot menu and go to Favorites.
3. Click the Import Favorites button.
4. You’ll get a list of all browsers from which you can import your data. Choose Internet Explorer and click Import.

The importing process shouldn’t take more than a few moments. Once it’s done, your favorites should be visible in the list.

2. Check the Favorites Directory

The first method only works if you can see your favorites once you open Internet Explorer. If not, you might have to search for them somewhere else. The first thing you should do is check the Favorites folder in your PC. Here’s the fastest way to access it:

1. Start the Run dialog by pressing the Windows key + R at the same time.
2. In the Open bar, type %userprofile% and either hit Enter or click OK.
3. Navigate to the Favorites directory and you should see all your old favorites there.

Another way to do this is by opening File Explorer and pasting C:\Users\your_username\Favorites in the search/navigation bar. If your favorites are in the folder, all you have to do is open them and add them to Edge again. This can be a bit inconvenient if there are a lot of them, since you have to do it manually.

3. Restoring the Favorites Directory to the Previous Version

By restoring to the previous version of the Favorites folder, you might be able to refresh the folder and bring it back to its earlier state with all the favorites in it. Here’s what you have to do:

1. Use any of the above methods to navigate to the Favorites folder.
2. Right-click on it, then choose Properties.
3. Go to the Previous Version tab, select the version you want to restore to and either click Open or Restore.
4. Click OK to finish.

Another thing you can do is navigate to the Location tab from within Properties and click Restore Default. This does the same thing as the above and might be able to fix the problem.

4. Extracting Favorites from the Windows.old Folder

When you reinstall or upgrade Windows, your old files get stored in the Windows.old directory. It’s a folder in the installation drive that contains the data and settings that were in place before the update. You should be able to find your old favorites there. Here’s how:

1. Open the Windows installation directory (most commonly C:\ root), then open the Windows.old folder.
2. Go to the Users folder, then open the folder that corresponds to your previous username.
3. From the View menu, enable Hidden Items and go to the hidden folder named AppData.
4. Open Local, then go to Packages.
5. Find and open the folder that starts with Microsoft.MicrosoftEdge.
6. Go to the AC folder, then MicrosoftEdge > User > Default.
7. Copy the folder’s contents and save them somewhere for backup.

By doing this, you’ll have extracted all your favorites. The next thing to do is place them in Edge so that they appear in the browser. To do this, go the same folder from step 6, except not within the Windows.old folder but the default one in the installation drive. The address will look like this:

C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.MicrosoftEdge_8wekyb3d8bbwe\AC\MicrosoftEdge\User\Default

Once you’re in this folder, paste the contents you’ve copied and open Microsoft Edge. All your favorites should now be there.

In some cases, you might run into an issue where the favorites are gone after you close and reopen Edge. If this happens, do the following:

1. Import your favorites by following the steps from the 1st method.
2. Save the HTML file you get.
3. Restart Edge.
4. Import the saved HTML file.

This should bring back your favorites for good. This last method is the one that will likely work the best if all else fails, so you should have access to your favorites now.

The Final Word

As you can see, there are multiple ways to restore your lost favorites. You might have to do some experimenting, but there’s a high chance one of these methods will work.

Microsoft Edge has brought many improvements that were unimaginable with Internet Explorer, and you shouldn’t have to sacrifice your favorites just for upgrading to Windows 10. If you follow the steps from the methods above, you’ll be able to pick up where you left off.

 

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