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Overview of DevTools

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The Microsoft Edge browser comes with built-in web development tools, called Microsoft Edge DevTools. DevTools is a set of web development tools that appears next to a rendered webpage in the browser. DevTools provides a powerful way to inspect and debug webpages and web apps. You can even edit source files and create website projects, all within the DevTools environment.

With DevTools, you can do the following:

  • Inspect, tweak, and change the styles of elements in the webpage using live tools with a visual interface. Inspect where the browser stored content to construct the webpage, including .html, .css, .js, and .png file formats.

  • Emulate how your website behaves on different devices and simulate a mobile environment, complete with different network conditions. Inspect the network traffic and see the location of the problems.

  • Debug your JavaScript using breakpoint debugging and with the live console. Find memory problems and rendering issues with your web apps.

  • Find accessibility, performance, compatibility, and security issues in your products, and use DevTools to fix the accessibility issues that are found.

  • Use a development environment to sync changes in DevTools with the file system and from the web.

Video: Understand the DevTools user interface

Thumbnail image for video "Understand the DevTools user interface"

This slightly older, September 2022 video shows the legacy UI for DevTools:

  • Instead of the Activity Bar, the video shows the legacy main toolbar.
  • Instead of the Quick View panel (at bottom of DevTools), the video shows the Drawer.

Open DevTools

In Microsoft Edge, you can open DevTools by using the mouse or keyboard, in any of the following ways. Which tool is opened depends on how you open DevTools.

Main ways:

Action Resulting tool
Right-click any item on a webpage, and then select Inspect. The Elements tool, with the DOM tree expanded to show the right-clicked page element.
Press Ctrl+Shift+I (Windows, Linux) or Command+Option+I (macOS). The previously used tool, or the Welcome tool.
Press F12. The previously used tool, or the Welcome tool.

Additional ways:

Action Resulting tool
On the Microsoft Edge toolbar, select Settings and more (The 'Settings and more' icon) > More tools > Developer tools. The previously used tool, or the Welcome tool.
Press Ctrl+Shift+J (Windows, Linux) or Command+Option+J (macOS). The Console tool.
Press Ctrl+Shift+C (Windows, Linux) or Command+Option+C (macOS). The Elements tool, with the DOM tree expanded to show the <body> element.
Press Shift+F10 to open the right-click menu. To select the Inspect command, press Up Arrow and then Enter. The Elements tool, with the DOM tree expanded to show the <html> element.
Press Tab or Shift+Tab to put focus on a page element. Then press Shift+F10 to open the right-click menu. To select the Inspect command, press Up Arrow and then Enter. The Elements tool, with the DOM tree expanded to show the focused page element.

Open DevTools by right-clicking an item in a webpage

A good way to open DevTools is to right-click an item on a webpage, and then select Inspect:

Right-clicking an About Us link in a demo webpage, and then selecting the Inspect command

DevTools opens, with the right-clicked element highlighted in the DOM tree in the Elements tool:

DevTools opened in the right side of Microsoft Edge, with a DOM element selected in the DOM tree in the Elements tool

Open DevTools by using the Microsoft Edge toolbar

On the Microsoft Edge toolbar, select Settings and more (...) > More tools > Developer tools:

The 'Settings and more' menu of Microsoft Edge, with the 'More tools' submenu, and the 'Developer tools' command

Have DevTools automatically open when you open a new tab

To have DevTools automatically open whenever you open a new tab in the browser:

  1. At the command line, open Microsoft Edge, passing in the --auto-open-devtools-for-tabs flag, as follows:

    Windows command prompt:

    start msedge --auto-open-devtools-for-tabs

    Windows PowerShell:

    Start-Process -FilePath "msedge" -ArgumentList "--auto-open-devtools-for-tabs"

    macOS Terminal:

    /Applications/Microsoft\ Edge.app/Contents/MacOS/Microsoft\ Edge --auto-open-devtools-for-tabs

    bash shell on Linux:

    microsoft-edge --auto-open-devtools-for-tabs
Disabling startup boost

Important: There must be no running Microsoft Edge processes when launching via auto-open-devtools-for-tabs, so you may need to disable Startup boost in edge://settings/system.

The startup boost feature keeps a minimal Microsoft Edge process running in the background. This interferes with the auto-open-devtools-for-tabs feature and would need to be disabled to use it. For more information, see Get help with startup boost.

Turning off the F12 keyboard shortcut

To prevent pressing F12 from opening DevTools:

  1. In Microsoft Edge, go to edge://settings/system.

  2. Scroll down to the Developer Tools section, and then turn off the Use F12 key to open the Developer tools toggle.

    The Edge Settings page, with the Developer Tools section, and the toggle to disable the F12 key

Keyboard support

You can interact with DevTools using the mouse or keyboard. Keyboard shortcuts provide a quick way to access functionality, and are needed for accessibility. Various tools are increasingly accessible through the keyboard and assistive technologies such as screen readers.

See Keyboard shortcuts and Navigate DevTools with assistive technology.

Change where DevTools is docked in the browser

You can dock DevTools in the right, left, or bottom of the browser, or undock it into a separate window. See Change DevTools placement (Undock, Dock to bottom, Dock to left).

Zoom DevTools in or out

The DevTools UI is implemented using HTML and CSS, like web pages, so you can zoom in and out by using the standard keyboard shortcuts. The zoom levels for DevTools and the rendered page are independent.

To zoom the DevTools portion of the browser:

  1. If focus isn't already on DevTools, click somewhere in DevTools.
  2. Press Ctrl++ or Ctrl+- (Windows or Linux). Or, press Command++ or Command+- (macOS).

DevTools zoomed out

To zoom the rendered page, click the page, and then use the same keyboard shortcuts as above.

To restore zoom to 100%:

  1. Make sure focus is on the desired part of the browser, either DevTools or the rendered page.
  2. Press Ctrl+0 or Ctrl+NumPad0 (Windows or Linux), or Command+0 (macOS).

To zoom DevTools Settings:

  1. In DevTools Settings, click Close (x) in the upper right.
  2. Change the zoom level of DevTools, as described above.
  3. Click the Settings (Settings icon) button.

To zoom DevTools by using the Command Menu:

  1. Click the Customize and control DevTools (Customize icon) menu button, and then select Run command.
  2. In the Command Menu, start typing zoom, and then select a zoom command:
    • Reset zoom level
    • Zoom in
    • Zoom out

Overview of the user interface

The DevTools user interface has the following main areas:

  • The Activity Bar at the top, or on the left side, which contains icons used to access tools, settings, documentation, and more.

    • The current tool area, where the tool that's currently selected in the Activity Bar appears.

  • The Quick View toolbar, at the bottom, which contains tabs used to access tools.

    • The bottom tool area, where the tool that's currently selected in the Quick View toolbar appears.

Microsoft Edge, with DevTools opened on the side, with the 4 main UI areas highlighted

By default, the Activity Bar contains the following tools:

  • Inspect tool (Inspect tool icon) toggle button.

  • Device Emulation tool (Device Emulation icon) button.

  • Welcome tool (Welcome tool icon).

  • Elements tool (Elements tool icon).

  • Console tool (Console tool icon).

  • Sources tool (Sources tool icon).

  • Network tool (Network tool icon).

  • Performance tool (Performance tool icon).

  • Memory tool (Memory tool icon).

  • Application tool (Application tool icon).

By default, the Quick View toolbar contains the following tools:

  • Console tool (Console tool icon).

  • Issues tool (Issues tool icon).

In the Activity Bar, tool tabs either contain the tool name and icon, or just the tool icon, depending on the width of the DevTools window. If the window is wide enough, the tool name and icon appear. If the window is too narrow, only the tool icon appears and the tool name appears when you hover over the tool icon.

If the Activity Bar is located on the left side of the DevTools window, vertically, only the tool icons appear, and the tool names appear when you hover over the tool icons.

Change the location of the Activity Bar

By default, the Activity Bar is displayed horizontally at the top of the DevTools window. To maximize usable screen space in a variety of DevTools window size and locations, you can change the location of the Activity Bar to the left side of the DevTools window or to be automatically set depending on the DevTools window docking location.

The Activity Bar can be in one of the following locations:

  • Top (default): The Activity Bar will always be horizontal.

  • Left side: The Activity Bar will always be vertical.

  • Adapt to dock location: The Activity Bar will be in a horizontal or vertical orientation depending on where DevTools is docked.

    • When DevTools is docked to the left or right side of the browser window, the Activity Bar is vertical.

    • When DevTools is docked to the bottom side of the browser window, or undocked in its own window, the Activity Bar is horizontal.

When the Activity Bar is horizontal, tool names appear next to tool icons if there is enough space to display them.

If there isn't enough space to display all tool names, the horizontal Activity Bar shows some tabs with tool icons and names, and some tabs with icons that have a tooltip instead:

The horizontal Activity Bar with limited width, so some tools don't have a label, but only an icon with tooltip

To change the location of the Activity Bar, do either of the following:

  • Click the Customize and control DevTools (Customize and control DevTools) button, and then select a location in Activity Bar location:

    The 'Customize and control DevTools' menu of DevTools, showing the various Activity Bar location options

  • In the Activity Bar, click Move Activity Bar to left (The Move Activity Bar to left icon) or Move Activity Bar to top (The Move Activity Bar to top icon).

  • Use the Command Menu. Press Ctrl+Shift+P (Windows, Linux) or Command+Shift+P (macOS), enter the words activity bar, and then select Move Activity Bar to left or Move Activity Bar to top. See Power tip: Use the Command Menu.

Change the location of Quick View

By default, the Quick View panel is at the bottom of DevTools. You can also put the Quick View panel on the right side of DevTools.

To display the Quick View panel, press Esc.

To change the location of the Quick View panel, in the Quick View toolbar, click the Dock Quick View to the right (The "Dock Quick View to the right" icon) button or the Dock Quick View to the bottom button:

The Dock Quick View icon, displayed in the Quick View toolbar, at the bottom of DevTool

Features of the Activity Bar

DevTools gives you an amazing amount of power to inspect, debug, and change the website currently displayed in the browser. Most of the tools display the changes live. Live updates make the tools useful to refine the appearance and navigation or functionality of a webpage without the need to refresh or build it.

Tabbed tool panels containing tabs and pages

Other than the Inspect tool and Device Emulation, DevTools is divided into a set of tabbed tools, such as the Elements tool, the Console tool, and the Sources tool. Within the Command Menu, tools are referred to as panels. A tool's tab contains a panel which contains the tool's UI.

Higher-level tabs:

Tools are organized into a set of tabs on the Activity Bar and on the Quick View toolbar. Most tools are also called panels. A panel is the inner UI of a tool. A tool has a tab that can be present on the Activity Bar and Quick View toolbar.

Lower-level tabs:

Within the panel of some tools, there are one or more sets of tabs (tabbed panes). For example, the Elements tool contains a set of tabs that includes Styles, Event Listeners, and Accessibility tabs. For other tools, the tool's panel has pages listed along the left side.

The Activity Bar and the Quick View toolbar

There are two toolbars: the Activity Bar at the top of DevTools, and the Quick View toolbar at the bottom when you press Esc.

The Activity Bar contains the following features:

  • Icon tools:
    • Inspect tool (Inspect tool icon) toggle button.
    • Device Emulation (Device Emulation icon) button.

  • Tool tabs:

    • Welcome tool.
    • Elements tool. Permanent.
    • Console tool. Permanent.
    • Sources tool. Permanent.
    • Network tool.
    • Performance tool.
    • Memory tool.
    • Application tool.

  • Icons:

    • Move Activity Bar to left (Move Activity Bar to left icon) button.
    • More tools (More tools icon) button.
    • Customize and control DevTools (Customize icon) menu button.
    • Help (Help icon) button.
    • Close DevTools (Close DevTools icon) button.

The Activity Bar, with labels that identify its features

The Activity Bar features are described below.

Pin and rearrange tools in the Activity Bar

Besides the permanent Elements, Console, and Sources tools, you can control which tools appear in the Activity Bar, to customize DevTools to focus on your current activities.

  1. Click the More tools (More tools icon) button to list all the available tools:

    The More tools menu in the Activity Bar, with the expanded list of all tools

  2. Select a tool to pin it to the Activity Bar. The tool is then present in the Activity Bar whenever DevTools is opened.

If there isn't enough space in the Activity Bar to display all of the pinned tools, tools that are open but not displayed are moved into the More tools menu:

The More tools menu, showing some pinned tools that couldn't fit in the Activity Bar

To unpin a tool from the Activity Bar, right-click the tool's tab and then select Remove from Activity Bar:

The right-click menu of the Performance tool's tab, to remove the tool from the Activity Bar

Inspect tool

When you click the Inspect tool (Inspect tool icon) button, you can select an element on the current webpage. While the Inspect tool is active, you can move your mouse over different parts of the webpage to get detailed information about page elements, along with a multi-color overlay that shows the layout dimensions, padding, and margin of the page element.

The Inspect tool while hovering over with the first headline of this article

Device Emulation

Click the Device Emulation (Device Emulation icon) button to display the current website in an emulated device mode. The Device Emulation tool allows you to run and test how your product reacts when you resize the browser. It also gives you an estimation of the layout and behavior on a mobile device.

DevTools display of this article in an emulated mobile phone

See Emulate mobile devices (Device Emulation).

Welcome tool

Includes information about the new features of DevTools, how to contact the team, and provides information about certain features.

Elements tool

Allows you to inspect, edit, and debug your HTML and CSS. You can edit in the tool while displaying the changes live in the browser.

The Elements tool is always present on the Activity Bar.

Console tool

In the Console tool, you can:

  • View and filter logged messages from network requests or from JavaScript log statements.
  • Enter JavaScript statements to evaluate in realtime. Expressions are evaluated in the current context, such as when the JavaScript debugger in the Sources tool is paused at a breakpoint.

The Console tool is always present on the Activity Bar and on the Quick View toolbar.

See Console.

Sources tool

The Sources tool is a code editor and JavaScript debugger. You can edit projects, maintain snippets, and debug your current project.

The Sources tool is always present on the Activity Bar.

Network tool

The Network tool allows you to monitor and inspect requests or responses from the network and browser cache. You can filter requests and responses to fit your needs and simulate different network conditions.

See Inspect network activity.

Performance tool

See Introduction to the Performance tool.

Memory tool

See Fix memory problems.

Application tool

See View, edit, and delete cookies.

More Tools button

To add a tool to the Activity Bar, click the More tools (More tools icon) button.

Customize and control DevTools menu

The Customize and control DevTools (Customize and control DevTools) button opens a dropdown menu to:

  • Dock DevTools.
  • Dock the Activity Bar.
  • Select a theme.
  • Show keyboard shortcuts.
  • Change DevTools settings.
  • Open Device Emulation.
  • Toggle the Quick View panel.
  • Run a command.
  • Search for code.
  • Open a file.

Help button

The Help (Help icon) button opens a dropdown menu that has the following items:

Close DevTools button

Click the Close DevTools (Close DevTools icon) button in the upper right corner of DevTools to close DevTools and use the entire window to display the current webpage.

Features of the Quick View toolbar

Use the Quick View panel to open a second tool below or to the right of the tool that's already selected in the Activity Bar:

  1. Select a tool from the Activity Bar.

  2. In the Quick View toolbar, click More tools (More tools icon), and then select a different tool from the list.

For example, open the Rendering tool in the Quick View panel, below the Network tool that's open in the Activity Bar:

DevTools with the Network tool at the top, and the Rendering tool at the bottom

To hide or expand Quick View, click Collapse Quick View (Collapse icon) or Expand Quick View (Expand icon), or press the Escape key.

Overview of all tools

For a summary of each tool, see Overview of all tools in About the list of tools.

Tool, tab, or panel

The words "tool", "tab", and "panel" are somewhat interchangeable. In the Command Menu, the tools are called panels; for example, the Elements tool is called the Elements panel. To switch to the Elements tool, you click the Elements tab. There's a More tools (More tools icon) button and list used to select tools. DevTools tools are also called DevTools panels.

You can customize each of the tools, and the content of a tool can change based on the context.

About Activity Bar and Quick View tools

The More tools (More tools icon) button is displayed both in the Activity Bar and in the Quick View toolbar. When you open a tool from the More tools list that's located in the Activity Bar, the tool appears in the Activity Bar. When you open a tool from the More tools list in the Quick View toolbar, the tool is opened in the Quick View panel.

Task Steps
Open a tool in the Activity Bar at the top of DevTools In the Activity Bar at the top of DevTools, click More tools (More tools icon) and then select a tool.
Open a tool on the Quick View toolbar When DevTools has focus, press Esc to show the Quick View toolbar if it's not shown yet. In the Quick View toolbar, click the More tools (More tools icon) button, and then select a tool.
Move a tool from the Quick View toolbar to the Activity Bar When DevTools has focus, press Esc to show the Quick View. In the Quick View toolbar, right-click the tool's tab, and then select Move to top Activity Bar or Move to left Activity Bar.
Move a tool from the Activity Bar to the Quick View toolbar In the Activity Bar, right-click the tool's tab, and then select Move to bottom Quick View or Move to side Quick View.
Open a tool in its default toolbar (Activity Bar or Quick View) When DevTools has focus, open the Command Menu by pressing Ctrl+Shift+P (Windows, Linux) or Command+Shift+P (macOS). Type the name of the tool, and then select a Show <tool> command.

In addition to Activity Bar and Quick View tools, DevTools includes the following tools:

See also

Power tip: Use the Command Menu

DevTools provides lots of features and functionality to use with your website. You can access the different parts of DevTools in many ways, but often a fast way is to use the Command Menu.

the Command Menu in DevTools

In the Command Menu, the tools are called "panels"; for example, the Elements tool is called the Elements panel. To switch to the Elements tool, you select the Elements tab.

  1. To open the Command Menu, do either of the following:

    • Click the Customize and control DevTools (Customize and control DevTools) button, and then select Run command.
    • Press Ctrl+Shift+P (Windows, Linux) or Command+Shift+P (macOS).

    The Command Menu allows you to type commands to display, hide, or run features in DevTools.

  2. In the Command Menu, start typing the name of a tool, such as changes, and then select a Show command, such as Show Changes. The Command Menu displays the matching commands:

    Command menu displays the options after you type 'cha', including 'Show Changes tool in the Quick View'

  3. Press Enter to select a Show command, such as Show Changes. The selected tool opens in the Quick View panel, at the bottom:

    DevTools with the Changes tool open in the Quick View panel

    The Changes tool is useful when you edit CSS. In this example, the Command Menu provides a fast alternative to selecting More tools (More tools icon) and then selecting Changes. This example also provides an alternative to editing a .js file in the Sources tool, and then right-clicking and selecting Local modifications.

See also Run commands with the Microsoft Edge DevTools Command menu.

Customizing DevTools

You can customize DevTools to meet your needs for the way you work. To change settings, click the Customize and control DevTools (Customize and control DevTools) button, and then select Settings (Settings icon), or press F1.

In the Settings > Preferences page, you can change several parts of DevTools. For example, you can use the Browser UI language setting to use the same language in DevTools that is used in your browser. For another example, use the Theme setting to change the color theme of DevTools.

All the settings in DevTools

You can also change the settings of advanced features, such as:

  • Add local files to a Workspace.
  • Filter library code by using the Ignore List.
  • Define the Devices you want to include in the device simulation and test mode. For more information, see Emulate mobile devices (Device Emulation).
  • Select a network Throttling profile.
  • Define simulated Locations.
  • Customize keyboard Shortcuts. For example, to use the same shortcuts in DevTools as in Visual Studio Code, select Match shortcuts from preset > Visual Studio Code.

All the keyboard shortcuts and the menu to match each to the shortcuts in Visual Studio Code

Trying experimental features

The DevTools team provides new features as experiments in DevTools. You can turn each of the experiments on or off. To see the full list of Experimental features in Microsoft Edge DevTools, in DevTools, select Settings (Settings icon), and then select Experiments.

To preview the latest features coming to DevTools, download Microsoft Edge Canary, which builds nightly.

See also:

See also