How to Disable New URL Copy and Paste Feature in Microsoft Edge

Dec. 23, 2020

Microsoft recently revamped the way it handles web URLs inEdge browser based on Chromium. With the change, Microsoft Edge started pasting URLs as a hyperlinked title instead of plain text. While a hyperlinked title may serve better in specific use cases, a significant number of Edge users including me are not happy about it. Today, you’ll learn how to restore the old URL pasting mechanism on Edge.

Disable Edge’s New URL Copy and Paste Feature

Web browsers typically paste the entire web address when you paste a URL. Microsoft decided to replace the URL with the title of the page as link text. As a result, pasted URLs started to look like this:

Instead of this:

If you think this was a harmless change, I beg to differ. The major inconvenience I found with this approach was how it broke embedding YouTube links. Even if I ignore the functionality of this, the new behavior was forced upon Edge users without any warning or indication whatsoever. Due to this sneaky under the hood change, some users evensuspected that third-party apps are causing this, which is certainly not the case.

1. Now that you know how the change affects users, here’s how you get back to the old method of pasting links. Firstly,open Edge browser,click on the horizontal three dots buttonin the top-right corner, andchoose ‘Settings’.

2. From Settings,head to the ‘Share, copy, and paste’ section. It is the sixth section in the left sidebar. Here, you’ll find two options – Link and Plain text and the option will be set to Link by default.

3. As you might have guessed, Link option pastes URLs as hyperlinked titles and Plain text pastes them as a web address. All you have to do ischoose ‘Plain text’ and restart the browser.

If you prefer the new hyperlink pasting mechanism but want the flexibility to paste as URLs at times, you have two options: First up, copy the web address you want and right-click in the paste destination.From the ‘Paste as’ optionthat appears now,choose ‘Link’. Alternatively, you canuse thekeyboard shortcut‘Ctrl + Shift + V’to paste the URL as plain text.

So, that was our quick guide to help you restore the old URL pasting mechanism on Edge. It won’t be an overstatement if I say that I absolutely hated how Edge flipped the switch without any notification. Let us know your thoughts on this feature in the comments. Meanwhile, if you found this useful, you might find something interesting in our coverage of thebest Microsoft Edge flags.

Subin writes about consumer tech, software, and security. He secretly misses the headphone jack while pretending he’s better off with the wireless freedom.