About the list of tools - Microsoft Edge Developer documentation (2024)

Edit

Share via

DevTools provides more than 30 tools:

  • Two icons on the Activity Bar, for the Inspect tool (About the list of tools - Microsoft Edge Developer documentation (1)) and Device Emulation (About the list of tools - Microsoft Edge Developer documentation (2)).
  • Three permanent tool tabs on the Activity Bar, for the Elements, Console, and Sources tools.
  • Optional tabs, for optional tools such as the Welcome and Network tools.
  • More optional tools, on the More tools (About the list of tools - Microsoft Edge Developer documentation (3)) menu, such as the 3D View and Detached Elements tools.

About the list of tools - Microsoft Edge Developer documentation (4)

The following features are additional ways to access the tools:

  • The Quick View panel is an additional toolbar and area to hold tools, below or to the right of the Activity Bar panel.
  • The Command Menu is a way to directly use features of tools.
  • The Settings pages can turn on additional features of tools.

Microsoft Edge DevTools includes the following tools.

ToolPurposeArticle
3D View toolExplore the web page translated into a 3D perspective. Debug your webpage by navigating through the DOM or z-index stacking context.Navigate webpage layers, z-index, and DOM using the 3D View tool
Animations toolInspect and modify CSS animation effects by using the Animation Inspector in the Animations tool.Inspect and modify CSS animation effects
Application toolUse the Application tool to manage storage for web app pages, including manifest, service workers, local storage, cookies, cache storage, and background services.The Application tool, to manage storage
Changes toolTracks any changes you've made to CSS or JavaScript in DevTools. Shows you what changes to make to your actual source files after you use DevTools to modify your webpage files sent from the server.Track changes to files using the Changes tool
Console toolAn intelligent, rich command line within DevTools. A great companion tool to use with others tools. Provides a powerful way to script functionality, inspect the current webpage, and manipulate the current webpage using JavaScript.Console overview
Coverage toolHelp you find unused JavaScript and CSS code, to speed up your page load and save your mobile users cellular data.Find unused JavaScript and CSS code with the Coverage tool
CSS Overview toolHelp you better understand your page's CSS and identify potential improvements.CSS Overview tool
Detached Elements toolTo increase the performance of your page, this tool finds detached elements that the browser cannot garbage-collect, and identifies the JavaScript object that is still referencing the detached element. By changing your JavaScript to release the element, you reduce the number of detached elements on your page, increasing page performance and responsiveness.Debug DOM memory leaks with the Detached Elements tool
Developer ResourcesShows resource URLs for the webpage.Developer Resources tool
Device EmulationUse the Device Emulation tool, also called Device Simulation Mode or Device Mode, to approximate how your page looks and responds on a mobile device.Emulate mobile devices (Device Emulation)
Elements toolInspect, edit, and debug your HTML and CSS. You can edit in the tool while displaying the changes live in the browser. Debug your HTML using the DOM tree, and inspect and work on the CSS for your webpage.Inspect, edit, and debug HTML and CSS with the Elements tool
Inspect toolUse the Inspect tool to see information about an item within a rendered webpage. When the Inspect tool is active, you hover over items in the webpage, and DevTools adds an information overlay and grid highlighting on the webpage.Analyze pages using the Inspect tool
Issues toolThe Issues tool automatically analyzes the current webpage, reports issues grouped by type, and provides documentation to help explain and resolve the issues.Find and fix problems using the Issues tool
JavaScript Profiler toolThis tool has been replaced by the Performance tool and the Memory tool.JavaScript Profiler tool
Lighthouse toolUse the Lighthouse tool to identify and fix common problems that affect your site's performance, accessibility, and user experience.Lighthouse tool
Media toolUse this tool to view information and debug the media players per browser tab.View and debug media players information
Memory toolFind memory issues that affect page performance, including memory leaks, memory bloat, and frequent garbage collections.Fix memory problems
Memory Inspector toolInspect JavaScript ArrayBuffer with the Memory Inspector.Inspect a JavaScript ArrayBuffer with the Memory Inspector tool
Network toolUse the Network tool to make sure that resources are being downloaded or uploaded as expected. Inspect the properties of an individual resource, such as the HTTP headers, content, or size.Inspect network activity
Network conditions toolUse the Network conditions tool to disable the browser cache, set network throttling, set the user agent string, and set Content-Encodings such as deflate, gzip, and br.Network conditions tool
Network Console toolUse the Network Console tool to make changes to network requests (network calls) to see why they fail. Change and replay any of the network requests, and make detailed network API calls.Network Console tool
Network request blocking toolUse the Network request blocking tool to test blocking network requests to a specified URL pattern and see how a webpage behaves.Network request blocking tool
Performance toolAnalyze runtime performance, which is how your page performs when it's running, as opposed to loading.Introduction to the Performance tool
Performance monitor toolProvides a real-time view of the runtime performance of a webpage, to determine where performance problems come from, making a website run slowly. Finds whether problems are from high memory or CPU usage, too-frequent layout and style calculations, or too many DOM nodes and event listeners.Measure runtime performance of a page using the Performance monitor tool
Quick source toolUse the Quick source tool to display or edit source files when using a tool other than the Sources tool.Display or edit source files using the Quick source tool
Recorder toolUse the Recorder tool to record user flows manually, and then replay them automatically to speed up testing and performance investigations.Record and replay user flows and measure performance
Rendering toolUse the Rendering tool to see what your webpage looks like with different display options or vision deficiencies.Rendering tool, to see what a webpage looks like with different display options or vision deficiencies
Search toolUse the Search tool to find specific source files for a webpage, including HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and image files.Find source files for a page using the Search tool
Security toolInspects the security of a page.Understand security issues using the Security tool
Sensors toolSimulates different device orientations.Simulate device orientation with the Sensors tool
Source Maps Monitor toolUse the Source Maps Monitor tool to monitor your source maps.Source Maps Monitor tool
Sources toolUse the Sources tool to view, modify, and debug front-end JavaScript code, and inspect and edit the HTML and CSS files that make up the current webpage.Sources tool overview
WebAudio toolUse the WebAudio tool to monitor WebAudio traffic. The WebAudio tool uses the WebAudio API.WebAudio tool
WebAuthn toolUse the WebAuthn tool to create and interact with software-based virtual authenticators.Emulate authenticators and debug WebAuthn
Welcome toolThe Welcome tool opens when you first open DevTools. It displays links to developer docs, latest features, Release Notes, and an option to contact the Microsoft Edge DevTools team.Welcome tool

Experimental tools

Microsoft Edge DevTools potentially includes additional tools, if you select the experiment's check box in DevTools Settings > Experiments. For example:

ToolPurposeArticle
Protocol monitor toolDisplays the DevTools protocol messages that are sent and received by DevTools, to debug the inspected page.Protocol Monitor in Experimental features.

The More Tools menus

The More tools (+) menu in the Activity Bar and in the Quick View toolbar is dynamic: it omits any tab tools that are open on that toolbar.

Activity Bar tools are tools that open in the Activity Bar (the upper pane) by default. Quick View tools are tools that open in the Quick View panel (the lower pane) by default. To show or hide the Quick View panel: when focus is on DevTools, press Esc.

The Command Menu first lists the Activity Bar tools (indicated by the Panel label), and then the Quick View tools:

About the list of tools - Microsoft Edge Developer documentation (5)

To move a tool to the other toolbar, right-click the tool's tab and then select Move to bottom Quick View, Move to side Quick View, Move to top Activity Bar, or Move to left Activity Bar:

About the list of tools - Microsoft Edge Developer documentation (6)

To open the Command Menu, press Ctrl+Shift+P (Windows, Linux) or Command+Shift+P (macOS). Or, click the Customize and control DevTools (About the list of tools - Microsoft Edge Developer documentation (7)) button and then select Run command.

Closing tool tabs

To close a tool tab that's on a toolbar, right-click the tab, and then select Remove from Activity Bar or Remove from Quick View:

About the list of tools - Microsoft Edge Developer documentation (8)

The Elements, Console, and Sources tools are permanent tabs and cannot be closed or moved from the Activity Bar to the Quick View panel. You can drag their tabs to reorder them in the Activity Bar.

The Console tool is also a permanent tab on the Quick View toolbar. In contrast, the Issues tool on the Quick View toolbar can be removed.

To restore all of the default tool tabs in the Activity Bar and Quick View:

  1. In DevTools, select Customize and control DevTools (About the list of tools - Microsoft Edge Developer documentation (9)) > Settings (About the list of tools - Microsoft Edge Developer documentation (10)) > Preferences.

  2. Click the Restore defaults and refresh button. DevTools restarts, and the default tabs appear in both toolbars.

See also

  • Overview of DevTools - Similar to the present article, but broader coverage, with a top-level introduction to DevTools.

Feedback

Coming soon: Throughout 2024 we will be phasing out GitHub Issues as the feedback mechanism for content and replacing it with a new feedback system. For more information see: https://aka.ms/ContentUserFeedback.

Submit and view feedback for

About the list of tools - Microsoft Edge Developer documentation (2024)
Top Articles
Latest Posts
Article information

Author: Prof. Nancy Dach

Last Updated:

Views: 5710

Rating: 4.7 / 5 (57 voted)

Reviews: 88% of readers found this page helpful

Author information

Name: Prof. Nancy Dach

Birthday: 1993-08-23

Address: 569 Waelchi Ports, South Blainebury, LA 11589

Phone: +9958996486049

Job: Sales Manager

Hobby: Web surfing, Scuba diving, Mountaineering, Writing, Sailing, Dance, Blacksmithing

Introduction: My name is Prof. Nancy Dach, I am a lively, joyous, courageous, lovely, tender, charming, open person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.