PWAs on Microsoft Edge (sidebar, store)

In one line: Per Microsoft’s documentation, Edge installs a qualifying PWA through its own app-installation feature and the PWA then runs like other apps on Windows; PWAs are also treated like other apps in the Microsoft Store, letting users go from discovery to installation to running the app without opening the browser first, and a PWA can opt into Edge’s sidebar via a manifest member Microsoft has marked for deprecation.

Installing through Edge

Per Microsoft’s documentation, a PWA “can be installed… by using the app installation feature of a supporting browser,” and once installed it functions like other apps. Per MDN’s guide to triggering the install prompt, Chromium-based browsers — Edge included — fire a beforeinstallprompt event a page can use to show its own install button instead of relying on the browser’s own install entry point:

window.addEventListener('beforeinstallprompt', (event) => {
  event.preventDefault();
  // Per MDN, save the event and show a custom "Install" button;
  // `beforeinstallprompt` is non-standard and implemented only in
  // Chromium-based browsers.
});

The sidebar

Edge can pin a PWA into its sidebar via the edge_side_panel manifest member. As of Microsoft’s July 2026 documentation update, this feature “is being deprecated” and “will soon no longer be supported” — see Manifest edge_side_panel for the full requirements, syntax, and runtime-detection code, and treat it as a feature to migrate away from rather than adopt.

Microsoft Store distribution

Per Microsoft’s documentation, PWAs are treated like other apps in the Microsoft Store, so users can go from discovery to installation to running the app without ever opening the browser.

Detecting an installed, standalone PWA at runtime

Per MDN’s guide to creating a standalone app, matchMedia('(display-mode: standalone)') reports whether the page is running in the display mode an installed app uses — this is the general cross-browser technique, not something Edge-specific documented by Microsoft:

function isInstalledPwa() {
  if (!('matchMedia' in window)) {
    // Fallback: matchMedia isn't available — assume this is an ordinary tab.
    return false;
  }
  return window.matchMedia('(display-mode: standalone)').matches;
}

if (isInstalledPwa()) {
  // Hide any "Install this app" call-to-action; it's already installed.
} else {
  // Show the install affordance once `beforeinstallprompt` has fired.
}

Where it is supported

Microsoft’s overview says PWAs can run on all devices, work across operating systems, and be installed on mobile devices. It describes deep operating-system integration for PWAs used on Windows with Edge generally, rather than tying that integration specifically to Store-distributed PWAs. The sidebar documentation describes the feature in Microsoft Edge without stating an operating-system restriction. The beforeinstallprompt event the install flow above relies on is non-standard and, per MDN, implemented only in Chromium-based browsers.

Practical checklist

• Feature-detect beforeinstallprompt before relying on it — per MDN it’s non-standard and Chromium-only, not guaranteed to fire.
• Don’t build new functionality around edge_side_panel; Microsoft’s own docs say the sidebar feature is being deprecated.
• Don’t assume Store distribution and the browser’s own install feature are the same install path — Microsoft’s documentation describes them as separate ways to get a PWA onto a device.

Where to go next

• Manifest edge_side_panel
• PWAs on Chrome and Android
• PWAs on ChromeOS