Install

Foretaste for Edge

Foretaste is a free extension for Microsoft Edge that opens a file from a link - a document, a spreadsheet, an archive, a database - in a panel over the page, without downloading it. The bytes are read in your browser and are never uploaded. Edge runs the same build as Chrome, which is a good sign and not a guarantee, so here is exactly what that means.

Get Foretaste for Edge See what it opens

On the Edge Add-ons store now. The button above opens the official listing, which is the only place to install it from.

What it does

Opens a file from a link. Right-click it and choose Open with Foretaste, or click the marker beside the link.
Lists a ZIP archive without downloading it, and opens one file from inside.
Reads the file on your own machine. Nothing is uploaded, to us or to anyone.
Saves the file to disk, in every format, including the ones it cannot open, without needing access to the site.
Asks for website access once, when you install it. Never again, and never per site.

What it opens

Documents

.pdf .docx .odt .ott .pptx .odp

Spreadsheets and tables

.xlsx .xls .ods .ots .csv .tsv

Text, code and data

.txt .log .md .markdown .json .jsonl

Pictures and media

.jpg .jpeg .png .gif .webp .avif

Books, fonts and subtitles

.epub .ttf .otf .woff .woff2 .srt

Calendars and contacts

.ics .ifb .vcf .vcard

What each one actually shows you, and where it stops

What it asks Edge for, and why

This is the full list. Adding one is a deliberate decision, so the list is short and it stays short.

Permission	Why it is needed
contextMenus	To put "Open with Foretaste" on the right-click menu.
downloads	To save a file to disk. This needs no site access, which is why saving is never blocked, on any format.
storage	To keep your settings, your licence key and the page’s file list on your device.
scripting	To read the addresses of file links, and to put the link markers beside them. You choose whether those appear everywhere, everywhere except a list, or only on a list.
activeTab	To read the address of the tab the panel is open over, and nothing else on it.
host access (all sites)	To fetch the file behind the link you clicked. Your browser asks for this when you install Foretaste, and grants it there - a file is routinely served from a different address than the page it was linked on, so there is no smaller permission that works. The reading happens on your machine; nothing about the file is sent anywhere.

Note what is not there: no access to your browsing history, no access to your tabs, no cookies, and nothing that reads what you do on a page. Website access is asked for once, when you install it, and it buys one thing: fetching the file behind the link you clicked.

How this build stands today

Edge is given the identical Manifest V3 package that Chrome gets - one codebase, one build, one artefact. Since Edge is Chromium underneath, everything that works in Chrome is expected to work here.

Expected, not verified. Foretaste has not been separately tested in Edge. No difference is known and none is likely, but nobody has sat down and run the format list through it, so this page will not claim otherwise. If you find something that behaves differently, tell us at hello@foretaste.page and it will be fixed and recorded here.

Said here rather than discovered by you after installing it.

Installing it

Open the Edge Add-ons store listing and choose "Add to Edge".

Your browser will show you the permission list above before it installs anything.
Grant the access your browser asks for, once.

It is asked for at install and never again, and never per site. The reason is on the privacy page: a download is routinely served from a different address than the page it was linked on, so being asked per site would mean being asked forever.
Right-click a file link and choose "Open with Foretaste".

You can also open files in a new tab instead of a panel, from Settings, if that suits you better.