On July 2, 2026, Microsoft released Edge 150 to the Stable channel, and with it came two feature retirements that will force millions of users and IT admins to rethink their daily workflows. The sidebar’s App Tower — that row of pinned app icons many relied on for instant access to Outlook, Teams, or internal dashboards — is being phased out completely. At the same time, Edge Workspaces is losing its sharing and live collaboration capabilities, moving all workspace data to the browser’s Sync engine instead of OneDrive.

Build 150.0.4078.48 arrived first, followed by the maintenance update 150.0.4078.83 on July 17. Because Edge updates roll out progressively, not every device gets the new release on its publication date. Checking the installed version at edge://settings/help is the only way to confirm what build your browser actually runs.

What Exactly Is Disappearing

Microsoft’s Stable Channel release notes document two concrete changes. First, the Sidebar app list (the App Tower) is being retired. Users can no longer add new apps to that surface. Currently pinned apps will remain until a future update removes them — Microsoft has not set a specific date, but the removal is confirmed. The broader side pane and the Copilot button are unaffected; they stay exactly where they are, and Microsoft emphasizes they will “continue to be available.”

Second, Workspaces sharing is ending. The Workspaces feature itself survives, but its data is migrating from OneDrive and SharePoint storage to Edge Sync. Once a profile switches to Workspaces V2 — a process that began in Edge 145 and continues through 150 — sharing and real-time collaboration are gone. A workspace becomes a personal tab set that syncs across your own devices only if Edge Sync is enabled. If Sync is off, new V2 workspaces stay local to the device that created them.

For IT administrators, there is an additional consequence: any Edge policies configured to populate or govern the App Tower will simply stop being applied. The sidebar itself is not being removed, so policies for Copilot or the side pane may still be valid — but anything targeting the App Tower specifically becomes inert.

What It Means for You — Split by User Type

Home users and casual browsers

If you only used the App Tower occasionally for quick-serve links like a weather site or calculator, the impact is minor. You can replace each pinned app with a browser bookmark, a pinned tab, or a shortcut on your Windows taskbar. Copilot, still embedded in the side pane, remains available for AI assistance, and since the side pane itself is staying, you can still open websites in a split view.

For Workspaces, the change hits harder if you used the feature to share a curated set of tabs with family members or a small group. Once sharing disappears, you will need to export your workspace’s links and move them to a shared document, a group tab collection, or a simple email. If you only used workspaces as personal tab organizers, the experience will feel largely the same — provided you keep Edge Sync on.

Power users and enthusiasts

Many power users leaned on the App Tower as a compact launcher for web apps — think Slack, Figma, Jira, or password managers. Because you can no longer pin new apps, and existing pins will eventually vanish, you need to plan an alternative. The Favorites bar or managed Favorites are the stock replacement, but they do not replicate the compact, always-visible side experience. Third-party extensions that provide a similar sidebar launcher could fill the gap, but they introduce their own maintenance and privacy considerations.

Workspaces, if you used them to keep separate project contexts in sync across devices, will still work that way — as long as Sync is active. But any workspace shared with collaborators will break. You will need to re-share the set of links through a platform like SharePoint, Notion, or a shared browser bookmark folder. This is a loss of the frictionless “live” collaboration that Workspaces previously offered.

IT administrators and managed environments

The bulk of preparation falls on IT. The App Tower retirement means every internal web app, ticketing system, or dashboard that users accessed through a pinned sidebar app now needs a documented, tested replacement. A simple bookmark may suffice for a public URL, but managed environments often need a more robust solution: a managed Favorite pushed through Group Policy, a standalone web app pinned to the Start menu, or an entry in the company’s service catalog.

Workspace sharing has been a quiet productivity tool in many teams — onboarding resource packs, project link sets, or incident-response tabs. Those shared collections must move to a centrally maintained location. IT must inventory who creates and shares workspaces, help owners export destinations, and establish a new shared-link repository with clear ownership.

The policy angle is critical. Any Group Policy or Intune setting intended to configure App Tower apps now does nothing. Do not, however, blindly delete every policy containing the word “sidebar” or “workspace.” Some of those may still control the side pane or Copilot. The safe approach: audit each policy’s original business purpose, flag those linked to the App Tower for removal or replacement, and test the rest against current Microsoft documentation.

How We Got Here

Edge’s sidebar has been through several iterations. The App Tower was introduced to give users one-click access to frequently used websites and progressive web apps, sitting alongside other sidebar features like Search, Discover, and eventually Copilot. Over time, Microsoft appears to have consolidated the browsing assistant experience around AI, leaving the App Tower as a redundant launch surface when the Favorites bar and Start menu already fill that role.

Workspaces followed a similar trajectory. Launched as a collaboration feature tied to OneDrive, it allowed teams to share live-tab sets. The shift to Edge Sync and the removal of collaboration suggest Microsoft is repositioning Workspaces as a personal continuity feature — your tabs follow you across devices — rather than a team tool. This aligns with broader moves to streamline Edge and phase out features that don’t gain broad adoption. In 2025, Microsoft retired Collections in favor of Favorites, and earlier this year Edge 137 saw several other feature removals.

What to Do Right Now

If you’re a home user or individual professional

  1. Check your App Tower. Click the “Customize sidebar” button (or gear icon) and write down every pinned app you actually use.
  2. Create replacements. For each, bookmark the site in your Favorites bar, pin it as a tab, or create a desktop shortcut. The Favorites bar can be shown with Ctrl+Shift+B if it isn’t visible already.
  3. Review shared workspaces. Open Edge, click the Workspaces icon (the two overlapping squares), and for any shared workspace, export the links by copying them into a document or using the “Send tab” feature.
  4. Enable Sync if you use Workspaces personally. Go to edge://settings/profiles/sync and turn on “Open tabs” to ensure your workspaces roam across devices.

If you’re an IT administrator

  1. Form a pilot group with a mix of typical users, heavy sidebar-app users, and workspace collaborators. Ensure at least one device receives the same policies as production.
  2. Inventory App Tower dependencies. Ask pilot users to list every pinned app they use weekly. For each, record the service owner, purpose, authentication requirements, and the consequence if it vanishes.
  3. Map replacements. Do not settle for “use a bookmark” unless that truly works. Consider managed Favorites (pushed via policy), intranet portal links, installed web apps, or Start menu shortcuts. Create a mapping table with before/after instructions.
  4. Audit Workspace usage. Identify who creates or shares workspaces, and which ones are team-owned. Determine whether Sync is enabled for those users (check edge://sync-internals or the profile settings).
  5. Test on a second device. For a user with Sync enabled, create a new V2 workspace on one device and verify its tabs appear on another. With Sync off, confirm that a new workspace stays local — this is by design.
  6. Communicate clearly. Send separate notices to App Tower users and Workspace collaborators. Include screenshots of the new access paths, precise instructions, and the date the old method will stop working.
  7. Update help-desk scripts. Train support staff to recognize the difference between a missing App Tower app and a Copilot issue. The phrase “my sidebar disappeared” usually means the pinned app is gone, not the entire side pane.
  8. Don’t rush to roll back. If something breaks during pilot, it is likely a missing replacement, not a browser defect. Downgrading Edge to avoid feature retirements is not a permanent strategy. Finish the remediation and proceed with deployment on your normal servicing schedule.

A quick replacement mapping template

For each affected App Tower entry, fill out a simple row:

| Current experience | Replacement | New access instructions | Authentication test | |---------------------|-------------|-------------------------|---------------------| | Help-desk portal pinned app | Managed Favorite labeled “IT Support” | Open Edge, click Favorites, select “IT Support” | Passed on pilot device | | Project shared workspace | SharePoint page with link list | Navigate to department portal; bookmark the page | Pending |

Document the owner, affected users, completion date, and who will send the change notice. This prevents confusion when the old icons disappear.

Outlook: A Leaner Edge Ahead

Microsoft is not removing the entire sidebar — Copilot’s presence there signals that the pane will likely evolve into an AI-centric companion rather than a general app launcher. Expect further refinements to the side pane as Copilot integrates more deeply with the browser. Workspaces V2, even without sharing, could still gain sync improvements, but the removal of collaboration suggests the feature will remain a personal tool.

Edge 150 is a turning point for organizations that embedded the App Tower into daily workflows, but for everyone else, these retirements are manageable with a bit of housekeeping. The immediate task: find your missing apps and reshare your links before the old features evaporate in an upcoming minor update.