Microsoft has finally released the official, stable version of its Chromium-based Edge web browser. And while that doesn’t mean that your old-school Edge is going away today, Microsoft will start rolling out the Chromium browser in small batches before eventually replacing it via Windows Update this summer.

Chrome: I download a lot of things. We all do. In my case, my Windows Downloads folder is basically my catch-all for everything I’m working on, as well as the primary archive for files and folders I need to save somewhere else (but haven’t yet). This means said Downloads folder can get unruly, and I have found a new Chrome extension to fix that.

When the boss says “I have a problem,” my ears perk up. Melissa can’t get her Gmail to load no matter what she tries — an issue that’s been plaguing her for months. It’s a peculiarity that makes me go “hmmmm,” since I never have issues loading Gmail.

Whenever I consider getting takeaway for lunch or running out for a latte during the workweek, I often pause to think about how much time it will cost me — not the time away from my desk, but rather the time spent working to add up to the amount I am about to spend. It doesn’t always stop me from making that impulse purchase, but it forces me to recognise that yes, this sandwich/drink/ice cream cone costs an amount of my paid time that I’m willing to part with.

If you feel nostalgic for the way YouTube used to be, or at least how it used to look, it’s possible to go back. An extension called “YouTube Classic” for Firefox and Chrome allows you to de-age the web video hub with a retro skin that reverts the site to how it looked once upon a time.

Chrome and Firefox: Pop-ups are back, baby! They offer 10% off, they ask you to subscribe to newsletters (sorry), they pull up a chat window so customer service can help you spend your money. If those chat pop-ups freak you out, try blocking them with the Hello, Goodbye extension.

There are plenty of extensions you can use to manage any organisational "difficulties" you have in Chrome. Here are a few of the ones I use to keep me sane.

It will come as no surprise that, as the editor of a website devoted to productivity, I'm obsessive about refining the details of my tech life to be certain every element is helping me get the job done. While I have software that I swear by (WriteRoom, Deckset, Evernote), I'm more of an evangelist for browser extensions.

My favourite Chrome extensions are lightweight, easy-to-install and usually free, but the effect they have on my productivity is profound. These are the extensions that I love most fervently and recommend most frequently.

Chrome: The Great Suspender is an extension I recommend to anyone who ever uses Google’s Chrome browser, because it’s an excellent way to keep the browser’s memory use as low as possible. While it’s a delicious meal all on its own, I also recommend pairing The Great Suspender with the Chrome extension Cluster.

I have to deal with so much stupid on social media, it makes me want to quit nearly every site I’m on at least once a week. Surely you’ve had this feeling as well — perhaps it’s because of an annoying friend, a trend that refuses to die, or some political discourse packed with racism and idiocy.

One of the worst parts of trying to work with people located around the world is figuring out what time it is where they are. Coordinating meeting when everyone is in one time zone is hard enough.

Every time I go to write an email, I get distracted by my inbox. I check all my new mail, and I put off the actual task I opened Gmail for. None of that new email was urgent, but I couldn't ignore all those bold lines. So now I hide my inbox with Inbox When Ready.

Browser extensions are fantastic but, as superheroes have taught us, with great power comes great responsibility. Malicious developers can hide bad behaviour inside useful extensions and when they slip through the screening process, the only option left to the likes of Mozilla and Google is to ban them. Mozilla has updated its blocked add-on list and it includes an extension the company itself gave the thumbs-up just this week.

If you've stumbled across an image on the internet — perhaps on your favourite social media site — and you want to know more about it, you can always ask the person responsible for the post. Odds are good that they probably just cribbed the image from somewhere else and don't know any more about where it came from. But that's fine. You can also take on the detective work yourself and there are plenty of resources to help you out.

h264ify is a Chrome extension that's been around for a while. What it does is force YouTube to play videos using the h264 codec, rather than VP9, as the former has wider hardware acceleration support. Unfortunately, if you're still on Windows 7 or 8.1 and use Chrome, it doesn't matter if you bought your GPU yesterday — VP9 won't be hardware-accelerated in Chrome.

Chrome, Firefox: It's been a rough week for many of us and it's likely you're a little stressed out right now.

Chrome: I can't recall the last time I didn't install an extension from the Google's Chrome Web Store. However, developers - up until now - have been allowed to offer their extensions as inline downloads. In other words, they could drop a download button on a website, you'd click on it and see a typical installation confirmation dialogue (as if you were installing the extension from the Chrome Web Store itself), and before you knew it, you were +1 to extensions.

If you're a Chrome power-user, you'll eventually want to set up an automatic URL redirect. Maybe you want to watch all your YouTube videos on a minimalist site; maybe you love — or hate — going to the mobile version of a site. Maybe you just make the same typo every time you enter a certain URL.

With Chrome 66, Google made some hefty changes to the way autoplaying content works — killing it, essentially. Unfortunately, this has broken a number of extensions (such as Imagus) preventing them from interacting with animated, cross-site images.