Instantly Make the Gear Appear in SharePoint

This is truly one of the best tricks I’ve learned in all the years I’ve been using SharePoint.

When you refresh a page, it can take 8-10 (or more) seconds before the gear (aka cog) is visible. This first animation shows the normal timing.

But if you simply click on your name or face, the gear shows up instantly.

As someone who usually has the information architect hat on, I’ve wasted oodles of time waiting for that darn gear. Now that I know this trick, I’m gaining 8-10 seconds (at least) per refresh/reload.

It sounds like a small win, but when you’re refreshing or loading pages all day long, it really adds up.

I think I’ll take a year off once I’ve earned it using this trick.

Oh, and Microsoft, you don’t get off the hook on this. The first thing some of us want when we go to a page is the gear, and it’s the last thing that shows up. That seems wrong, even if the other 99% of users don’t care about the gear.

I don’t remember exactly who told me about this trick first, but I owe you one.

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Kasper Larsen pointed out a post from Ellya Gold from about a month ago on LinkedIn pointing this trick out. Maybe that’s there I heard about it?