Group Policy Templates for Microsoft Edge browser
It is worth noting that these Group Policy Templates are only available in English (US version) and are not final. They will continuously be updated and modified to the most optimal version as the release is generally available.
1] Downloading the latest release of the Group Policy Templates
You can get the current latest release of the Group Policy Templates from the official Microsoft servers. Go here and click on the Download Policy template file button. To keep yourself with the latest about the development of these Group Policy Templates, please refer to the official Microsoft Edge documentation page on docs.microsoft.com. The new cross-platform Edge runs on Windows, macOS, iOS and Android devices.
2] Adding these Group Policy Templates to the Group Policy Editor
The package that you download will contain the Group Policies for both Windows 10 and macOS.Extract the folder called windows to your computer locally. Open the Group Policy Editor. Right-click on Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates and select Add/Remove Templates.
Select Add and navigate to the following path inside that extracted windows folder: windows\adm\en-US Select msedge.adm Close the Add/Remove Templates… dialog box. You will now find all the Group Policies under the following path: There is also an HTML file included that contains all the policies indexed for a user’s preference.
3] Things one should know
Microsoft has made the following notes that they expect a user to know:
New Group Policy settings Microsoft Edge available
Microsoft now has a dedicated page where they will provide information about new features and non-security updates. In the latest update, there are new sixteen policies that have been added to Microsoft Edge Stable Channel. IT admins or Admin users can manually download Group Policy settings for Edge (Chromium) and merge them with existing policies.
To download the updated Administrative Templates, you will have to go to the Microsoft Edge Enterprise landing page. There you can select the channel or build, platform, and click on Get Policy Files link. The link is next to the download button, which will download the Edge browser. Make sure to click on the link next to it to download Group Policy Settings Edge. It will download a CAB file that needs to extract in the policy folder or Copy the msedge.admx file to the PolicyDefinition folder. Example: %systemroot%\sysvol\domain\policies\PolicyDefinitions. Or you can use the Group Policy Editor to import the Microsoft Edge templates.
Here is the list of new sixteen policies available for Stable Version 80
AlternateErrorPagesEnabled – Suggest similar pages when a webpage can’t be found.DefaultInsecureContentSetting – Control use of insecure content exceptions.DNSInterceptionChecksEnabled – DNS interception checks enabled.HideFirstRunExperience – Hide the First-run experience and splash screen.InsecureContentAllowedForUrls – Allow insecure content on specified sites.InsecureContentBlockedForUrls – Block insecure content on specified sites.LegacySameSiteCookieBehaviorEnabled – Enable default legacy SameSite cookie behavior setting.LegacySameSiteCookieBehaviorEnabledForDomainList – Revert to legacy SameSite behavior for cookies on specified sites.PaymentMethodQueryEnabled – Allow websites to query for available payment methods.PersonalizationReportingEnabled – Allow personalization of ads, search, and news by sending browsing history to Microsoft.PinningWizardAllowed – Allow Pin to taskbar wizard.SmartScreenPuaEnabled – Configure Microsoft Defender SmartScreen to block potentially unwanted apps.TotalMemoryLimitMb – Set limit on megabytes of memory a single Microsoft Edge instance can use.WebAppInstallForceList – Configure a list of force-installed Web Apps.WebComponentsV0Enabled – Re-enable Web Components v0 API until M84.WebRtcLocalIpsAllowedUrls – Manage exposure of local IP addresses by WebRTC.
Some of these policies are very interesting
DNSInterceptionChecksEnabled: It can be used to disable DNS interception checks. These checks attempt to discover whether the browser is behind a proxy that redirects unknown hostnames.DefaultInsecureContentSetting: Allows users to set whether users can add exceptions to allow mixed content for specific sites. If you have sites that serve both secure and insecure content, then you can enable it.
Edge team has also deprecated the NewTabPageCompanyLogo, which allowed IT to set a new tab page company logo. They have also resolved two issues. One resolved no audio issue with the Citrix environment. Second where Microsoft Edge and legacy Microsoft Edge side by side experience results in broken legacy links and crashes. I hope the release of these Group Policy Templates for the new Microsoft Edge Chromium browser is helpful to you. Read:
Group Policy Settings Reference Spreadsheet & ADMX Templates for Windows 11How to Install or Update Group Policy Administrative Templates (ADMX).
