Microsoft releases Microsoft Edge Chromium Group Policies preview
Microsoft released an early preview of the policies that it plans to support in the Microsoft Edge Chromium web browser.
Microsoft Edge Chromium, much like the classic Microsoft Edge browser, Google's Chrome web browser or Mozilla's Firefox browser, supports policies that administrators may set.
The administrative template is available as a preview that has some limitations currently. The templates are only available in English (US), don't include policies for updates as Microsoft plans to release those in a separate administrative template file, and may change before the final release as policies may be added, changed, or removed based on feedback and development.
All that is required is to download the administrative template for Microsoft Edge to the local system and add it to the Group Policy.
If you are just interested in the available policies check out the HTML file that lists them all in the common folder. The HTML file lists all included policies in the template; each policy has a link to a details page that contains the description and other information useful to administrators.
You can check out our instructions for adding Chrome templates to the Group Policy, or follow these basic steps to integrate the template:
- Download the Administrative Template from the Microsoft Tech Community website.
- Extract the zip archive on the local system. Note that it includes policies for Windows and Mac.
- Open the Group Policy Editor, e.g. by opening Start, typing gpedit.msc and selecting the item from the list of results.
- Right-click on Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates, and select Add/Remove Templates.
- Click on Add in the window that opens and browse to the location of the Microsoft Edge templates file.
- Select Close to end the process.
You find the new policies in the Group Policy Editor afterward. All changes that administrators make are saved in the Registry under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Edge. The policies for the old Microsoft Edge browser are saved to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\MicrosoftEdge instead.
Closing Words
The release of administrative templates for Microsoft Edge Chromium marks another important step towards a final release of the web browser. Microsoft has yet to announce an official release date for the new Edge version; a stable version is not available yet.
Microsoft released preview versions of the browser for Windows 7 and 8.1 this week. (via)
