Microsoft Edge: enhanced management and policy updates revealed

Devesh Beri

Microsoft has unveiled a new update for its Edge browser, featuring an enhanced Microsoft Edge management service. This update allows administrators to easily manage the Microsoft Edge browser through the Microsoft 365 admin center. Admins can now configure all Microsoft Edge browser policies for their organization within a configuration profile, ensuring a streamlined and efficient management experience.

Earlier this month, Microsoft Edge started taking action against spam notifications.

The update introduces several new policies aimed at improving user functionality and security. Some of the key additions include:

  • ComposeInlineEnabled: This policy enables Compose, an AI-powered writing assistance tool in Microsoft Edge. Compose assists users in generating and refining text, offering suggestions for tone, rewrites, and formatting to enhance the writing process.
  • WalletDonationEnabled: The Wallet Donation feature now allows users to view donation summaries, explore Nonprofit organizations (NPOs), donate to NPOs, manage monthly donations, and view donation history.
  • EdgeManagementEnabled: Administrators can turn on or off the Microsoft Edge management service, providing cloud-based management options for better user control.
  • EdgeManagementEnrollmentToken: This policy enables the specification of an enrollment token for registering with Microsoft Edge management service, facilitating the deployment of associated policies.
  • EdgeManagementExtensionsFeedbackEnabled: Users can now control whether Microsoft Edge sends data about blocked extensions to the Microsoft Edge management service.
  • EnhanceSecurityModeIndicatorUIEnabled: This policy lets administrators manage the User Interface (UI) indicator for the Enhanced Security Mode (ESM) feature in Microsoft Edge, providing better security controls.
  • EnhanceSecurityModeOptOutUXEnabled: Administrators can manage the opt-out user experience for the Enhanced Security Mode (ESM) in Microsoft Edge.
  • SearchForImageEnabled: This policy configures the Image Search feature in the right-click context menu.

Additionally, the EnforceLocalAnchorConstraintsEnabled policy, previously supported, is now deprecated. While still available for use, it will become obsolete in future releases. This policy allowed administrators to determine whether the built-in certificate verifier enforced constraints encoded into trust anchors from the platform trust store.

With these new management features and policy updates, Microsoft Edge aims to provide users with a more seamless and secure browsing experience. The update is available on Windows and macOS platforms from version 115 or later. Users can now leverage the full potential of Microsoft Edge with these latest enhancements.