Microsoft Explains How New Edge is Enterprise-Ready

Last week, ahead of its Inspire partner show, Microsoft said that current pre-release versions of the new Edge were ready for enterprise evaluation. However, the firm didn’t make any changes to the available Edge channels, leading some to wonder what had really changed. Today, Microsoft has finally communicated that.

“This week at the Microsoft Inspire 2019 conference, we shared an update on capabilities that we are investing in to make the next version of Microsoft Edge the best browser for enterprises and business customers of all sizes,” a post attributed to the Microsoft Edge team reads. “The Dev Channel now has enterprise features enabled by default, and is ready for evaluation and supported by detailed deployment and configuration documentation. We are offering full support for deployment in pilot and production environments through our commercial support channels.”

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Microsoft is now making the Dev Channel version of the new Edge available to its enterprise customers from the Microsoft Edge Insider website. There are also offline installers, ADMX files (for applying group policies), and documentation.

Among the enterprise features that are available by default in Edge Dev Channel is Internet Explorer mode, which integrates Microsoft’s legacy web browser directly into the new Edge. Microsoft’s goal for IE mode is 100 percent compatibility with today’s IE 11-compatible websites, with full support for IE’s doc modes and ActiveX controls like Silverlight and Browser Helper Objects (BHOs).

The new Edge also supports signing-in to the browser with an Azure Active Directory (AAD) corporate or school account instead of a Microsoft account (MSA). A new enterprise-focused New Tab page will provide access to corporate web apps, documents, and internal sites. And Microsoft 365 customers will see native support for Microsoft Search in the new Edge.

“Many of the features described in the roadmap are available today in our Insider channels,” Microsoft explains. “Some start rolling out on our servers today and will slowly roll out over the next couple weeks. Others are still in development and will come in later updates. We believe that with today’s announcement, the enterprise feature set is complete enough for most companies to start evaluations and pilots.”

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Conversation 14 comments

  • Stooks

    16 July, 2019 - 4:09 pm

    <p>We are testing this now as a replacement for Chrome. The GPO's are already better than Chrome's GPO support.</p>

    • Tony Barrett

      17 July, 2019 - 6:39 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#443105">In reply to Stooks:</a></em></blockquote><p>Chrome Enterprise edition is actually very good, and almost all aspects can be managed via GPO. Why on earth you'd even consider switching to Edge-ium at this stage is beyond me – rolling something like this out in the Enterprise is just madness.</p>

      • allanwith

        18 July, 2019 - 2:14 am

        <blockquote><em><a href="#443262">In reply to ghostrider:</a></em></blockquote><p>They are TESTING it, not rolling it out ;)</p>

      • JCerna

        Premium Member
        18 July, 2019 - 11:42 am

        <blockquote><em><a href="#443262">In reply to ghostrider:</a></em></blockquote><p>We tested it and without any browser plug-ins like Java etc, edge is a much better solution. Aside from Google blocking or giving warning messages, it works. We have deployed in 1/2 of our machines so about 2500. Chrome is still on there and Firefox for now but we may remove them soon. </p>

  • skane2600

    16 July, 2019 - 5:24 pm

    <p>Using the word "goal" in the context of compatibility always makes me a bit uneasy. If one needs the capabilities of IE, wouldn't using it instead of an IE mode in Edge be the safer choice? </p>

    • lvthunder

      Premium Member
      16 July, 2019 - 7:13 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#443152">In reply to skane2600:</a></em></blockquote><p>Safer yes, but less convenient.</p>

      • skane2600

        16 July, 2019 - 8:25 pm

        <blockquote><em><a href="#443202">In reply to lvthunder:</a></em></blockquote><p>In what why would it be less convenient? Even if one wanted to use Edge as their primary browser (which of course, we can't assume), would invoking an option within Edge to load the required code and invoke it be more difficult than simply invoking IE? </p><p><br></p><p>Of course since Windows can run multiple programs at the same time, the most likely pattern would be to have both browsers running all the time.. </p>

        • sandy

          16 July, 2019 - 8:54 pm

          <blockquote><em><a href="#443211">In reply to skane2600:</a></em></blockquote><p>ChrEdge's IE mode with a properly configured Enterprise site compatibility list for particular intranet websites takes away 'oh no this doesn't work in this browser' &amp; 'which browser did I need for this again?', both of which reduce productivity.</p><p>People should be able to focus on their job instead of trying to remember which browser to use for which site.</p><p>MS should've done this with Edge originally.</p>

          • skane2600

            17 July, 2019 - 1:33 pm

            <blockquote><em><a href="#443216">In reply to Sandy:</a></em></blockquote><p>How many intranet websites is a single enterprise likely to have created and how many of those would be incompatible with IE? Most likely there are only two kinds: intranet sites that require IE and all the others than could use any browser brand. </p><p><br></p><p>So if an enterprise has IE-specific intranet sites along with multiple generic intranet sites, the simplest solution would probably be to just use IE.</p>

            • allanwith

              18 July, 2019 - 2:12 am

              <blockquote><em><a href="#443330">In reply to skane2600:</a></em></blockquote><p>Simplicity is a matter of perspective.</p><p><br></p><p>For some it would be simpler to set Edge as the default browser and tell or make people use that and nothing else. Then for those few sites that you mention, have it use IE mode.</p><p><br></p><p>There is value to getting people in enterprises off IE. I see people all over our organization still using it for everything, just because of habit. Hide IE away and get people used to the new Edge instead.</p>

              • skane2600

                18 July, 2019 - 2:49 pm

                <blockquote><em><a href="#443448">In reply to allanwith:</a></em></blockquote><p>IMO, there's been a long-term political correctness among developers to hate IE. It might very well been one of the motivations for creating the original Edge – to create a Microsoft browser that it was acceptable to like. </p><p><br></p><p>If people in your organization are successfully using IE for their work why do they need to change? "New" isn't automatically a better argument than "habit".</p>

  • waethorn

    16 July, 2019 - 9:12 pm

    <p>"Microsoft Information Protection for Windows 10"</p><p><br></p><p>That's a tragic name. (whose information is it?)</p>

  • anderb

    Premium Member
    17 July, 2019 - 8:07 am

    <p>“We’ve replaced Google’s evil bits with our own!”</p>

  • Omen_20

    17 July, 2019 - 2:49 pm

    <p>Am I behind on the dev version? I still only have MSA as an option for signing into the browser, and lack Microsoft Search.</p><p>Currently running <span style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247); color: rgb(111, 111, 111);">77.0.211.3</span></p>

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