Edge “for Business”

Here’s something interesting I just discovered: when I use Edge with my personal MSA and click … > Help and Feedback > About Microsoft Edge, it tells me I’m using Microsoft Edge version whatever, but when I switch to a profile tied to my work account, then the same command tells me I’m using Edge for Business. So, it’s less of a truly different version of Edge and more of just a mode.

Recently, my company’s IT team enabled a policy that only allows Edge profiles to be used with our company-approved accounts on company-issued hardware. One day, you have separate work and personal profiles in Edge, everything is working great, and the next you’re locked down. Which is fine, I guess. I mean, it’s their hardware. But oddly, they also allow Chrome on company hardware (in fact, they install it by default, and you can’t remove it), and guess what? No such policy restricting users from using personal Google accounts there. When I asked about this apparent discrepancy, I was told that it wasn’t really a security thing at all. The Edge change was made to prevent one very specific group of users from accidentally logging into Edge using their personal MSAs, which breaks some kind of SSO integration they have with a billing system they use. OK, so create an OU for just those users and stop punishing the rest of us. Or, y’know, train users on the difference. I’ll just be over here in the corner, holding my breath.

That’s corporate IT, folks. And they wonder why I just use my own device.