Oct 23, 2020 The Microsoft Edge baseline defaults represent the recommended configuration for Microsoft Edge browsers, and might not match baseline defaults for other security baselines. Note The Microsoft Edge baseline for October 2019 is in Public Preview. 6) If Edge still opens and closes unexpectedly in a few seconds. Also you can reinstall Microsoft Edge: 1) On your keyboard, press the Windows key and S at the same time, then type powershell. Right-click Windows PowerShell and select Run as administrator. When prompted with the administrator permission, click Yes to continue.
Note: This article is for the new Microsoft Edge . Get help for the legacy version of Microsoft Edge.
With your permission, the new Microsoft Edge can remember information for you, making it easier to return to a favorite site or fill in forms. Microsoft Edge stores your browsing data, such as your passwords, info you've entered in forms, sites you've visited, and other information. Other browsing modes such as InPrivate browsing and Guest mode function differently and store less data than normal browsing.
Your browsing data is stored on your device. If you've turned on sync, those data types can also be stored in the Microsoft cloud to be synced across your signed in versions of Microsoft Edge.
You can see and clear your browsing history by selecting Settings and more > History > Manage history. You may choose to clear your browsing history at any time.
Clear browsing data stored on your computer
To clear browsing data on your computer, make sure sync is turned off. Items that are synced will be cleared across all synced devices.
Here's how to clear your browsing data in Microsoft Edge:
Select Settings and more > Settings > Privacy, search, and services .
Under Clear browsing data, select Choose what to clear.
Choose a time range from the Time range drop-down menu.
Choose the types of data you want to clear (see the table below for descriptions). For example, you may want to remove browsing history and cookies but keep passwords and form fill data.
Select Clear now.
Clear browsing data stored in the cloud (if you’ve turned on sync or personalization)
To manage and delete data saved in the Microsoft cloud, see the privacy dashboard. On the privacy dashboard you can view or delete your data. Data that you delete on the privacy dashboard won’t be deleted from your device.
To learn more about how to stop sharing your data with Microsoft, see Microsoft Edge browsing data and privacy.
Browsing data you can delete in the browser
Types of info | What gets deleted | Where it's stored |
|---|---|---|
Browsing history | The URLs of sites you've visited, and the dates and times of each visit. | On your device (or if sync is turned on, across your synced devices) |
Download history | The list of files you've downloaded from the web. This only deletes the list, not the actual files that you've downloaded. | On your device |
Cookies and other site data | Info that sites store on your device to remember your preferences, such as sign-in info or your location and media licenses. | On your device |
Cached images and files | Copies of pages, images, and other media content stored on your device. The browser uses these copies to load content faster the next time you visit those sites. | On your device |
Passwords | Site passwords that you've saved. | On your device (or if sync is turned on, across your synced devices) |
Autofill form data (includes forms and cards) | Info that you've entered into forms, such as your email, credit card, or a shipping address. | On your device (or if sync is turned on, across your synced devices) |
Site permissions | Go to Settings and more > Settings > Site permissions to see a list for each website, including location, cookies, pop-ups, and media autoplay. | On your device |
Hosted app data | Info web apps store on your device. This includes data from the Microsoft Store. To see the apps saved to Microsoft Edge, go to Settings and more > Apps > Manage apps. | On your device |
Clear Internet Explorer browsing data using Microsoft Edge
Using Microsoft Edge, you can clear all browsing data from Internet Explorer. Clearing Internet Explorer browsing data won’t affect your browsing data in another browser.
Note: This is only available if your organization has turned on Internet Explorer mode.
In Microsoft Edge, select Settings and more > Settings > Privacy, search, and services .
Under Clear browsing data for Internet Explorer, select Choose what to clear.
Choose the types of data you want to clear.
Select Delete.
Related topics
-->Use the following information to configure Microsoft Edge policy settings on your Windows devices.
Note
This article applies to Microsoft Edge version 77 or later.
Configure policy settings on Windows
You can use group policy objects (GPO) to configure policy settings for Microsoft Edge and managed Microsoft Edge updates on all versions of Windows. You can also provision policy through the registry for Windows devices that are joined to a Microsoft Active Directory domain, or Windows 10 Pro or Enterprise instances enrolled for device management in Microsoft Intune. To configure Microsoft Edge with group policy objects, you install administrative templates that add rules and settings for Microsoft Edge to the group policy Central Store in your Active Directory domain or to the Policy Definition template folder on individual computers and then configure the specific policies you want to set.
You can use Active Directory group policy to configure Microsoft Edge policy settings if you prefer to manage policy at the domain level. This enables you to manage policy settings globally, targeting different policy settings to specific OUs, or using WMI filters to apply settings only to users or computers returned by a particular query. If you want to configure policy on individual computers, you can apply policy settings that only affect the local device using the Local Group Policy Editor on the target computer.
Microsoft Edge supports both mandatory and recommended policies. Mandatory policies override user preferences and prevents the user from changing it, while recommended policy provide a default setting that may be overridden by the user. Most policies are mandatory only; a subset are mandatory and recommended. If both versions of a policy are set, the mandatory setting takes precedence. A recommended policy only takes effect when the user has not modified the setting.
Tip
You can use Microsoft Intune to configure Microsoft Edge policy settings. For more information, see Configure Microsoft Edge using Microsoft Intune.
There are two administrative templates for Microsoft Edge, both of which can be applied either at the computer or Active Directory domain level:
- msedge.admx to configure Microsoft Edge settings
- msedgeupdate.admx to manage Microsoft Edge updates.
To get started, download and install the Microsoft Edge administrative template.
1. Download and install the Microsoft Edge administrative template
If you want to configure Microsoft Edge policy settings in Active Directory, download the files to a network location you can access from a domain controller or a workstation with the Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) installed. To configure on an individual computer, simply download the files to that computer.
When you add the administrative template files to the appropriate location, Microsoft Edge policy settings are immediately available in the Group Policy Editor.
Microsoft Edge Vs Personal Edge
Go to the Microsoft Edge Enterprise landing page to download the Microsoft Edge policy templates file (MicrosoftEdgePolicyTemplates.cab) and extract the contents.
Add the administrative template to Active Directory
On a domain controller or workstation with RSAT, browse to the PolicyDefinition folder (also known as the Central Store) on any domain controller for your domain. For older versions of Windows Server, you may need to create the PolicyDefinition folder. For more information, see How to create and manage the Central Store for Group Policy Administrative Templates in Windows.
Open MicrosoftEdgePolicyTemplates and go to windows > admx.
Copy the msedge.admx file to the PolicyDefinition folder. (Example: %systemroot%sysvoldomainpoliciesPolicyDefinitions)
In the admx folder, open the appropriate language folder. For example, if you’re in the U.S., open the en-US folder.
Copy the msedge.adml file to the matching language folder in the PolicyDefinition folder. Create the folder if it does not already exist. (Example: %systemroot%sysvoldomainpoliciesPolicyDefinitionsEN-US)
If your domain has more than one domain controller, the new ADMX files will be replicated to them at the next domain replication interval.
To confirm the files loaded correctly, open the Group Policy Management Editor from Windows Administrative Tools and expand Computer Configuration > Policies > Administrative Templates > Microsoft Edge. You should see one or more Microsoft Edge nodes as shown below.
Add the administrative template to an individual computer
- On the target computer, open MicrosoftEdgePolicyTemplates and go to windows > admx.
- Copy the msedge.admx file to your Policy Definition template folder. (Example: C:WindowsPolicyDefinitions)
- In the admx folder, open the appropriate language folder. For example, if you’re in the U.S., open the en-US folder.
- Copy the msedge.adml file to the matching language folder in your Policy Definition folder. (Example: C:WindowsPolicyDefinitionsen-US)
- To confirm the files loaded correctly either open Local Group Policy Editor directly (Windows key + R and enter gpedit.msc) or open MMC and load the Local Group Policy Editor snap-in. If an error occurs, it’s usually because the files are in an incorrect location.
2. Set mandatory or recommended policies
You can set mandatory or recommended policies to configure Microsoft Edge with the Group Policy Editor for both Active Directory and individual computers. You can scope policy settings to either the Computer Configuration or User Configuration by selecting the appropriate node as described below.
To configure a mandatory policy, open the Group Policy Editor and go to (Computer Configuration or User Configuration) > Policies > Administrative Templates > Microsoft Edge.
To configure a recommended policy, open the Group Policy Editor and go to (Computer Configuration or User Configuration) > Policies > Administrative Templates > Microsoft Edge – Default Settings (users can override).
3. Test your policies
On a target client device, open Microsoft Edge and navigate to edge://policy to see all policies that are applied. If you applied policy settings on the local computer, policies should appear immediately. You may need to close and reopen Microsoft Edge if it was open while you were configuring policy settings.
Microsoft Edge Home Page
For Active Directory group policy settings, policy settings are propagated to domain computers at a regular interval defined by your domain administrator, and target computers may not receive policy updates right away. To manually refresh Active Directory group policy settings on a target computer, execute the following command from a command prompt or PowerShell session on the target computer:
You may need to close and reopen Microsoft Edge before the new policies appear.
You can also use REGEDIT.exe on a target computer to view the registry settings that store group policy settings. These settings are located at the registry path HKLMSOFTWAREPoliciesMicrosoftEdge.
Install Microsoft Edge Browser
See also