Copilot or Discover browser extension not working as expected for managed Edge browser

If your organization manages the MS Edge browser or has decided to limit the availability of Copilot (previously known as Discover in Edge) until administrators have a handle on its capabilities and risks, then this post may be helpful.

You will find in the following article -- Copilot in Edge | Microsoft Learn -- Microsoft suggests for Admins who want to manage Copilot in Edge, they can "use multiple group policy settings to manage the behavior of the Copilot in Edge sidebar:"

# I have found it very strange, especially when referencing brand new tools like Copilot, that Microsoft documentation suggests admins are still using, or should use group policy as opposed to more modern management tools like Intune #

The article suggests the below "group policy settings" can be used to manage Copilot behavior in Edge:

• To allow or block Copilot in Edge from using browsing context, use the DiscoverPageContextEnabled policy. This prevents Copilot from using webpage or PDF content from being used to respond to prompts.
• To disable Copilot in Edge entirely, use the HubsSidebarEnabled policy. Blocking Copilot in Edge automatically blocks all Edge sidebar apps from being enabled.

Now according to these instructions, you would use the DiscoverPageContextEnabled policy to allow Copilot in Edge to use browsing context and seemingly (since HubsSidebarEnabled is used to disable Copilot) you would set HubsSidebarEnabled to enabled in order to force Copilot to appear and be available for your users. To an admin still using group policy to set these maybe everything works fine -- In previous testing I have hacked my registry to create the above keys and can't remember the results, but it was kind of a pointless test since I personally use Intune to manage our Edge browser.

If you're like me and use Intune to manage Edge's browser configuration at your organization, then seeing the keys above may prompt you to head to the Intune settings catalog to look for equivalent settings that you can use to set similar policy. Next, I'll share my findings from diving into how I might use something available in the Intune settings catalog. 

My findings are as follows:

• Show Copilot -- you will find this setting if you nav down through edge://settings/sidebar. With no settings configured related to Copilot you will see this in the off state and when you hover the briefcase icon where you would usually see "this setting is managed by your organization," you will just see a blank textbox. Right out of the gate this is a weird behavior and the only thing I have been able to chalk it up to so far is a bug -- my thinking is if your browser is managed by the organization then by default the Show Copilot setting will be in the off state. Ok, so now how do we actually get this thing on if we are ready for our users to use it?
• Discover feature In Microsoft Edge -- this is a setting you can find in the Intune settings catalog. Previously Copilot in Edge was called Bing Discover and it had a "B" icon. If you configure this setting today and set it to enabled you might expect it to display Discover or Copilot, however, when you check the edge://policy report you will find that EdgeDiscoverEnabled (as it shows up on the report) actually errors out and is described as an "unknown policy," and there will be no effect to the browser or to the Show Copilot setting I discussed above.
  
  
• HubsSidebarEnabled -- now back to the HubsSidebarEnabled setting referenced in the linked Microsoft documentation. Supposedly you would use this setting to "disable Copilot in Edge entirely." Now you can find a setting called Show Hubs Sidebar in the Intune settings catalog and you can set it to enabled. When you nav to the edge://policy report you will even see it successfully configured and reporting in as OK. However, in my testing I have not seen this have any effect on the Always show sidebar setting found at edge://settings/sidebar, and I have not seen this have any effect on the Show Copilot setting found at edge://settings/sidebar when you drill into the Copilot settings. So, my only conclusion here is that the HubsSidebarEnabled from the Intune settings catalog isn't ready for showtime. 
  
  
• DiscoverPageContextEnabled -- This is a setting you can find in the Intune settings catalog called Enable Discover access to page contents for AAD profiles. This setting will successfully configure and report back as OK in edge://policy report, however, I have not tested any further and can't tell you if it is actually doing what it intends to since I have not successfully configured Copilot using the other Intune settings. 

The only success I have found so far in all of this Copilot, Discover and Sidebar research are the following two extension IDs that can be added to your force install extension list -- and as a result the Copilot browser extension should appear. If you are new to using Intune to manage browser policy and aren't sure what I mean by the 'force install extension list,' drop a comment and I'll be happy to add some detail about that. 

Extension IDs:

• nkbndigcebkoaejohleckhekfmcecfja
• ofefcgjbeghpigppfmkologfjadafddi

I found these extension IDs by using ctrl + f on the edge://sidebar-internals page looking for results related to the search term "Discover." At the moment this seems like the best way to enable and test Copilot until the Intune settings currently available begin working as they are described. 

This is not meant to criticize the speed at which Microsoft has made settings available or set them up to work perfectly, but to prompt discussion and help others who might be going in circles trying to figure out if they're configuring something incorrectly. 

TL;DR

There are currently settings in the Intune settings catalog that don't seem to work as expected if you are trying to enable/disable Copilot for a managed instance of Edge at your organization. As a workaround there are a couple extension IDs that can be added to your ForceInstallExtension list to help display Copilot in the Edge sidebar. I've attached some screenshots related to different things referenced in this post.