Forum Discussion
Solved
Edge Beta v86 broke policies for WebView2
I see that after the update of Edge Beta to v86, the policies set in registry no longer work for Webview2-based browsers. E.g. I can freely download files on the browser despite DownloadRestrictions set to 3 (block all).
Yet, there is no such problem with v85 (Stable channel), or when using standalone Edge Beta v86, policies are respected.
Is this a bug?
Like LingAmy mentioned, this is by design. We believe that apps and browsers are separate scenarios, and admin usually doesn't know what is WebView2 or what apps use WebView2 (it's an implementation details to app). As Ling said, we want to prevent cases such as admin turning off JavaScript in Edge and then realizing in horror that a seemingly random set of apps on the device are broken because they use WebView2 and JavaScript underneath.
Specifically to your comment about "Webview2-based browsers", these apps that are built on top of the browser. We recommend developers owning these apps to expose their own policies to control WebView2 download behavior, or admins can block those apps from installing if they are malicious.
LingAmyMicrosoft
alexbond , this is a change introduced in recent release, see Release Notes for Microsoft Edge WebView2 for Win32, WPF, and WinForms - Microsoft Edge Development | Microsoft Docs.
WebView does not respect Edge browser policies. Edge and apps are separate management scenarios and we don't want browser policies to affect apps (e.g. admin blocks JavaScript in Edge then realizes in horror that a bunch of apps are broken).
liminzhuLike LingAmy mentioned, this is by design. We believe that apps and browsers are separate scenarios, and admin usually doesn't know what is WebView2 or what apps use WebView2 (it's an implementation details to app). As Ling said, we want to prevent cases such as admin turning off JavaScript in Edge and then realizing in horror that a seemingly random set of apps on the device are broken because they use WebView2 and JavaScript underneath.
Specifically to your comment about "Webview2-based browsers", these apps that are built on top of the browser. We recommend developers owning these apps to expose their own policies to control WebView2 download behavior, or admins can block those apps from installing if they are malicious.
