Forum Discussion

lforbes's avatar
lforbes
Iron Contributor
Jan 21, 2020
Solved

Keep Favorites Synced between Internet Explorer and Edge NOT available in Edge Chromium

85 does have Roaming with AD Sync to a users home drive.  So not Folder Redirection but this works. Except I cannot seem to get Collections Roaming enabled no matter how hard I try. It is "locke...
  • narutards's avatar
    narutards
    Feb 13, 2020

    Chris Jackson Deleted 

     

    I'm not quite sure what's so hard to understand about the issue.

     

    This has nothing to do with Windows 7 or with Internet Explorer specifically. How IE mode suddenly came into the picutre - I have no idea. This is all about where to store the favorites in the new Edge.

     

    The issue is the following:

     

    - Users are using multiple computers. To have the same desktop, documents and favorites on all those computers Microsoft's "Folder Redirection" is used and configured through GPOs.

    - So Internet Explorer's favorites are stored on e.g. \\server\users\%username%\favorites

    - The old Edge has a GPO that allows it to automagically sync its own favorites with Internet Explorer's favorites that are stored on that network path. If you add a favorite in either IE or the old Edge it is automagically synced to the other browser instantly.

     

    Now the new Edge comes along and we have to face the following limitations:

    - Any kind of cloud-sync or usage of Microsoft accounts is not possible due to data privacy regulations

    - The new Edge is storing its favorites in the local file deep inside the %LOCALAPPDATA% folder of the user.

     

    This causes issues for us in a number of ways.

     

    While the first-run import of favorites (from the redirected Internet Explorer favorites) is currently broken in v80 (its supposed to be back in v81) it only provides a momentary snapshot of the redirected favorites.

    The bookmarks file being a local file means that we cannot easily back it up either. And when the user receives a new PC or uses a different machine than he usually does he'll have to import all the favorites again, from the redirected Internet Explorer favorites. But all the favorites he has managed in the new Edge in the meantime are not available (or even gone for good in the case of a new PC).

    Importing the same old IE favorites on different PCs will soon result in having different favorites on all those PCs. And there is no way to easily merge them either.

     

    This is a real problem.

     

    We really need a way to redirect the bookmarks file to a network location so that it can be:

    - used from multiple PCs

    - be backed up easily during the regular server backup

    - not get lost when the user's PC dies or gets replaced for another reason

     

    All this was easily doable with the redirected favorites folder used by Internet Explorer and thanks to the "keep favorites synced" GPO in the old Edge Browser.

     

     

    Also, please do not suggest to use the "UserDataDir" policy. This would redirect the entire user profile to a different location. Cache and everything. It is also not quite certain whether a redirected UserDataDir can actually be used by multiple instances of Edge on different computers at the same time (locked files issue and such). But even if it was possible, we really don't want to roam 100MB+ of useless data.

     

    All we are really looking for is the possibility to specify a network location for the "bookmarks" file that is by default stored under "C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Edge\User Data\Default". That's all we really want and need.

     

    Bonus points for actually bringing back the "keep favorites synced between IE and Edge" policy that the old Edge supported. But that would really only be the cherry on top.

HotCakeX's avatar
HotCakeX
MVP
Feb 13, 2020
Chromium browsers like Edge and Google Chrome have the Group policy that is a better way to manage favorites.
OR
you can use online servers of Microsoft to sync favorites.
narutards's avatar
narutards
Iron Contributor
Feb 14, 2020

HotCakeX 

We do not want to _manage_ favorites. We do not care what kind of favorites the users save. What we care about is making sure that users have the same favorites on all devices in the company. And we care about favorites not being lost when a computer is switched out or the harddisk dies.

 

And again, we cannot (read: must not) use any kind of cloud-sync due to data protection regulations. GDPR and whatnot. Uploading any of our data to Microsoft's (or any other) cloud is not allowed.

    • lforbes's avatar
      lforbes
      Iron Contributor
      Feb 17, 2020

      HotCakeX 

      "And again, we cannot (read: must not) use any kind of cloud-sync due to data protection regulations. GDPR and whatnot. Uploading any of our data to Microsoft's (or any other) cloud is not allowed."
      You need to talk to Microsoft support about your concerns on that area."

       

      We did. Microsoft absolutely cannot guarantee that their Cloud server data is NEVER accessible by people outside of Canada, period, end of story.  If someone in a foreign country has access to Canadian Health Care information, or European Health Care information, it is a violation of the Canadian privacy act or the GDPR even if there are cloud servers stored in the country of Origin. As most of Tier 1 and 2 Microsoft Support resides even outside of North America it is a big security concern.

      • HotCakeX's avatar
        HotCakeX
        MVP
        Feb 19, 2020

        lforbes 

         

        Spoiler
        lforbes wrote:

        HotCakeX 

        "And again, we cannot (read: must not) use any kind of cloud-sync due to data protection regulations. GDPR and whatnot. Uploading any of our data to Microsoft's (or any other) cloud is not allowed."
        You need to talk to Microsoft support about your concerns on that area."

         

        We did. Microsoft absolutely cannot guarantee that their Cloud server data is NEVER accessible by people outside of Canada, period, end of story.  If someone in a foreign country has access to Canadian Health Care information, or European Health Care information, it is a violation of the Canadian privacy act or the GDPR even if there are cloud servers stored in the country of Origin. As most of Tier 1 and 2 Microsoft Support resides even outside of North America it is a big security concern.

         

        Azure geographies

        Azure regions are organized into geographies. An Azure geography ensures that data residency, sovereignty, compliance, and resiliency requirements are honored within geographical boundaries.

         

         

        https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/global-infrastructure/geographies/

         

         

         

        https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?linkid=2111376

         

         

        if you want something on the cloud that even Microsoft employees and support won't be able to access, you can set up a Hyper-V shielded virtual machine with Host Guardian service.

         

        please take a look at this:

        https://youtu.be/Vp5E1-4Ks8E

         

         

  • HotCakeX's avatar
    HotCakeX
    MVP
    Feb 14, 2020
    "What we care about is making sure that users have the same favorites on all devices in the company."

    EXACTLY. that's where Group Policy comes into play.

    ManagedFavorites
    https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/deployedge/microsoft-edge-policies#managedfavorites


    Description

    Configures a list of managed favorites.

    The policy creates a list of favorites. Each favorite contains the keys "name" and "url," which hold the favorite's name and its target. You can configure a subfolder by defining a favorites without an "url" key but with an additional "children" key that contains a list of favorites as defined above (some of which may be folders again). Microsoft Edge amends incomplete URLs as if they were submitted via the Address Bar, for example "microsoft.com" becomes "https://microsoft.com/".

    These favorites are placed in a folder that can't be modified by the user (but the user can choose to hide it from the favorites bar). By default the folder name is "Managed favorites" but you can change it by adding to the list of favorites a dictionary containing the key "toplevel_name" with the desired folder name as the value.

    Managed favorites are not synced to the user account and can't be modified by extensions.