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

AakashShah 

I've been trying to wrap my head around the RoamingProfileSupportEnabled policy in Chrome while it is not yet fully available in Edge. And even though I said that it would solve all of our problems and do exactly what we want I'm reading about more and more red flags the more I look into the whole thing.

Damaged profiles are a serious issue, but https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=1024814 suggests that there will be an improved "auto-healing" functionality starting in v81.

But the biggest issue I have with roaming profiles is the following statement: "We recommend that users never run simultaneous Chrome sessions when they use Roaming User Profiles." on https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/7349337

While this is probably not much of an issue for 90%+ of our users (they only have access to one machine (at a time)) we have plenty of users (including me) who are working on 2, 3 or even 4 machines in parallel. I've done some preliminary testing and it was quite easy to get two browsers on two machines sharing one roaming profile to go out-of-sync .. and I actually was unable to get them 100% synced again. One machine now has 1 more bookmark than the other machine. I've only tested with bookmarks though, since thats what our users will be focusing on the most.

But either way, in regards to the RoamingProfileSupportEnabled policy .. will be be getting the two very important improvements Google is currently implementing for Chrome in the newer Edge builds too?

- https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=649062 talks about the ability to actually select which items will be synced in the profile.db file with the ability to keep certain items local while still roaming things like bookmarks

- https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=1013546 is talking about limiting the number of writes to the profile.db file, supposedly targeted for release with v82 (I guess v83 now).

The more time I invest into digging into this the more I wish the good old days of an individual file-based favorites folder back, like IE gave us. None of that JSON/database stuff.

Is there a remote chance that we could be getting an Edge-exclusive feature that allows us to utilize the old IE-style individual file-based favorites folder again? Something like two policies:

- "FavoritesMode" = "IE|Chrome" ("IE" = individual files, "Chrome" = singular 'bookmarks' file)

- "FavoritesLocation" = "\\path\to\somewhere" (Configure an alternative location for the bookmarks. Default value "$systemdrive$\Users\$username$\AppData\Local\Microsoft\$EdgeVersion$\User Data\$profile$\")

Wishes over wishes.

nivlacckw

It's there as of v82, you can test it if you install the Dev channel now.

lforbes

When RoamingprofileSupportEnabled Chrome creates a small profile.pb for roaming. If Edge Chromium brings this back would be welcome. 

How other products keeping Edge settings without using profile.pb

https://www.avanite.com/blog/roaming-edge-chromium

Citrix Chrome example using  profile.pb

https://www.citrix.com/blogs/2018/04/18/running-google-chrome-on-citrix-xenapp-and-xendesktop/

nivlacckw

We have to obey privacy laws for health care and government. We absolutely cannot have anything going to the cloud, no logins, no names, no data of any form.

Chrome (and possibly Edge Chrome) creates 1GB of junk per PERSON to run a simple browser. Chrome is the most bloated piece of bloatware out there. We have enough problems with it filling up harddrives on computers where we have 1000 health care workers logging in in a month We don't need that roaming around. We just need the few KB of the bookmarks file stored on the users home drive and redirected via Group Policy. Every other setting we enforce in Group Policy so it is not needed to roam.

This can be completely avoided if Edge team did not remove RoamingProfileSupportEnabled in the first place. It is also bad that Edge team did not provide UE-V template and the community has to figure out themselves.

Deleted 

I recognize that Edge Chromium is based on the Chromium project, but it appears that Chromium's implementation for Roaming Profiles has some limitations.  If Microsoft can help address/solve those for Edge, especially in a Windows environment, that would be very helpful.  Here are some potential improvements based on my reading of https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/7349337 (I assume these same limitations would apply to Edge Chromium when implemented):

• If cloud sync has not otherwise been disabled, allow the user to continue to sync with the cloud, in addition to backing up the favorites to the specified RoamingProfileLocation path.  Based on the link above, it indicates that if RoamingProfileSupportEnabled is enabled, that cloud sync would no longer work, which is not something we want to explicitly disable in our environment since we want to allow users to continue doing this if they choose to, but still allow us to backup this data.
  
  
• Support for more than one profile.  The link above indicates that with the RoamingProfileSupport option enabled, the user cannot use more than one profile, so if this can be addressed, that would also be very helpful too so that we don't have problems with power users, or developers in our organization who may be using Edge Chromium.
  
  
• It's not clear to me if profile.pb is damaged, whether the user will get a notification about this damage, but the article does indicate that future profile changes won't be synchronized.  It would be helpful if the user were made aware of this so that they can report the problem to local IT, so that we can address this problem for the user, and not find out months later after their computer may have crashed, that their favorites were not backed up, and that we don't have the latest backup.

In our environment, our primary goal is to ensure that we have a backup of the user's bookmarks in case the computer crashes, and to allow them to see these favorites regardless of what domain computer they log into.  Also, if the user chooses to also sync with the cloud, we also don't want to prevent that.

Thanks!

Tequila 

You can use a group policy pref to create the folder on first logon and as prefs apply before logon scripts it usually works. We have logon scripts and logoff scripts that can copy the file around but I find it ironic in 2020 we are still having to use Windows NT 4.0 technology from 1996 to "hack" Microsoft products to work like they did with Windows 2000 and XP.

"There is no Cloud, it is just someone else's computer"

Following this too. I get MS wanting to ditch IE 'sync' but we need to be able to redirect bookmarks.

beerdini 

somebody should teach those "powers" that how technology works.

lforbes 

I'm following this because I am looking for a similar solution, but wow what a painful read.  Last year when my organization upgraded from Exchange 2010 to 2019 on premise I remember posting questions and would be met with the replies "why don't you just go to O365"?

Its like... Yes, I know it exists... Yes, I know it will do what I'm asking for help with the on-prem solution, but you know what, the business leaders have rules and concerns that are above my pay grade and influence, so even though you can do something like sync browser favorites between systems using a cloud service, my business policy doesn't allow it so lets just drop the discussion of why I should use solution B instead of A because the powers that be have decided that solution A is the way to go and that is the world that I have to live with.

lforbes 

is there an online official documentation to use as a reference for reading this part of the Canadian law?

cjc2112 

We have 86,000 workstations in hospitals from the rural north to the big cities. They run software for CT scans and Medical Equipment that can be up to 15-20 years old that costs upwards of millions to replace and most of the software won't run on 64bit. So we still have Windows 7 and 7 32bit running IE because they run unsigned ActiveX that are 10+ years old.

However, with the cost of extended patching service being expensive we are trying to upgrade them all to Windows 10 as soon as possible. However, that means we need a standard browser that works on Windows 10 and supports newer websites AND the older IE mode ones at the same time. New Edgium seems to fit this but for the case here of the favorites we are focussing on Windows 10 only which is about 50,000 workstations now. 

We have distribution SCCM servers in each remote area and within each subnet they use Branch Cache. We use a 10.x.x.x subnet which is internal. Branchcache is very efficient for Windows Updates and rollups etc and it works fine.

The problem comes with not having an Internal SCCM solution for Modern Apps. Delivery Optimization, the ONLY solution for Modern App Updates is 100% cloud based and requires registration with Microsoft servers outside of Canada which as I mentioned is banned for privacy reasons via Federal and Provincial Law.  As IP addresses are considered Private Information even under the GDPR https://eugdprcompliant.com/personal-data/ and cannot be collected.

Deleted 

@HotCakeX @lforbes @narutards @simsoo 

"We’ve heard the feedback loud and clear for a need to manage on-premise favorites sync in the new Microsoft Edge, and I know that it is a deployment blocker for many of you. I’m part of a team that is looking into how we can support this as soon as we can. For example, we are evaluating the pros and cons of Chrome’s RoamingProfile* policies as a starting point.

HotCakeX lforbes narutards simsoo Thank you all for your valuable input. We've been actively discussing this behind the scenes, and I have an update to share from Scott, a senior program manager from the Microsoft Edge Services team.

"We’ve heard the feedback loud and clear for a need to manage on-premise favorites sync in the new Microsoft Edge, and I know that it is a deployment blocker for many of you. I’m part of a team that is looking into how we can support this as soon as we can. For example, we are evaluating the pros and cons of Chrome’s RoamingProfile* policies as a starting point.

simsoo 

Google's business in based on data mining, Microsoft's business is based on providing services, that explains everything.

simsoo 

I have opened a ticket/call with Microsoft about the whole issue and informed them about the "RoamingProfileSupport" possibility in that call.

They do have plans for an on-premise sync but its slightly overkill. No answer back on the "RoamingProfileSupport" policy yet though. Haven't heared back from them in 2 days, so lets see what they say when they get back to me.

HotCakeX 

One can argue whether the data on Google or Microsoft are more secure.
The fact is, Chromium Edge still lacks basic functions that work with Internet Explorer, Classic Edge and Chrome. Therefore, we are currently unable to use a Chromium Edge.
Why doesn't Microsoft just enable Chromium's RoamingProfileSupport? Then everyone would be happy.

simsoo 

If you think Google Chrome is safer than Edge then good luck, Google loves companies/persons like you that want to give them more data to mine

Edit: I mean Google already has medical records of Americans, so why not have medical and health records of Germans 

https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/11/would-you-trust-google-with-your-medical-records-it-might-already-have-them/

lforbes 

So true..

That is why Chrome is a TERRIBLE browser for Corporate use and only used when there are no other alternatives. It is about as 1990's as you can get. I have been a web designer for decades and Chrome hasn't changed all that much.
#1 problem with Chrome - BLOAT. One user can have 1GB of crap that does nothing.
#2 problem with Chrome - SPYWARE - It collects data and reports home worse than any spywhere out there.
#3 problem with Chrome - RAM HOG - One Chrome session can take 10x the amount of Ram as IE.

Chromium Edge is a dream come true. It has all the benefits of IE and Edge and the dumb rendering of Chrome so it is  browser replacement for all of them.

Chris Jackson 

"What I was hoping to then understand is - if we had on-prem sync for the new Microsoft Edge, do you STILL need to sync with IE, or does that actually solve the problem for you? In other words, is syncing with IE just a means to an end (you do this to make up for a missing sync approach in Microsoft Edge) or is it something you want for other reasons?

It sounds like you're planning to use IE mode, and not launch Internet Explorer directly. If that's true, then I think solving for on-prem sync gives you what your users need. I'm just making sure that's true, and that we're not missing a scenario where you would still want the same favorites to appear in stand-alone IE."

Hi,

Synching with IE is not required BUT using the "Favorites" Folder Redirection is. So a Folder Redirection GPO that can redirect the Edge Bookmarks to the users Home Drive would work just fine. Note I have see the "user content" GPO that lets me redirect all the garbage but I don't need the garbage, JUST the favorites. So if it just say redirected the favorites to %homeshare%%homepath%\bookmarks.htm or something like that, that would work fine.

Users are in Active Directory Domain. Folder Redirection is enabled. UEV is enabled (for most). Local Profiles are wiped every 30 days so we don't keep anything cached locally.

simsoo 

After reading your message I took at look at the Google Chrome policy documentation and indeed, the following two policies would do exactly what we need.

- RoamingprofileSupportEnabled (https://cloud.google.com/docs/chrome-enterprise/policies/?policy=RoamingProfileSupportEnabled)
- RoamingProfileLocation (https://cloud.google.com/docs/chrome-enterprise/policies/?policy=RoamingProfileLocation)

According to the documentation the policy "SyncDisabled" needs to be set to 0 or not be configured for this to work.

Sadly I cannot test this with the new Edge at the moment because as soon as I create the "RoamingprofileSupportEnabled" registry key under "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Edge" Edge refuses to start completely. With no error whatsoever. (Current stable version)

But if Edge were able to utilize this Google Chrome policy then we'd have everything we really need.

Maybe this could be a short-term solution? I'm sure it would be much easier to implement an already existing policy from Chrome into the new Edge than developing your own solution from scratch.

HotCakeX 

Hi there,
We have exactly the same problem in our hospital in Germany
I have now read that there is a function in Chrome / Chromium.

It's called: RoamingProfileSupport see

https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/7349337?hl=en

If you use the RoamingProfileSupport function instead, only the file "profile.pb" which "bookmarks, AutoFill data, passwords, parts of the browser history, the browser settings and the installed extensions." diverted.

This makes it possible to use the browser on different PCs at the same time and the relevant data is loaded when the application is started. This function does not exist in the Edge or has been removed.

But it were exactly what we needed and how it had worked in Internet Explorer for years. We will stop the rollout of the new Edge now for better or worse
and put on the original Chrome.

narutards Chris Jackson 

Edge (Chromium-based) operates, in its core, the same way as Chrome, because of the Chromium source code.

in the User Data directory of Edge, there is a file called "Bookmarks" and "Bookmarks.bak" which is the backup file, favorites are stored in them. they are Not stored individually.

none of the Chromium based browsers out there do that, maybe it was a thing 20 years ago in Internet Explorer era but lots of stuff has changed since then.

if Microsoft wanted to change something as fundamental as that it would take lots of time modifying Chromium, that is IF it was possible.

right now the Edge developers are trying to stabilize favorites syncing which is broken (duplicate favorites, old favorites coming back, favorites not syncing etc). if they store each favorite individually, they should remake their sync engine code all over again!

not to mention that IF they manage to do that, they will render LOT OF EXTENSIONS that expect Edge as a Chromium based browser to store favorites/bookmarks in one file, USELESS. because they will no longer be compatible.

when I say Azure, Azure, Azure. there are reasons for that. there are proper, secure and well thought methods already in place. I for one don't want Microsoft do such thing and ruin lots of things for everyone just because someone doesn't like to use the correct method to do things.

Modifying Chromium like that will most likely create bugs lots of other places that will pop up later, no software can ever be bug free, when you change the code like that, lots of things will get broken.

these are all facts , Not my opinion.