Forum Discussion
Favorites and UEV support
Hi,
The old Edge has a Group Policy setting to set Favorites to be shared with Internet Explorer - which was good. When someone had to switch to IE, their Favorites were still there.
We're also using Microsoft UEV for roaming of IE Favorites, to allow users to log in to different workstations and still have their favorites and settings.
Questions:
1) Will the new Edge have UEV support, and/or a UEV template published for it - for the roaming of bookmarks, passwords etc? This is a must for Enterprise deployment on Windows 10.
2) Will the new Edge support using the same favorites/bookmarks as IE?
Thanks!
Yours
MobyDude
I Agree - however the situation is not so clear - In Chrome it is possible to only save bookmarks by enabling the GPO settings:
- Enable the creation of roaming copies for Google Chrome profile data: Enabled
- Set the roaming profile directory: Enabled
- Set the roaming profile directory: ${documents}\Google\Chrome
This creates a single very small file called profile.pb in the specified folder. We use work folders to sync the Documents Library. For IE we redirect Favorites library to the workfolders location.
Now for EdgeBeta it only appears possible to change the option 'Set the User data directory' which defines the location of 'default' which contains a whole load of files and folders (in my case 112MB) and hidden amongst this is the bookmarks file. By default this is saved under AppData\Local\Microsoft\Edge Beta\User Data\Default. It doesnt look like a nice solution to replicate all of this -
So the request to the Devs is Please use Chromes profile handling or another configurable option to only preserve bookmarks in a defined location.
Hi
The GPO you mention for Chrome is for Enterprise roaming and there is a published UEV template for it. It works just fine.
What we're asking for is for the devs to re-instate profile.pb enterprise mode (or sync bookmarks with IE as an option) and publish a UEV template (the same Chrome one would probably work anyway).
We're a 1,100 user site that has stuck with Edge - through all of its problems and even clearly bits of Office 365 only working for Chrome rather than MS's own browser.
I think it shouts loudly that we have had no response from the developers or any MS person here. It seems the new Edge is being leveraged to upsell and feed Microsoft's agenda of selling AAD Premium than actually making things work in the enterprise. Who here has $30,000 for AAD Premium and the extra engineering time to maintain hybrid AD join (clearing up and maintaining device records and so forth) just to get bookmarks roaming?
The new Edge will actually push us to Chrome, and I suspect many enterprises are in a similar position...
Mobydude
Indeed - the chrome Enterprise roaming settings work great. IE Favorites - folder redirection works great.
We are using UEV, but to be honest it doesnt work very well (inconsistent for printers, chrome, drive maps etc), and using workfolder sync allows us to sync documents, favorites, desktop libraries etc very nicely. So using Chrome profile.pb allowed me to switch off the UEV settings for Chrome, and after clearing up the settingsfolders, chrome start times dropped dramatically!
I'm also asking for profile.pb implementation in Edge Beta!
I Just finished testing the Edge Beta setting 'set user data directory' and it correctly uses the folder I set, but fills it with caches folders and blocks work folders from syncing because of multiple file locks.
This is an Enterprise show stopper - 30K+ seats
UEV should be able to pull the bookmarks file out from the mess, and thats all we want to preserve, can try creating your own XML for edge beta, and defining the service and files to preserve, but we also want to eventually drop UEV so are not using it for new implementations/apps.
So a separate definable bookmarks location please, and the rest of the data should be transient data that should be left in appdata local.
Ozboz If there is no solution for the bookmarks, we think about going to Chrome. Paying Azure AD P1 for all users, to roam favorites is no option for us.
We'd also love either of two things to make favorites management a lot easier:
1. A way to redirect the "bookmarks" file from "C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Edge\User Data\Default" to a network location.
or 2. a way for the new Edge to employ the same "keep favorites synced between (the old) Edge and Internet Explorer" group policy, which would sync the favorites with a folder on a network drive that has been placed there by a "Folder Redirection" policy.
Syncing favorites using a Microsoft account is not an option because we cannot use any of that or any cloud related features due to data privacy regulations.
And keeping the favorites file on a network share is essential for us since our users are working on multiple computers and need to have the same bookmarks on all of them. Also not having them stored on the local machines would help a lot when replacing computers or when the harddisks fail and the local files with be lost forever.
Moving "C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Edge\User Data\Default" to a network location is possible via GPO using "set the user data directory" policy.
Can change to "C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Edge\User Data\Default" to use with Windows Roaming Profile.
If so you may want to exclude the cache folders from being roaming
C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Edge\User Data\Default\cache
Why Microsoft making this so complicated? Chrome roaming/UE-V support is much easier
I definitely do not want to use the "UserDataDir" policy to move the entire profile folder (even excluding the cache folder) to a different location. I only care about the favorites/bookmarks.
I mean, the stored passwords would be interesting too, but afaik those aren't transferable between devices anyway, considering it uses the Data Protection API.
And syncing with the Microsoft cloud through a Microsoft account is not an option either because of data privacy regulations.
I have the exact same problem. We live in Canada and run Health Care Computers so absolutely NEVER will they allow Americans or Azure to have any access at all as it violates Federal and provincial Security laws to have health care data accessible or stored on servers in the United States.
We want to get users off IE but we cannot until Chromium Edge supports Favorites stored on the users home drive through Folder Redirection of the Favorites folder. I have UEV as well.Edge syncs great via gpo but the new Chromium Edge does not.
Also remember how idiotic Microsoft used to think storing hundreds of Favorites in one gigantic file was? That was why they NEVER designed IE to use a bookmarks file because it was dark ages technology used in Netscape 1.0.
Favorites that are easily accessible, easily createable and easily useable was the BEST thing about IE. We store on users home drives and so they are backed up and accessible after a profile rebuild.To sync the bookmarks I created a UEV Template:
It works in our environment.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<SettingsLocationTemplate xmlns='http://schemas.microsoft.com/UserExperienceVirtualization/2012/SettingsLocationTemplate'>
<Name>MsEdge</Name>
<ID>MicrosoftEdge</ID>
<Version>1</Version>
<Author>
<Name>Tn,27.1.2020</Name>
</Author>
<Processes>
<Process>
<Filename>msedge.exe</Filename>
</Process>
</Processes>
<Settings>
<File>
<Root>
<EnvironmentVariable>LOCALAPPDATA</EnvironmentVariable>
</Root>
<Path>Microsoft\Edge\User Data\Default</Path>
<FileMask>Bookmarks</FileMask>
</File>
</Settings>
</SettingsLocationTemplate>Makigai How long has this been in operation?
MobyDude I agree completely.
We have a customer with over 500 users on Citrix and he wants to move to the new Edge as soon as possible after the release. As he is still using IE, an automatic transfer of the favorites is indispensable for him.
Chrome - and I suspect 'New Edge' have the ability to auto-import bookmarks on first run.
But what this thread is talking about is not losing bookmarks in 'New Edge' if a user logs in to a different PC.
With IE you can use either roaming profile or UEV for favorites. With 'New Edge' it appears that the only method is Azure Premium Enterprise State roaming.
So - you client can import all of their favorites via GPO from IE. But if they don't have ESR then the chances are that they will lose their favorites if a user logs into a different PC or loses their local profile.
Guido Neubecker Auto import option is available in New Edge GPO, same as Chrome
