"noframemerging" in Edge is not supported

Copper Contributor

Edge doesn’t support “noframemerging” feature. We have an application with use cases that require having multiple login sessions open at the same time. These sessions are merging when opened in different InPrivate Edge windows, as cookies are shared among all open InPrivate windows. With Edge’s multiple profiles feature, this issue is mitigated but not entirely for some of our use cases. Is there a plan to bring back the support of “noframemerging” or anything to that effect in future versions of Edge?  Also, in case it matters, our application needs to run in IE mode in Edge so any alternate feature would need to work for this case as well.

51 Replies

@Darshini_Patel Thanks for letting us know that you'd like to see "noframemerging." I'm looping in one of our product team members and will let you know if they have any clarifying questions or insights on this.

 

Fawkes (they/them)
Project & Community Manager - Microsoft Edge

@Deleted Do you have an update from the product team? 

@Darshini_Patel Thanks for following-up. Yes, they have a couple questions for you:

  • Re: "With Edge’s multiple profiles feature, this issue is mitigated but not entirely for some of our use cases;" are you comfortable sharing more details about the uses cases not covered by MS Edge's multiple profiles?
  • Similarly, can you share which IE mode elements you still need to use?
  • And what is the goal/ideal state that you're looking to achieve with this workflow?

 

Fawkes (they/them)
Project & Community Manager - Microsoft Edge

  • Re: "With Edge’s multiple profiles feature, this issue is mitigated but not entirely for some of our use cases;" are you comfortable sharing more details about the uses cases not covered by MS Edge's multiple profiles?

    The use case is -

    (session 1) An end user is logged in to our application in Edge. 

    (session 2) The user launches one of our desktop applications that requires another session to be created at the same time.  Note that multiple of these sessions could be requested at the same time too (user may launch the desktop application one or more times before exiting from the prior session)

    (session 3) The user performs an action in Edge from session 1 that creates yet another session.

    Session 2 and session 3 are short lived meaning the user could be in and out of them multiple times while still active in session 1.  It's important that all of these session do not merge to allow the user to continue to work without needing to re-login to the application.  And also, to allow user to perform above actions in parallel.

     

    Currently, the application code launches session 2 and session 3 in Internet Explorer programmatically with the -noframemerging switch to prevent merging this new session to an existing session.  But since this option is not supported in Edge, it seems to leave us with only one option which is to utilize Edge's Profiles feature.  And the way I envision that would work does not appear to be a clean solution.  It introduces an additional step of profiles creation for the customers (users and their IT department); something that they didn’t need to do in IE.  In addition, users would always need to open an Edge session (session 1) in a specific Edge profile, that is different than the profile that will be launched programmatically from session 2 and session 3.  This could be messy - let's say there are 3 Edge profiles created, named Session1Profile, Session2Profile and Session3Profile.  And, users are instructed to launch an Edge session in Session1Profile.  Session2 is launched in the Session2Profile from the desktop application code.  And, session3 is launched in the Session3Profile.

    My concerns are that -

    1. It's not guaranteed that users will always open an Edge session (session 1) in the Session1Profile.  This is something that application developer has no control over.

    2. Hardcoding of the profile names in code for session 2 and session 3 workflows.  The names can be config driven but still have to be known to the code.

    3. Since there could be multiple session2 sessions, what can be done about that so that they don’t merge with each other and also to other types of sessions?

  • Similarly, can you share which IE mode elements you still need to use?

    VBScripts and ActiveX

  • And what is the goal/ideal state that you're looking to achieve with this workflow?

    Ideally, the expectation is that the -noframemerging support gets added in Edge so the use case described above continues to function in Edge.

@Darshini_Patel Thank you for the detailed response! To loopback, I promise that we haven't forgotten about this. The team has been having an ongoing discussion about your request and this functionality, and I will let you know if/when there are takeaways to share. 

 

For now, please know that your feedback has been impactful and we appreciate it!

 

Fawkes (they/them)
Project & Community Manager - Microsoft Edge

@Deleted 

We have the same issue. It only occurs when we use IEMode. If we choose to open in native IE we can have multiple sessions with individual logins.

We have the registrysetting for NoFrameMerge *(FrameMerging=Dword0) which is honored when using native IE. But it does not function when using IEMode from Edge.

 

@Ulrich_Bernskov Thanks for letting us know, and welcome to the MS Edge Insider community! I've also shared your perspective with the team and will let you know if/when they have any updates after finishing their discussion.

 

Fawkes (they/them)
Project & Community Manager - Microsoft Edge

@Deleted Appreciated

If we could influence the launch of IE from Edge with piping flags to the launch like:

C:\program..(x86)\...\IExplorer SCODEF: CREDAT APID:MSEdge -NOFRAMEMERGING

it would also work.

Or add it as a flag in "edge://flags"

can I add a "me to"?

our Use Case is similar.

We have a desktop program where the code can open a Document Management System (DMS) passing a case reference.  When it does this it is hard coded by the suppliers to open the DMS with a generic read only account.

 

At other times in the day the users need to be able to add/edit documents so go into DMS as there specific account.

 

Without - noframemerging on the command that opens from the program they need to make sure all versions of IE are closed prior to opening it with their own credentials.

 

Cheers

 

ACM

 

 

@AMarsden One more "me too".  In my case, I have an external application portal we use with our customers.  In many cases, my users need to log on to the same portal with different accounts, in support of either different customers or different locations of our business.  

 

-nomerge (even in IE11) worked great, as the identity in one session was not merged with any newly launched browser sessions, so the users can log in with different accounts simultaneously.  With Chromium Edge, I need a way for the users to launch "the same" Edge icon, but NOT have the guid merged between sessions, so they are unique.

@Deleted Hi! Do you have some news on that usefull feature? We're using it for years here in my company...

You (@Microsoft) cannot just replace a browser without having at least the same functionalities/behaviours... in fact you did it :\

Please let us know what's happening.

Ray

@Bderagisch @AMarsden We also have the same requirement.  We are using a POS solution.  We use a generic login to Windows 10 and then users are are prompted for their credentials when launching the app (it users Azure AD to authenticate).   Currently with IE, we use the nomerge option on the shortcut so that we can have multiple users logged in at the same time (each with their own browser session).  A PIN and timeout in the application prevents users from accessing other users' sessions.  Logging the whole computer out and and back in each time a staff member needs to do a transaction is unworkable.  With IE going end of life next year, we need a solution fast!

@Ben Christian  the "solution" we are going is, is for the session that is opened from the application, where we have control over the command line, is to open that session in Private mode (“-inprivate” ) which opens a new Edge (so not a new tab) that is isolated from any other sessions already open.  

 

I've tested this and it fits our need, although not rolled out to the users yet as the software can't cope with Edge yet!

@AMarsden Thanks.  Unfortunately we need to run these session (including the first session) in InPrivate so that Azure Seemless SSO doesn't work (i.e. so that the user is prompted to log in, rather than the generic account being logged in automatically).  We also need to support more than 2 users (and multiple InPrivate sessions still share the same cookie cache).

 

Really hoping we can have the same nomerge option in Edge soon. 

@Deleted Any update on this. we also need this feature to work. 

@Deleted Another vote here for this feature. Creating some issues with migrating to Edge in our business.

We found a simple solution for this.

We use a combination of GPO and EMIE lists.

1) Force all sites to be opened in Edge via GPO

2) Define EMIE lists for the sites that should open in IE

3) Inform users to start IE for sites needing 'noframemerging' - any other links will open in Edge.

This makes the actual IE launch for those pesky sites where a full IE functionality is needed.

@Deleted and another vote for this feature. Thanks.

@Darshini_Patel Me too.  The issue that I have that was not an issue with the "-noframemerge" in IE, but is a very big issue with MS Edge.  My situation is that I need to be logged in to one website with one user ID in multiple windows to switch to the function of the website that I need (one for balances, another for the history that causes the balances, and another for the basis for the rate of the balances).  So the separate user profiles feature will not work for my situation.