Select a default profile to open external links in

Microsoft

Thanks to everyone for your feedback, we know that opening links from external apps hasn’t been the greatest experience for users with multiple profiles. We’re excited to announce that Microsoft Edge now supports selecting a default profile to open external links in builds 81.0.411.0 and higher. So now, you can ensure that when you click links from another app, those links open in the profile of your selection.

 

To select a default profile to open external links, do the following:

1.       Navigate to edge://settings

2.       Select the "Multiple profile preferences" option (Note: This will only show if you have multiple profiles.)

3.       Use the drop down menu to select which profile you'd like external links to open with.

 

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We hope that this helps make your experience opening links from external apps better. Let us know what you think! If there’s anything you feel could improve this, we’d love to know.

24 Replies

@Avi Vaid 

Thank you very much, yes that is awesome!

I have a suggestion to improve this

 

Add the option to open favorites to another profile

please review it here:

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/discussions/add-the-option-to-open-favorites-to-another-profi...

 

@HotCakeX Thanks for the feedback, we have added it to our backlog. Keep the feedback coming :)

Thank you very much! :)

@Avi Vaid  It would be great if the browser was context-aware of logins from the application sending the URL.

 

E.g. If a user is logged into Microsoft  Word as user foo, it should open the browser using the profile for foo.  If the user is logged into Microsoft Word as user foo2, it should open the browser using the profile for foo2.

 

The decision tree is obviously more complicated than this (what do you do if foo2 doesn't have a profile in Edge?), but carrying the identity from one application to another--while letting multiple identities exist in the same user session on Windows--would be very helpful.

99.99% of the programs available on Windows won't be using it because signing into Microsoft account is available mostly for Microsoft products (Microsoft UWP apps, Office package etc).

it won't support any other Email program, any Adobe programs, Autocad programs, Discord, Steam etc.

 

@HotCakeX  Perhaps, but I and many other users use Microsoft products more than 0.01% of the time.  I open links from Outlook, Teams, Word, Excel, PowerPoint multiple times a day.

 

It's an interesting larger problem.  Multi-user operating systems were a Big Thing when they came out all those years ago, but now we have users who have distinct identities but whose workflow is shattered every time they have to log out and login.

@USMA56795 

Spoiler

@USMA56795 wrote:

@HotCakeX  Perhaps, but I and many other users use Microsoft products more than 0.01% of the time.  I open links from Outlook, Teams, Word, Excel, PowerPoint multiple times a day.

 

It's an interesting larger problem.  Multi-user operating systems were a Big Thing when they came out all those years ago, but now we have users who have distinct identities but whose workflow is shattered every time they have to log out and login.


That's what Single Sign On (SSO) is for

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_sign-on

@HotCakeX  If every identity provider trusted every other identity provider that would be great: federate and away we go.  Unfortunately, people who work across organizations often have separate identities managed in each of those organizations. 

 

E.g. chris@contoso.com and chris@whatever.com are the same person, but Chris serves both companies, and they aren't federated.

Yeah wishful thinking :)

@Avi Vaid 

When opening links from an email in Outlook 2019 or the Windows 10 Mail app, I would like the links to be opened with the profile at which I received that email.

I have 100% wanted this since Edge came out. My workflow is to activate the Edge window of the profile I want then go to Outlook and open the relevant link.
Unfortunately I think this would require some kind of API for Edge (if it doesn't exist already) and Outlook team using this if Edge is detected (and set as default browser). Is that even possible?
What about Email Aliases that are from the same Microsoft account? I use this method instead of adding multiple different MSAs to Outlook. can they implement that? how about when I use another Email client program? if they want to do such thing then they should do it for all programs.
Thank you for sharing, this was a great help.

@Avi Vaid can we have an "ask me every time" option? I am a freelancer juggling multiple profiles for multiple clients so I would love to always have the choice to select which browser to open a link I clicked from my mail client.

@Avi Vaid 

Hello.

I'm new to the community, so I'm sorry it's not appropriate to ask such a question here.

 

I recently knew this feature by reading this article.

https://blogs.windows.com/msedgedev/2020/04/30/automatic-profile-switching/

So I tried, but it didn't seem to work as I expected.

 

I tried,

1) Create multiple profiles

2) In "Multiple profile preferences", choose one profile as default

3) Shut down the Edge

4) Open other app (I tried slack and Outlook), and click the link

 

Then I expected the Edge opened the link in the profile I chose in 2),

but it opened the link in the profile I last used.

 

What's the expected behavior?

 

I tried MacOS 10.14.6 Mojave and Edge Version 81.0.416.72 (Official build) (64-bit)

@zaki-yama the default behavior is to open the link in the last used profile.  You can override it with a specific profile (Work or Personal or Whatever), but there is currently no way to make a "smart" determination based on context.

 

Context-aware URL opening by profile would be cool, but mostly useful for people like consultants who tend to have multiple corporate identities at the same time.

 

 

Edit: It looks like there is some basic context awareness now.  Edge tries to detect "personal" vs. "work" links.  I don't know of any documentation on how this specific feature works, though.

 

USMA56795_0-1589459855518.png

 

@USMA56795 

Thank you for replying!

 

> the default behavior is to open the link in the last used profile. You can override it with a specific profile

Year I did override it. Like this:

SS_2020-05-14_at_22_03_14.png

So I thought when I clicked any URLs in other apps, Edge always opened the URL in my "Personal" profile.

Actually, Edge opened it with last used profile.

@zaki-yama Hmm.  I would report that as a bug. I suspect this is one of those features that's really, really useful to a relatively small number of people, so the dev team may not have a ton of telemetry.

@USMA56795 

Thank you.

For future reference, would you tell me where you would report it to?

I'd be happy if I could know if there are better place to report such a thing than here.