Edge Chromium default search engine using Microsoft Edge - Policies

[Ivooo]

Hi everyone,

I have been creating lots of Edge Chromium policies using:
Microsoft Edge Browser Policy Documentation | Microsoft Docs

I managed to configure everything to the required settings except for the default search engine within the browser, which seems to be overly coplex as I simple wish to use Google instead of Bing:
Default search provider

I have tried setting it up multiple ways including the settings bellow (Local_Machine, Local_Machine\Recommended, Current_User, and Current_User\Recommended):
"

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Edge]
"DefaultSearchProviderEnabled"=dword:00000001
"DefaultSearchProviderName"="Google"
"DefaultSearchProviderSearchURL"="{google:baseURL}search?q={searchTerms}&{google:RLZ}{google:originalQueryForSuggestion}{google:assistedQueryStats}{google:searchFieldtrialParameter}{google:searchClient}{google:sourceId}ie={inputEncoding}"
"DefaultSearchProviderSuggestURL"="{google:baseURL}complete/search?output=chrome&q={searchTerms}"
"DefaultSearchProviderImageURL"="{google:baseURL}searchbyimage/upload"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Edge\Recommended]
"DefaultSearchProviderEnabled"=dword:00000001
"DefaultSearchProviderName"="Google"
"DefaultSearchProviderSearchURL"="{google:baseURL}search?q={searchTerms}&{google:RLZ}{google:originalQueryForSuggestion}{google:assistedQueryStats}{google:searchFieldtrialParameter}{google:searchClient}{google:sourceId}ie={inputEncoding}"
"DefaultSearchProviderSuggestURL"="{google:baseURL}complete/search?output=chrome&q={searchTerms}"
"DefaultSearchProviderImageURL"="{google:baseURL}searchbyimage/upload"

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Edge]

"DefaultSearchProviderEnabled"=dword:00000001
"DefaultSearchProviderName"="Google"
"DefaultSearchProviderSearchURL"="{google:baseURL}search?q={searchTerms}&{google:RLZ}{google:originalQueryForSuggestion}{google:assistedQueryStats}{google:searchFieldtrialParameter}{google:searchClient}{google:sourceId}ie={inputEncoding}"
"DefaultSearchProviderSuggestURL"="{google:baseURL}complete/search?output=chrome&q={searchTerms}"
"DefaultSearchProviderImageURL"="{google:baseURL}searchbyimage/upload"

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Edge\Recommended]
"DefaultSearchProviderEnabled"=dword:00000001
"DefaultSearchProviderName"="Google"
"DefaultSearchProviderSearchURL"="{google:baseURL}search?q={searchTerms}&{google:RLZ}{google:originalQueryForSuggestion}{google:assistedQueryStats}{google:searchFieldtrialParameter}{google:searchClient}{google:sourceId}ie={inputEncoding}"
"DefaultSearchProviderSuggestURL"="{google:baseURL}complete/search?output=chrome&q={searchTerms}"
"DefaultSearchProviderImageURL"="{google:baseURL}searchbyimage/upload"

"

All my other policy's seem to be working just fine except for these which not only don't work as expected but they seem to change absolutely nothing at all (all my policy's are set using the registry). If anyone has experienced the same or knows a solution or could tell me my error that would be much appreciated.

[#2]

@Ivooo Are you aware of this limitation in the Microsoft Edge Policies:

 This policy is available only on Windows instances that are joined to a Microsoft Active Directory domain, Windows 10 Pro or Enterprise instances that enrolled for device management

Are your machines MDM-joined or AD-Managed?

[#3]

Hi @Gunnar-Haslinger ,

Thanks for your quick replay, I forgot to mention this but the machines I am testing on are indeed Domain joined and are using Windows 10 Enterprise. Any other suggestions would be much appreciated. 

Kind regards,

Ivooo

[#4]

@Ivooo I am no way an expert, and still trying to figure things out.. but if you are using Group Policies, I set this up and it works:

Under Computer - Microsoft Edge/Default search provider

Default search provider keyword - enabled - keyword is google.com

Default search provider name - enabled - here i put my company name - Google.

Default search provider search URL - enabled - {google:baseURL}search?q={searchTerms}&{google:RLZ}{google:originalQueryForSuggestion}{google:assistedQueryStats}{google:searchFieldtrialParameter}{google:searchClient}{google:sourceId}ie={inputEncoding}

Enable the default search provider - enabled

So far google is the default search provider for the address bar as well as when you have the new tab as the search function

Not sure if this will help at all.

[#5]

@Ivooo Please provide more Information, for example the output of "edge://policy" (Screenshot or at least the relevant Error-Text).

[#6]

@Gunnar-Haslinger, 

It seems that the policy's do indeed generate some errors, not very useful ones I must say. DefaultSearchProviderEnabled is ignored because ‘This policy is blocked - its value will be ignored.’. The other policy’s are ignored because the default search provider is not enabled, see screenshot.

Most of my other policy's are accepted except for a few.

Microsoft states:

"This policy is available only on Windows instances that are joined to a Microsoft Active Directory domain, Windows 10 Pro or Enterprise instances that enrolled for device management, or macOS instances that are that are managed via MDM or joined to a domain via MCX.."

I'm running Windows 10 Enterprise and the device is Azure AD joined, so this should work right?

[#7 · Accepted solution]

@Ivooo  ‘This policy is blocked - its value will be ignored.’ means, that Edge has not recognised your device as AD-Joined or MDM-Managed.

I'm not familiar with "Azure AD-Joined" devices, but as I understand this technology no GPO's are deployed or assigned onto "Azure AD-Joined" devices, so you would have to use MDM to configure their Policies.

[#8]

That's incredibly disappointing of Microsoft to exclude their cloud based users like this, so I would have to buy Intune in order for me to configure something as simple as a default search engine... Too bad, I was enjoying the new Edge so far, back to Chrome it is.