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RoamingProfileSupportEnabled - referred to in other policies desc but no policies designed to set it

Brass Contributor

Hi,

 

I am preparing the deployment of Microsoft Edge (Chromium), I've downloaded the MSI and GPO templates and have started going through them. I've set everything I pretty much need to but have hit a hiccup which I'm hoping for some clarity on. 

 

I wish for all AppData to save to the Roaming profile instead of Local profile for my users. This is doable on Google Chrome by setting the policy named "Enable the creation of roaming copies for Google Chrome profile data" to "Enabled" which then sets the "RoamingProfileSupportEnabled" registry entry to "1". There does not appear to be a policy which sets this functionality for Edge but in the policy named "Disable synchronization of data using Microsoft sync services" it states in the description "Do not enable this policy when the policy 'RoamingProfileSupportEnabled' is enabled." - this proves that the functionality is there in some sense or will eventually be there. I tried to manually enter this registry key in HKCU>Software>Policies>Microsoft>Edge and when you launch Edge it does not load up the application unfortunately but it does create the folder "Edge" and "User Data" inside the Roaming AppData folders. So potentially Edge is just crashing because of this key. If I remove the registry key or set it to "0" then Edge works again but the data is still stored to Local AppData.

 

Is functionality supposed to be enabled in v79 or v80 (beta)? Or is this something for future development? This is the only thing causing me to not roll this out for our users currently.

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Mike

67 Replies

@mike_robertson 

Were you able to find a solution?

I have a similar situation where i want to offload new Edge data such as settings and Favorites set by users.

@ccmtkelly01 - I've not actually looked very much more since I made the post. What I was going to do (unless someone told me that they had worked it out) was wait for v80 to release publically to fix a few other little things I've noticed haven't worked and then I was going to import the latest GPO templates in case there were any changes or new policies and try it again and update this post. Although I'm not desperate to get this pushed out for users, apparently the new Chromium Edge will replace Microsoft Edge in Windows Update automatically at some point, I'm not sure when but I'd like everything to be in place before that.

best response confirmed by mike_robertson (Brass Contributor)
Solution

Hi,

 

It appears that Microsoft have released some new GPO templates - i'm not sure on a version or a date they were available but as of today 11th February 2020 they have resolved this issue.

 

There is a new policy called "Set the user data directory" and I've set the value to ${roaming_app_data} and this resolved my issue.

 

In the policy is a link to a page of descriptions of options for this value and instructions on what to do.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/DeployEdge/edge-learnmore-create-user-directory-vars

 

Hope this helps everyone!

 

Thanks,

 

Mike

@mike_robertson I would refer to this as a "workaround" since it moves several hundreds megabytes to the AppData\Roaming side of the Windows profile.

Hardly acceptable...

Chromes setting moves only a small portion.

 

@Henno_Keers It wasn't that much in my testing.. however my testing was minimal. I've not rolled Edge out to users yet and don't plan to until we've rolled out Windows 10, which is fairly imminent. (Yes I know we are late to the party.) So hopefully until then, Microsoft can limit the things that need to move in future releases. All that I wanted is that everything in Edge is locked down in case any of my users decide to use it. I don't plan on making it obvious to them. I'd rather them stick with IE11 or Chrome. And having their favourites and browser settings move with them if they move PC is one of the requirements I wanted to fulfil which it now does with this option being available. I could use AppLocker to block Edge so no one can use it, but I'd rather not go down that route.

Hi!
Edge Chromium 80.0.361.109 and still same issue as described in initial post. Any solution on the way? I mean, a solution as it is for Google Chrome.
Terv, Alar.

Same topic on our site with version 81.0.416.58.
Edge Chromium Rollout postponed because of improper roaming profile support.

Really looking forward!

Hi!

81.0.416.62 and .64 same problem. Well, it’s a bit odd they can’t fix it so far.
Alar.

81.0.416.68 – all the same, no change.
Alar.

@MSAlf 

We are planning to deploy Edge with the following roaming data, we use VMware DEM as tool:


[IncludeRegistryTrees]
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\TokenBroker
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\Connections
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Edge\PreferenceMACs
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\SystemCertificates
HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\CloudStore

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\IdentityCRL
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Authentication
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\SessionInfo
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Security and Maintenance
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\HostActivityManager
HKCU\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\AppContainer\

 

[IncludeFolderTrees]
<LocalAppData>\Microsoft\Edge\User Data\Default\Sync Data\
<LocalAppData>\Microsoft\TokenBroker\Cache
<LocalAppData>\Microsoft\Vault
<LocalAppData>\Packages\Microsoft.AAD.BrokerPlugin_cw5n1h2txyewy

 

[IncludeFiles]
<LocalAppData>\Microsoft\Edge\User Data\Default\*.*
<LocalAppData>\Microsoft\Edge\User Data\*.*

 

This results in about 3 Mb of data to be roamed. It also roams the logged on AAD account information.

With regular roaming profile you will have to change the default AppData\Local exclusion and move parts of it in.

We concede that above is a bit of a reverse engineered workaround, but it is the best we could with help of Microsoft support.

Support for the Enterprise with roaming in combo with AAD logon and no user intervention at first run is incomplete at the moment.

 

reg, Henno

Hi and thanks!
But have You any ideas when Edge team will fix this? I mean, roaming profile support is essential, I hope they release that. Sure, they do.
81.0.416.72 – no change.
More thanks, Alar.

Nope. Not a clue. Above was the best of both worlds, roaming info + AAD logon roaming.

Hi and thanks!
Well, but there is need for another tool to accomplish that. As along with Google Chrome … no special tool needed, this isn’t right, we know.
81.0.416.77 – no change.
More thanks, Alar.

Version 83.0.478.37 and … first time I saw that Edge opens while registry value for RoamingProfileSupportEnabled was set as 1 (so far it did not), but … don’t see something changed behind, I mean, in Roaming profile is created directory “Microsoft\Edge\User Data”, but not fulfilled.
Alar.

@MSAlf Same here.

But we like to see this (working) setting combined with AAD sync. I hope that gets through.

 

Regards, Henno

83.0.478.44. Profile dir is created when missing, but not fulfilled.
Alar.

1 best response

Accepted Solutions
best response confirmed by mike_robertson (Brass Contributor)
Solution

Hi,

 

It appears that Microsoft have released some new GPO templates - i'm not sure on a version or a date they were available but as of today 11th February 2020 they have resolved this issue.

 

There is a new policy called "Set the user data directory" and I've set the value to ${roaming_app_data} and this resolved my issue.

 

In the policy is a link to a page of descriptions of options for this value and instructions on what to do.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/DeployEdge/edge-learnmore-create-user-directory-vars

 

Hope this helps everyone!

 

Thanks,

 

Mike

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