On Jan 15th, 2020 Microsoft has officially launched new version of Microsoft edge browser based on chromium for windows and Mac OS. It is compatible with all supported versions of Windows, and with macOS.
It replaces the legacy version of Microsoft Edge on Windows 10 PCs. With speed, performance, best-in-class compatibility for websites and extensions, and built-in privacy and security features, it's the only browser you'll ever need.
As you already know , windows 7 support ended Jan 14th ,2020 however, Microsoft has made the new edge browser available for windows 7.
If you want to download the new Microsoft Edge based on chromium for windows 7, windows 8.1 and windows 10 and Mac OS, please visit https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/edge?
This is not offline installer, it is 2mb file and when you lunch it, it will connect to internet and download the required setup files.
if you want to download the offline installer, you can refer to this article and find the right version for you https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/edge/business/download
Now how do we install the Stable version of new microsoft edge browser using Microsoft Endpoint manager (CMCB 1910 ) for endpoints in the organization?
MEMCM 1910 has feature to deploy Microsoft Edge, version 77 and later to your users. This will help you download and create the application automatically without doing anything manual.
If you are not running on configuration manager current branch 1910, then you need to download the offline installer and create application manually.This is same process how you do for other applications.
This blog post assumes that you are running on configuration manager 1910. If you are not on 1910, please read this blog post for how to get current branch 1910.
In the console,click on Software library, click on Microsoft Edge Management and choose create Microsoft Edge application
Provide the Name and content location. This is to save the application source files and the name is what appear in applications node .
In the channel, choose stable , this is the version released today by Microsoft and version, choose latest.
In the deployment, choose No for now, as we edit the deployment settings and deploy to collection later.
Click next on the summary page.
Now, based on the internet connectivity, the download of the edge stable version will start and create the application automatically.
You can monitor the download of the updates from %temp% folder with log called: patchdownloader.log
Log file location:
Monitoring the download process:
Once the download is finished, you can see the app in the application node.
It has 2 deployment types because it downloaded both x86 and x64 but the priority is x64.
The source location has the following content. Powershell script and MSI.
If you edit the x64 deployment type, you will see the program command line syntax.
we will now modify the syntax with -executionpolicy bypass. This is not mandatory to use however i have seen some of the installation error in the previous builds so i simply edit it with bypass and continue.
Append the syntax after file
for x64:
powershell -executionpolicy bypass -File ".\Install-Edge.ps1" -MSIName "MicrosoftEdgeEnterpriseX64.msi" -ChannelID "{56eb18f8-b008-4cbd-b6d2-8c97fe7e9062}"
You can do the same for x86 as well.
update the syntax and click ok.
For detection method: we dont do any changes but i have listed this for your information incase you want to create the application manually and you are not in CMCB 1910.
Hive:HKLM
Key:SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\EdgeUpdate\Clients\{56eb18f8-b008-4cbd-b6d2-8c97fe7e9062}
Value: pv
data type: version
Operator: Greater than or equal to
value:79.0.309.65
Now distribute the application to distribution points.
Monitor the distribution status and once it is distributed, you are now ready to deploy to collection. Log file: distmgr.log on your configmgr site.
Deploy to collection:
Once the application is deployed to collection, depend on the machine policy cycle, device will receive the policy, download the content and install the application.
Deployment results:
You can monitor the installation status using appenforce.log located at C:\windows\ccm\logs.
You can see Microsoft Edge in the start menu.
Launch the Microsoft Edge
If you look at the about page in the edge, you see that, your organization disabled the updates.
This is happening because of the script that is used to install the Edge application.
The script is designed to disable the automatic updates and let configuration manager manages the updates just like other windows and office 365 updates.
Now on your configuration manager, you need to enable the Microsoft Edge product in SUP section.
If you are not able to see the product then simply run software update sync , wait for the sync to complete.
Now go back to SUP properties, you will now see the Microsoft Edge, select it and click ok.
Right click on All microsoft edge updates and initiate sync.
After a while you will see the updates in the console.
Once the updates are available in the console, you can patch Edge browser just like any other windows/office365 updates.
The following information is provided to know, what registry key used to enable or disable the automatic updates for Edge.
The registry key for disabling the edge updates is:
Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\EdgeUpdate with value 0
To enable automatic updates for edge browser, you can change the update value from 0 to 1.
Launch edge and type edge://settings/help to see the status.
Before you start deploying the Edge browser in an enterprise, please read through the Microsoft article for edge policies using GPO/Intune. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-edge/
Hope you found this article useful!