How to install Microsoft Edge Group Policy templates on Windows 10

On Windows 10, you can download and install the group policy templates to manage Microsoft Edge settings, and this guide will show you the process. Out-of-the-box, the Chromium version of Edge comes with a set of features and recommended settings to browse the internet, but sometimes, depending on your environment, you may need to configure the experience differently to allow or deny users specific features or settings, and this went the templates comes in handy.

Administrative templates, as the name implies, are templates that contain group policy objects (GPO) that allows you to change system settings more granularly using the Local Group Policy Editor. Although most of the group policy objects are already availble on Windows 10, for the Chromium version of Microsoft Edge, you have to download and install the templates manually.

In this guide, you’ll learn the steps to download and install the policy templates to manage the Chromium version of Microsoft Edge with the Local Group Policy Editor on Windows 10.

Install Group Policy templates for Microsoft Edge

To install the policy templates to manage Microsoft Edge via the Local Group Policy Editor, use these steps:

Open Microsoft Edge for business website.
Under the “Policy File” section, click the Download button.
Select the version of Microsoft Edge. (Usually, you want to use the latest stable version available.)
Select the build (latest version available).
Select the platform. For example, Windows 64-bit.
Click the Get policy files option.

Microsoft Edge download policies
Click the Accept & download button.
Double-click to open the MicrosoftEdgePolicyTemplates.zip file.
Click the Extract all button from the “Compressed Folder Tools” tab.

Microsoft Edge extract policy templates
(Optional) Select the location to extract the files.
Check the Show extracted files when complete option.
Click the Extract button.

Windows 10 zip extract
Browse the following path inside the (extracted) “MicrosoftEdgePolicyTemplates” folder:
```
windows\admx
```
Select the msedge.admx and msedgeupdate.admx files and click the Copy option from the “Home” tab.

Copy msedge.admx

Quick tip: You only need to copy the “msedgeupdate.admx” file if you want to control the update settings of Microsoft Edge.
Browse to the following path:
```
C:\Windows\PolicyDefinitions
```
Click the Paste button from the “Home” tab.

Paste msedge.admx in PolicyDefintions folder
In the “admx” folder, inside the “MicrosoftEdgePolicyTemplates” folder, open the language folder that represents your language. For example, en-US.
Select the msedge.adml and msedgeupdate.adml files and click the Copy option from the “Home” tab.

Microsoft Edge copy language template files

Quick tip: You only need to copy the “msedgeupdate.adml” file if you also copy the file on step No.12.
Browse to the following path that matches your language:
```
C:\Windows\PolicyDefinitions\en-US
```
In the above command, make sure to change en-US for the folder that matches your language.
Click the Paste button from the “Home” tab.

Paste language policy files

Once you complete the steps, the new policies to control Microsoft Edge will be available in the Local Group Policy Editor inside the Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates and User Configuration > Administrative Templates paths. And you can manage many aspects of the browser, including IE mode, rollback to a previous version, manage update settings, and control access to a lot of features.

Usually, you’ll see three different sections after installing the templates, including Microsoft Edge, Microsoft Edge – Default Settings, and Microsoft Edge Update. The Microsoft Edge folder includes the mandatory policies that users cannot modify. The Microsoft Edge – Default Settings folder houses the recommended settings you can set as default, and the user can change to something different. And the Microsoft Edge Update folder has all the settings to manage updates for the browser, including the ability to disable update completely.

After making a policy change, you can confirm the policy by browsing to the edge://policy page to see all the policies that have been applied to the browser.

We’re focusing this guide on Windows 10, but you can refer these steps for all supported versions of Windows. Also, these instructions are meant to add administrative templates on an individual computer, but if you’re using Active Directory and you need configure a fleet of devices, perhaps adding the templates through Active Directory is a more efficient approach.