As Microsoft Edge has transitioned to using Chromium, it has also broken free of Windows 10 exclusivity. If you’re using a Mac, Linux, or Windows 7 computer, you can also now use Microsoft Edge. To enable IE Mode on Chromium Edge with Group Policy, use these steps: Open Start. Search for gpedit and click the top result to open the Group Policy Editor. Browse the following path: Computer Configuration Administrative Templates Microsoft Edge; Double-click the Configure Internet Explorer integration policy. Microsoft Edge Group Policy.
Microsoft Edge for Linux is now a thing, so in this post we show you how to install the browser on Ubuntu, Linux Mint, and any related Linux distributions.
In guide we show you how to install Microsoft Edge on Ubuntu (or any Ubuntu-based Linux distribution, like Linux Mint) in two ways: graphical (GUI) method, and command line (CLI) method.
It doesn’t matter which method you choose as you will download and install the exact same version of Microsoft’s new-fangled browser. Plus, both methods set things up so that you get future updates as and when they’re released, automatically.
Microsoft Edge is based on Chromium, the open-source browser engine developed (though not exclusively) by Google. Any website, web app, or web service that works in any Chromium-based browser, such as Google Chrome, will work in Edge too.
Even better: you can install Chrome extensions in Edge too (though Microsoft maintains its own extension hub for browser add-ons).
Read our hands on with Edge for Linux development builds for a broader overview on what works, what doesn’t, and what you should keep in mind if you plan to use it otherwise.
How to Install Edge Browser on Ubuntu
Keep in mind that Microsoft Edge for Linux is in developer preview. It is not “stable”. It is not even a beta. Some features (like browser sync) are currently unsupported on Linux. Are there bugs? Yup. Will it crash? Quite possibly!
Please note: this article is about how to install Edge on Ubuntu, not why you should install it. You decide which software you use on your system. And if you don’t want Edge? That’s fine! But you probably won’t be reading a “how to” guide on the topic!
Graphical/GUI way
Installing Edge using a graphical user interface is easy as Microsoft provide official installer packages for Ubuntu and Fedora-based distros. You can use these builds to install the browser on your system using your distribution’s package manager.
1.Go to Microsoft Edge Download Page
In a web browser open the official Microsoft Edge download page. There you’ll find two builds for Linux. Chose the ‘Linux (.deb)’ option for Ubuntu.
2. Download Edge for Linux
Choose to save the .deb package to your Downloads folder (or any other. directory you can access easily). If you’re using Firefox you can check the “Save File” option to do this.
3. Double click on the installer
Let the download complete then use your file manager to find the Edge Linux installer. Finally, double-click on the saved file to start installing and follow the on-screen prompts.
When you install using the official installer the Microsoft Edge repository is added to your system’s list of software sources. You can upgrade to new versions of the browser as they’re released using the regular Software Updater tool.
4. Open Microsoft Edge.
Let the install finish up then open the browser from the Applications grid (or whatever app menu, launcher, etc you use on your system.
Terminal/CLI way
Prefer to install software from the command line? We got you covered. Just copy/paste the following commands in to your terminal emulator of choice.
First: the set-up script. This adds the Microsoft Edge repo to your system, and imports the Microsoft GPG key to authenticate packages (so that you can be sure they are what they say they are):
Second step: run this command to actually install Microsoft Edge:
Once done, launch the browser from your favourite app launcher, or run microsoft-edge-dev from a command prompt.
How to Uninstall Edge
So you installed Edge. Grand. And you try it out. Awesome. But what happens if you want to remove it? Well, it’s easy to uninstall Microsoft Edge using the command line.
Just open a new Terminal window and run:
Alternatively you can open the Ubuntu Software app, search for ‘edge’ by name, click the result, and hit the ‘remove’ button.
Simple!
Summary
That’s it; you learned how to install Microsoft Edge browser on Ubuntu, Linux Mint, and other distributions in this article. All that’s left for you to do now is to open the browser up and start surfing the web!
It remains to be seen if Edge will find a big enough audience on Linux to sustain itself. The browser is up against stiff competition from the likes of Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Vivaldi.
While most Linux users will shudder at the thought of using it, I think it’s great to have the choice of using Edge on Linux.
As you may know, the new Edge based on Chromium went stable last week. Unfortunately, there is no automated way to move any of your settings from the Beta channel to Stable. That means, for those of us that were using the beta, you need to re-setup everything in stable.
Microsoft Edge Chromium Stable Msi
However, as it is based on Chromium, all the information is stored in a profile (or multiple profiles). That means you can move all your profile data from the Beta folder to the stable folder. I did this and the only issue I ran into was if you run multiple profiles that use custom images, the taskbar profile icon will retain the “BETA” tag as those icons are generated during profile creation and stored in the profile location. Unfortunately, deleting the icon in the profile folder does not seem to reset the icon.
Microsoft Edge Chromium Stable Product
UPDATE – If you have edge profiles assigned to a Microsoft account where your image is from O365 or another account, I found a way where you can regen the taskbar icons after doing the above steps.
Just go to edge://settings/profiles and sign out of the account and then sign back in and it will recreate the profile icons. Make sure you do not check the box to clear all your settings though! For profiles not linked to a Microsoft, just change the profile image.
Microsoft Edge Chromium Stable Channel
Tada!