Edge for Business is actually not a completely new browser, but a special mode of operation and implementation of the existing Microsoft Edge. The idea in general is very good. Microsoft’s browser will be able to be configured to enter a special mode when the user uses it for business purposes – for example, by logging into company applications or corporate intranets.

Edge will then switch to a work account (if you are currently using a private account) and launch any features activated by the administrator and disabled by the administrator. In enterprise mode, Edge keeps your browsing history, cache, synced data, and passwords in a separate place. At the same time, it ensures maximum available security and privacy protection.

This sounds like a very useful feature that IT administrators will appreciate. What the user does on the computer in addition to work becomes less of a problem or threat, because every time he interacts with the company’s IT resources – Edge automatically switches accounts, building a virtual wall between what the user likes and what the company requires. I have one problem with this.

Edge for Business is a solution to a problem that Microsoft is creating.

Remember when Microsoft announced it was abandoning its own technology and joining the Chromium project? The reactions were extremely positive and not surprising. Microsoft is a company that has erred many times and in many ways – but, apart from a few infamous exceptions, it has always known what treasure developers are and that it is worth taking care of them. This, combined with the company’s new policy and new management – focused on openness and interoperability – gave rise to hope for a significant improvement in the quality of the aforementioned Chromium. And also for a web browser even better than Chrome.

These hopes were partially realized by Microsoft. Supplying the Chromium project with somewhat capable engineers from Redmond resulted in a significant improvement in the quality of all browsers based on this project. This is particularly visible after Chrome for Windows, which on Microsoft’s system has significantly lost weight and also significantly accelerated. Initially, however, Edge attracted more attention.

Edge was supposed to be such a Chrome but without the nonsense from Google and its tracking. The first versions of Microsoft’s browser could be described just like this. Edge offered the same compatibility with websites and web applications as Chrome and was as much as possible focused on protecting the privacy and security of the user. It provided sensible and convenient integration with Microsoft services, with the Microsoft Account at the forefront. Edge for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and for iPhone and iPad was a browser worth recommending.

Today, I do not recommend Microsoft Edge to anyone anymore.

Not because Edge is a bad browser, none of those things. I use it myself, it is safe and quite comfortable, I am used to it. However, I am also aware of what is available on the market, and Edge does not really stand out with anything special on the plus side.

I can recommend it to the Brave browser. It cares about the privacy and security of the user, does not try to push anything, and is also based on Chromium. Edge, on the other hand, has become an advertising platform for Microsoft’s services. They press buttons and shortcuts to Bing, Microsoft 365, and Microsoft Start as much as they can. It tries to replace YouTube’s mechanisms, obscuring them with its own and tries to be an uninvited price comparison engine. The list of sins is longer, but let’s forgive ourselves.

You can look at it, of course, a bit differently. Most of the above can be disabled. As buried in the advanced browser settings, you can even disconnect the browser from the Microsoft cloud, guaranteeing high privacy, you can also disable ads and disturbers. However, you need to know how. Sometimes you also have to do it more than once – because strangely this setting did not synchronize or switched itself after one update.

These additional features are certainly useful for a certain group of users. However, they should be disabled by default, and preferably offered as extensions. And let it be, by way of compromise, let even Edge once every dozen or so days display an ad for one of the add-ons, encouraging you to try it. Microsoft is not a charity, it has to make money, and its services are of good quality.

Meanwhile, what all users should experience will be experienced only by those whose administrators in the company have devoted a moment of attention to disabling in the browser all advertising-spying nonsense that provides more benefits to Microsoft than to the user. It wasn’t meant to be. That was not the case not so long ago. How do I convince a Chrome user to try Edge? Before, I had a lot of arguments – now I don’t have a single one.