How to Prevent Changes to Favorites on Microsoft Edge?

The Microsoft Edge provides a feature for adding the favorites or bookmarks to the Favorites bar and other folders. It also provides the options to edit, copy, cut, or delete favorites from the browser. However, as an administrator, you can disable the adding and editing of the favorites bar for other users. This can also be applied in an organization where the employees should not perform any changes to the favorites stored in the Edge. In this article, we will show you methods through which you can easily disable the editing for the favorites in Microsoft Edge.

Method 1: Using the Registry Editor

The Windows Registry is a hierarchical database that contains all the information and settings for the operating system and applications. If the setting is already configured, then the value will be already existing in the Registry. However, if the setting is not configured yet, then the user needs to create the missing key and value for that specific setting. You can also create a Registry backup before making any new changes in the Registry. The editing for the favorites can be disabled by following the below steps carefully:

Note: The setting can be configured for both the Current User and Current Machine hives. The path will be the same, but the hives will be different.

1. Press the Windows and R keys together on your keyboard to open the Run dialog. Then type “regedit” in the box and press the Enter key to open the Registry Editor. If prompted by UAC (User Account Control), then choose the Yes option.

   

2. In the Registry Editor window, you need to navigate to the following path:

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Edge

   Note: For the legacy version of Microsoft Edge the path will be “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Microsoft\MicrosoftEdge\Favorites“.

3. If the Edge key is missing, create it by right-clicking on the Microsoft key and choosing the New > Key option. Now rename the key as “Edge“.

   

4. Right-click on the right pane and choose the New > DWORD (32-bit) Value option. Rename this value as “EditFavoritesEnabled“.
   Note: For the legacy version the value name will be “LockdownFavorites“. The path will be different too.

   

5. Open the value by double-clicking on it and change the value data to 0.

   

6. Once you are done with these steps, make sure you reboot the system to apply the changes. This will disable the editing for the favorites bar in Microsoft Edge.
7. You can also enable it back by removing the value or changing the value data to 1.

Method 2: Using the Local Group Policy Editor

The Group Policy Editor is another alternative method for this setting in Microsoft Edge. Sometimes the latest application will require the latest policy settings. If you are using the new Microsoft Edge, then you need to download the latest policy files as shown in the below steps. That is why it will require some extra steps compared to the Registry Editor method. However, if you are using the old (legacy) version of the Microsoft Edge, then you need to use the already existing policy setting.

For the Microsoft Edge legacy version, go to the following path in the Local Group Policy Editor “Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Microsoft Edge\“. You can also check the User Configuration category.

Note: If you are using the Windows 10 Home operating system, then kindly skip this method. That is because the Group Policy Editor isn’t available in the Windows 10 Home edition.

1. Visit the Microsoft site, select the version details for Microsoft Edge, and click on the GET POLICY FILES to download the latest policy files.

   

2. Extract the downloaded file into a folder by using the WinRAR application.

   

3. Open the folder and navigate to “MicrosoftEdgePolicyTemplates\windows\admx” location.
4. Now copy the “msedge.admx” and “msedge.adml” files and paste them in the “C:\Windows\PolicyDefinitions” folder.

   

   Note: The language file (msedge.adml) is located in the language folder.

5. Make sure to restart the system to see the new settings in the Group Policy Editor.
6. Hold the Windows key and press R to open the Run command dialog box. Then type “gpedit.msc” in the box and press Enter. This will open the Local Group Policy Editor.

   

7. Navigate to the following setting in the Local Group Policy Editor window:

   Computer Configuration\ Administrative Templates\ Microsoft Edge

   

8. Double-click on the setting named “Allows users to edit favorites” and it will open up in another window. Then you need to change the toggle option from Not Configured to Disabled.

   

9. Click on the Apply and Ok buttons to save the changes. This will disable the editing for the favorites bar in Microsoft Edge.
10. You can always enable it back by changing the toggle option to Not Configured or Enabled.