User Tools


As it ships, Microsoft Edge is a privacy nightmare. Here's how to make it a bit better:

  • Go to Settings (triple-dot menu in top-right corner, then Settings)
  • Click Microsoft Rewards
    • Disable "Earn Microsoft Rewards in Microsoft Edge"
    • Click left arrow by Profiles to go back to Profile settings
  • Click Personal Info
    • Optionally disable "Save and fill basic info"
    • Disable "Automatically fill my info on sign up forms"
    • Disable "Ask me if I want to save custom info"
    • Click left arrow by Profiles to go back to Profile settings
  • Click Passwords
    • Disable "Offer to save passwords"
      • rationale: use VaultWarden for Co-op passwords, if possible
    • Disable "Autofill passwords"
      • rationale: unprompted autofill is insecure and can lead to password exposure in phishing attacks
    • Click left arrow by Profiles to go back to Profile settings
  • Click Payment info
    • Disable "Save and fill payment info"
    • Disable "Show Express checkout on sites when you shop" and avoid Microsoft gaining details of all your transactions
  • Click the triple-dash menu to the left of Settings
  • Select "Privacy, search, and services"
    • Disable "Allow sites to check whether you have payment methods saved"
    • Ensure "Help improve Microsoft products by sending optional diagnostic data about how you use the browser, websites you visit, and crash reports" is disabled
    • Ensure "Allow Microsoft to use your browsing activity including history, favourites, usage and other browsing data to personalise Microsoft Edge and Microsoft services like ads, search, shopping and news" is disabled
    • Disable "Website typo protection", as it may send the URL of each site visited to Microsoft
    • Disable "Turn on site safety services to get more info about sites you visit" because it communicates each site you visit to Microsoft Bing search
    • Disable "Use a web service to help resolve navigation errors" because it sends data to Microsoft for each site you try to go to that can't be found
    • Disable "Suggest similar sites when a website can't be found"
    • Disable "Save time and money with Shopping in Microsoft Edge"
    • Disable "Get notifications of related things you can explore with Discover"
  • Click "Address bar and search"
    • Disable "Show me search and site suggestions using my typed characters"
    • Disable "Show me suggestions from history, favourites and other data on this device using my typed characters"
    • Change your search engine to anything but Bing
  • Click the triple-dash menu to the left of Settings
  • Select Appearance
    • Disable "Show smart actions"
    • Click "Hover menu"
      • Disable "Show hover menu on image hover"
      • Disable "Show Visual Search in context menu"
    • Click the left arrow by Appearance to go back to the Appearance settings
    • Disable "Show mini menu when selecting text"
    • Disable "Show smart actions"
  • Click the triple-dash menu to the left of Settings
  • Select Sidebar
    • Disable "Show sidebar"
  • Click the triple-dash menu to the left of Settings
  • Select "Start, home, and new tabs"
    • Disable "Preload the new tab page for a faster experience"
  • Click the triple-dash menu to the left of Settings
  • Select "Languages"
    • Disable "Offer to translate pages that aren't in a language I read"
    • Disable "Use writing assistance"
    • Set "Share additional operating system region" to "Never"
  • Click the triple-dash menu to the left of Settings
  • Select "System and performance"
    • Disable "Continue running background extensions and apps when Microsoft Edge is closed"
    • Disable "Save resources with sleeping tabs" (unless you're okay with things not updating as you expect)
  • Click the triple-dash menu to the left of Settings
  • Select "Accessibility"
    • If appropriate, disable "Get image descriptions from Microsoft for screen readers"
  • Click the triple-dash menu to the left of Settings
  • Select "Profiles"
    • Disable "Share browsing data with other Windows features" (maybe on Windows platforms only)
  • Click the arrow to the left of Profiles to return to the Profiles settings
  • Select "Payment info"
    • Disable "Save and fill payment info"
  • Click the arrow to the left of Profiles to return to the Profile settings
    • Disable "Offer to save passwords"
    • Disable "Autofill passwords"
public/ms365/msedgeprep.txt · Last modified: 2023/02/09 12:24 by kevin.woolley