Manage Edge Chromium Favorites with Intune

Microsoft Edge is now the default browser in Windows 10 and 11, and many organizations want to standardize the browsing experience for employees. One powerful way to do this is by centrally managing Favorites (bookmarks) using Intune.

This guide walks you through the process, explains the JSON configuration, and shares troubleshooting tips to ensure smooth deployment.

Why Manage Favorites?

• Onboarding efficiency: New employees instantly get access to key portals (HR, intranet, Office 365).
• Compliance: Ensure staff always have quick access to mandatory sites.
• Productivity: Reduce time wasted searching for frequently used resources.
• Consistency: Provide a uniform browsing experience across the organization.

Step 1: Create a Configuration Profile

• Sign in to the Intune admin center
• Navigate to Devices > Configuration profiles > Create profile.
• Choose:
  • Platform: Windows 10 and later
  • Profile type: Settings catalog
  • Template name: Administrative Templates
• Click on Create.

On the Basic tab, enter a profile name and click on Next

Step 2: Configure Favorite

On the Configuration settings tab, select Computer Configuration / Microsoft Edge and search for Favorites. Select Configure favorites from the result

As shown in the above screenshot, the Configure Favorites pane contains details on how favorite URLs need to be organized in JSON.

This setting creates managed favorites. You can specify a folder name, URL, and name. You can also add a child folder. The user cannot remove these favorites. Once you have the JSON values ready, you need to copy the same into the Configure favorites text box in the next step.

Favorites JSON values:

[
  {
    "toplevel_name": "Techuisitive Favorites"
  }, 
  {
    "url": "https://www.techuisitive.com/", 
    "name": "Techuisitive Website"
  }, 
  {
    "url": "https://www.techuisitive.com/blog", 
    "name": "Techuisitive Blog"
  }, 
  {
    "name": "Techuisitive Social Media", 
    "children": [
      {
        "url": "https://www.facebook.com/Techuisitive/", 
        "name": "Facebook Page"
      }, 
      {
        "url": "https://www.facebook.com/groups/techuisitive", 
        "name": "Facebook Group"
      }
    ]
  }
]

On the Configure favorites pane, click on Enabled and copy the JSON value (created above) into the Configure favorites text box. Click on the Ok button to return to the Configuration settings tab.

Click on Next to move to the Scope tag. If you don’t have any scope tags, then click on Next again to go to the Assignments tab.

Step 3: Assign & Deploy

On the Assignments tab, add the group where you will target this profile. Click on Next to move to the next tab.

On the Review + create tab, review the details and click on Create to complete the policy creation process.

Step 4: Validate Policy

The policy is now created, and you can validate the same from Devices | Device configuration blade.

To check if the policy has been successfully applied on the client machine, you can open Microsoft Edge and type edge://policy in the address bar. You can see that favorites configured through Microsoft Intune are appearing under the managed Favorites policy name.

End User Experience

Here is a screenshot to show how favorites will look at the end user end.

Troubleshooting Tips

• Malformed JSON: Use a JSON validator to check syntax.
• Policy not applying: Ensure device sync is successful in Intune.
• Conflicts: If users already have personal favorites, managed favorites will appear alongside them but cannot be deleted.

Best Practices

• Keep favorites minimal and relevant.
• Use folders for grouping (e.g., HR, IT, Sales).
• Review and update JSON regularly to reflect organizational changes.
• Test with a pilot group before broad rollout.

Conclusion

Managing Edge favorites with Intune is a simple but powerful way to improve productivity and consistency across your organization. With the right JSON configuration and validation steps, admins can ensure employees always have quick access to the resources they need.

Looking for more? Check out related guides on managing homepage settings and sleeping tabs with Intune.

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