Specify Default Profile to Open Links for Microsoft Edge

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How to Specify Default Profile to Open Links for Microsoft Edge

With a new update, Microsoft Edge now allows specifying the default profile to open 'external' links, e.g. links you click in a messenger, or in a Store app. The Edge browser will be started with the chosen profile, allowing you to differentiate profiles for banking, private stuff, and general browsing. Let's see how to use this useful option.

The change is available in Microsoft Edge starting in build 81.0.413.0 Canary. Check out the actual browser versions below.

Actually, most Chromium-based browsers allow specifying the profile to use for this or that link, however, it might be a bit complicated, since it involves command line arguments. E.g. here's an example for Chrome and Chromium:

chrome.exe --profile-directory="Default" "%1"

If you have this in Registry or as a shortcut target for your Chrome browser, it will always loaded with the 'Default' profile.

Edge simplifies this. You can quickly specify what profile you want to use for regular link clicks for your user profile. This is an option that many users have been looking for.

To Specify Default Profile to Open Links for Microsoft Edge,

  1. Open Microsoft Edge.
  2. Click on the menu button with three dots.
  3. Select Settings from the menu.
  4. In Settings, click on Profiles on the left.
  5. On the right, click on Multiple profile preferences.
  6. On the next page, select the profile you will use for opening external links under Default profile for external links.

You are done!

By default, the option is set to Last Used, that is replicates the default behavior of Chrome and most mainstream browsers.

Microsoft recently released the first stable version of Microsoft Edge Chromium to the public. Surprisingly, Microsoft Edge is still supporting a number of aging Windows versions, including Windows 7, which has recently reached its end of support. Check out Windows Versions Supported by Microsoft Edge Chromium.

Interested users can download MSI installers for deployment and customization.

For pre-release versions, Microsoft is currently using three channels to deliver updates to Edge Insiders. The Canary channel receives updates daily (except Saturday and Sunday), the Dev channel is getting updates weekly, and the Beta channel is updated every 6 weeks. Microsoft is going to support Edge Chromium on Windows 7, 8.1 and 10, alongside macOS, Linux (coming in the future) and mobile apps on iOS and Android.

Actual Edge versions

The actual versions of Edge Chromium at the moment of this writing are as follows:

You will find many Edge tricks and features covered in the following post:

Hands-on with the new Chromium-based Microsoft Edge

Also, see the following updates.

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Author: Sergey Tkachenko

Sergey Tkachenko is a software developer who started Winaero back in 2011. On this blog, Sergey is writing about everything connected to Microsoft, Windows and popular software. Follow him on Telegram, Twitter, and YouTube.

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