Deploy Microsoft Edge and Manage Edge Updates using SCCM or Intune

Microsoft announced that the general availability of the new Microsoft Edge Chromium on January 15, 2020. SCCM and Intune are already ready for this launch as both products include a feature to deploy and manage updates for Microsoft Edge. This blog post will describe how to deploy the Microsoft Edge browser to your computer using both SCCM and Intune and manage Edge Updates.

You can download and install Edge Chromium from the Microsoft website. It’s available for Windows, macOS, iOS and Android. If you need to do SCCM Edge Deployment Update in Enterprise, continue to read our post.

SCCM Edge Deployment Update Requirements

The first step to SCCM Edge Deployment Update is to ensure that you have SCCM version 1910 or higher. Version 1910 brings a new feature to deploy Microsoft Edge, version 77 and later. Intune is already ready to deploy Edge.

Also ensure that PowerShell Execution Policy are not set to Restricted.

When Microsoft Edge is deployed to a computer, automatic updates are automatically turn off to point to SCCM. You can change this using Group Policy.

You will also need to have a functioning Software Update Point to deploy Microsoft Edge Updates.

Deploy Microsoft Edge using SCCM

It’s also possible to create an application using the downloadable MSI from the Microsoft Edge Insider web page but this blog post will not describe this option as we find that the built-in feature is doing a simpler job handling it.

• In your SCCM Console
• Navigate to Software Library / Microsoft Edge Management
• Right-click Microsoft Edge Management and select Create Microsoft Edge Application

• On the first pane, enter a Name and Path where you want the build to be downloaded. The path must be an empty directory. Click Next

• Select an Update Channel and Version. You can select Dev, Beta and Stable. Click Next.

• Starting with SCCM 2002, you can create Edge to receive automatic updates rather than having automatic updates disabled. This allows choosing to manage updates for Microsoft Edge with SCCM or allow Microsoft Edge to automatically update.
• When creating the application, select Allow Microsoft Edge to automatically update the version of the client on the end user’s device. If you previously used Group Policy to change this behaviour, Group Policy will overwrite the setting made by SCCM during Edge installation.
• In SCCM 2010, the product group also add an option to bypass the PowerShell Execution policy on the user machine

• The next screen permits you to create your deployment or wait at a later time. For this blog post, we will create it now. Click Next

• As for any other application deployment, select a Collection, Content Destination, Distribution Settings (Available or Required), Scheduling, User Experience and Alert

• Complete the Wizard. It will take a couple of seconds to complete since SCCM is downloading the files in the background.

• In the folder you specified in the first screen, you’ll see the downloaded bits for both X86 and X64

• If you’re curious and wonder at that’s inside the PS1 file, it’s basically a script to install Edge and a registry value set for future updates.
• You can now log on a computer that is a member of your deployment collection and initiate the Edge deployment from Software Center. For now, the “regular” version of Edge is retained on the computer.
• Use the usual AppEnforce.log file to monitor the deployment

SCCM Edge Deployment Updates

Starting with SCCM 1910, it is possible to deploy Edge Updates using the SCCM console (As for Office 365) – Under Microsoft Edge Management / All Microsoft Edge updates.

To Enable Edge updates to show up, you need to enable the product on your Software Update Point.

• Go to Administration / Site Configuration / Sites
• On the Top ribbon select Configure Site Components and select Software Update Point

• In the Classification Tab, ensure that Updates is checked

• In the Product tab, select Microsoft Edge under the Windows product

• Go back to the Software Library node, right click the All Microsoft Edge Updates node and select Synchronize Software Update

• Wait for the sync to complete and refresh the All Microsoft Edge Updates node, you should see Microsoft Edge Update appear

• You can now deploy Microsoft Edge updates like any other software update. You can also use automatic deployment rule to deploy them.

Microsoft Edge Management Dashboard

Beggining with SCCM 2002, a new dashboard is available in the SCCM console. You can consult that Microsoft Edge Management dashboard to see the usage of Microsoft Edge and other browsers.

• To see the Dashboard, click Software Library / Microsoft Edge Management. You can filter the dashboard based on a specific collection

Deploy Edge using Intune

If you’re using Intune to manage your devices, you can also find the same deployment mechanism in your Intune console. This feature is currently in Preview mode but in our test, it worked out great!

• In the Intune Console, go to Manage / Client Apps

• Select Apps

• At the top, select Add

• In the App type dropdown, Under Microsoft Edge, version 77 and later, select Windows 10

• Click App Information and enter your desired information

• Click App Settings and select the desired update Channel.

• Click the Add button at the bottom to add the application. You’ll see a confirmation on the top right.

• You’ll be in your Edge Chromium application screen. The only thing left is to assign the app to a group. Go in the Assignment tab and select your group

We hope that this post was useful. Now that Edge Chromium hits general availability there’s no reason not to manage SCCM Edge Deployment Updates.