What you need to know
- Microsoft Edge for Business will ship to broad availability next week.
- The experience is designed to help users keep their personal and professional browsing separate.
- It will be released with Microsoft Edge stable version 116.
- Signing into Edge using Microsoft Entra ID will automatically transition you to Microsoft Edge for Business.
In May, Microsoft held its annual conference for developers, Build 2023, where it made a host of announcements, including several new features coming to Microsoft Edge and a new browsing experience dubbed Microsoft Edge for Business.
In case you missed the announcement, the company defined Microsoft Edge for Business as an experience that lets users keep their personal and professional browsing separate. As such, you'll no longer need to download a third-party browser to achieve the same result since Edge will now let you separate your browsing.
The experience is in preview, but it's now slated to ship to general availability next week, on August 17, with Microsoft Edge stable version 116. "All customers who sign into Edge using Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure Active Directory) will automatically be transitioned to Microsoft Edge for Business as part of the release," Microsoft indicated in the blog post.
Profiles vs Microsoft Edge for Business
I've been using multiple profiles in Microsoft Edge to establish control over my browsing experience. For instance, I use one for work, another for entertainment and general browsing, etc. So far, it's been a smooth and seamless experience that allows me to navigate between multiple profiles within the flow of my work. Of course, with the help of vertical tabs and the Pin tab group feature that allows me to have pinned tab groups persist across sessions.
Microsoft for Business will elevate this experience a notch higher for me. The company boasts of the new experience's capabilities to counter and handle cyberattacks, not to mention its availability across iOS and Android devices.
Additionally, Microsoft has also highlighted several changes that users can expect when it comes to the browser's UI once the experience starts rolling out, as highlighted below:
- The Microsoft Edge icon will be updated to the Edge for Business icon
- When the user launches Edge for Business, Microsoft Entra ID users will automatically be signed in
- A one-time banner will appear at the top of the browser after first launching Edge for Business informing the user of the change with a link to learn more
You can also check out Microsoft's FAQ blog post highlighting everything you need to know to get started with the new experience coming to Microsoft Edge.
