How to View Microsoft Edge Policies

Microsoft Edge policies are rules that control how the browser behaves on your PC. Edge has a built-in page that lists every policy it is currently applying. You don’t need admin rights to open it, and viewing it changes nothing.

To see the policies:

1. Open Microsoft Edge.
2. Click the address bar, type edge://policy, and press Enter.
3. Look at the page that opens. If policies are set, you will see a table with the policy name and its value, plus columns such as the source, the level and the status.

If the page says no policies are set, nothing is managing your browser. The grayed-out options or odd behavior then have a different cause, such as an extension or a setting you changed yourself.

Here is how to read the table:

• Policy name and value: the setting being enforced and what it is set to.
• Source: whether the rule comes from the device itself (platform) or from a cloud-based management service.
• Applies to: whether the rule covers the whole device or only your user account.
• Level: a mandatory policy cannot be changed by the user. A recommended one sets a default that you can override.
• Status: whether Edge applied the policy without problems. If a policy shows an error or a warning, the value is probably wrong or the policy name isn’t recognized.

The page also has a few buttons and options that help when you are troubleshooting:

• Reload policies: makes Edge re-read the policies right now. Use it after an administrator changes something, so you don’t have to wait for the next automatic refresh.
• Export to JSON: saves the list to a file. This is handy when you want to send it to your IT team.
• Show policies with no value set: lists the policies that Edge supports but that nobody has configured.

IT administrators usually set these rules on work or school computers to block certain features or manage security settings. Checking this page helps you work out why some browser options look grayed out or why web pages act strangely. If a policy is the cause, you can’t override it from Edge settings. Ask whoever manages the computer to change or remove it. On a personal PC with policies you don’t recognize, it’s worth finding out where they came from, since other software can also set them.