How to Prevent Installing Extensions in Microsoft Edge

Many establishments use the Microsoft Edge browser for its employees. Because it comes preinstalled with Windows, and there are many options and settings to tweak to suit Corporate or work environments. Since some settings or Extensions in Microsoft Edge, if enabled, could cause security risks. So it is obvious you might want to prevent installing them.

One such feature is the ability to enable the extension. Some extensions on the Edge browser could cause security-related issues. So disabling it becomes one of the vital steps. So in this article, we are about to show you all the methods you can use to disable Extensions on the Edge browser.

How to prevent installing extensions on Microsoft Edge browser?

Let’s see all methods one by one.

Method 1: Modifying Registry entry

The registry editor tool allows us to modify certain aspects of Windows OS that can’t be modified in GUI settings. To prevent installing extensions on Microsoft Edge using Registry editor, follow these steps:

Step 1: Press Windows key and R at the same time and open Run.

Step 2: Type in Regedit and hit enter.

Step 3: Under registry key tree (left side of the window), navigate to this key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft

Step 4: First, under the Microsoft key, create a new key named MicrosoftEdge by right-clicking and then selecting New>Key.

Step 5: Then, under “MicrosoftEdge” create another key named Extensions

Step 6: So, the final destination should be like this:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\MicrosoftEdge\Extensions

Step 7: Now select “Extensions” and on the right side, right-click and create a new DWORD(32bit) value with the name ExtensionsEnabled.

Step 8: After creating, double click on the DWORD you just created and set the value to 0

Finally, close the registry editor. Now, your employees can no longer access or install new extensions while on the Edge browser.

Method 2: Using CMD or Powershell

You can also use CMD and enter the following command to accomplish the same. Open CMD as admin or even Powershell but as admin. Finally, enter the following command to complete the task.

reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\MicrosoftEdge\Extensions" /v ExtensionsEnabled /t REG_DWORD /d 0

Tip: If you’re about to change this setting on multiple machines, create a text file with the above command in it and save it as file.cmd or file.bat. Now run this bat file as admin in all systems, and you can easily finish the job.

Method 3: Using Local Group Policy

Requires: Windows 10 Pro or Higher versions to work with Local Group policies.

You can use the Local group policies Editor to allow or disallow certain features to the users, in this case, employees. So now we are going to disable extensions for Microsoft Edge.

Step 1: Open Local Group policy editor using the Run command: gpedit.msc

Step 2: Now navigate yourself to the following location:

Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Microsoft Edge

Step 3: Look for Allow Extensions, right-click on it, and select Edit.

Step 4: Set the value to Disabled and hit okay.

Conclusion

So there are many ways to disallow adding an extension on the Microsoft Edge browser. With these methods, .you  can completely block all extensions in the Edge browser. It is best practice to disallow extension on browsers for employees to protect the information.

These settings are must to know, especially for support persons working in the IT sector. It requires a bit of knowledge of how Registries and Group policies work. But overall, setting up is easy and fast.