Internet Explorer was dead to begin with. But that’s okay because Microsoft Edge is here to replace it! If you’re ready to give Microsoft Edge the chance it deserves, PDQ can help. Here’s everything you need to know about Microsoft Edge for Business and how to deploy it to all your managed endpoints.
Microsoft Edge for Business
Oh, how the mighty have fallen. In the early 2000s, Microsoft dominated the web browser market with over 95% of all users accessing the internet with Internet Explorer. Flash and Winamp reigned supreme, and all was right with the world. Today, Microsoft is lucky to hit about 5% of browser market share, with Google firmly gripping the crown it stole from Microsoft in 2012. But there’s hope for Microsoft, and its name is Edge.
Released in 2015, Edge didn’t receive the warmest of welcomes. With webpage compatibility issues and a lack of compelling features, it struggled to gain an audience. In 2020, Microsoft decided if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em, and it released Edge built on Chromium, the open-source browser engine powering many of today’s most popular browsers, including Google Chrome. This change drastically improved Edge’s website rendering accuracy, compatibility, and performance, resolving many of the issues that plagued Edge since its initial release. With Chromium-based Edge now providing a better, faster browsing experience, organizations are starting to consider Edge as a valid option for their users.
If you’re wondering if there are any differences between Edge and Edge for Business, the answer is… not really. Functionally, Edge and Edge for Business are the same. However, Edge for Business does provide sysadmins some additional control with versioning and administrative settings.
Deploying Edge for Business with PDQ Deploy
PDQ products have one goal: to make a sysadmin’s life easier. Deploying Edge for Business is no exception. Let me show you how to distribute Microsoft Edge to hundreds or even thousands of computers in just a few clicks with PDQ Deploy. If you don’t have PDQ Deploy or PDQ Inventory and you want to follow along, you can download a 14-day trial for free!
We’ll start by downloading the Microsoft Edge for Business package from the Package Library in PDQ Deploy.
With PDQ Deploy open, click on the Package Library in the menu tree.
Enter edge into the filter field.
Select Microsoft Edge for Business, then click Download Selected (As Auto Download).
With the Edge package downloaded, we’re ready to create a schedule to automate our Edge deployments.
Click on the Microsoft Edge for Business package.
Click New Schedule.
Enter a name for the schedule.
Click the Triggers tab if it’s not already selected.
Configure your schedule to best meet the needs of your organization. Remember, you can add multiple triggers to the same schedule.
Select the Targets tab
In the Targets menu, add the computers or collections you want to deploy the package to. I’ve made a static collection in PDQ Inventory (more on that in a moment) that I’ll target for my deployment. To select it, I’ll click on Choose Targets > PDQ Inventory > Collection, then I’ll select the collection and click OK.
Click the Options tab and ensure Stop deploying to targets once they succeed is selected.
Click OK.
The schedule will ensure devices in the targeted collection will continue to receive the newest version of Edge once it’s released. Since I’m impatient, let’s go ahead and manually start a deployment so we don’t have to wait for the schedule to kick off.
Right-click on the Microsoft Edge for Business package, and click on Deploy Once.
Click Choose Targets > PDQ Inventory > Collection.
Click the collection you want to deploy to.
Click Deploy Now.
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Tracking Edge for Business installs with PDQ Inventory
PDQ Inventory makes tracking your Edge installations a breeze. Inventory comes packaged with prebuilt dynamic collections to track many popular applications, including Edge for Business. You can find the Edge for Business dynamic collections in the menu tree by expanding Collection Library > Applications > Internet Browsers > Edge for Business. Edge for Business is broken down into three dynamic collections:
Edge for Business (Latest)
Edge for Business (Not Installed)
Edge for Business (Old)
You can target these collections in PDQ Deploy, just like I did with my static collection. Targeting dynamic collections is the preferred method when you are configuring deployment schedules. By targeting the Edge for Business (Old) and the Edge for Business (Not Installed) dynamic collections, you can ensure that all your computers stay up to date with the latest version of Edge.
Deploying and managing Microsoft Edge on your remote endpoints with PDQ Connect
If you find yourself managing more and more remote endpoints, you’re not alone. Supporting the remote and hybrid workforce is one of the biggest challenges facing sysadmins these days. PDQ Connect has been developed from the ground up to ensure managing remote endpoints is just as easy as managing local devices. Here’s how to deploy Microsoft Edge for Business to your remote endpoints using PDQ Connect.
In PDQ Connect, click on the Packages tab.
In the search field, enter edge to filter the packages.
Select the Microsoft Edge for Business package, then click Deploy.
Enter the name of the devices or groups to deploy the package to.
Click Deploy.
That’s all there is to it. PDQ Connect makes it incredibly easy to manage and deploy applications to your remote endpoints, and all that's required is an internet connection.
So long Internet Explorer. Hello Edge.
Microsoft will probably never regain the web browser userbase it once had. But as Edge continues to improve, more users and business will adopt it, and PDQ will continue to make it remarkably easy to deploy it.
If you’re overwhelmed with your growing fleet of remote devices, take PDQ Connect for a test drive. Connect offers all the features you need to make remote device management simple, secure, and pretty damn quick. Try out Connect for yourself with a 14-day free trial and take the stress out of managing remote devices.
