Setting Up Microsoft Edge policies on Linux Mint

 Sat, 26 Jul 2025 11:31 UTC

Image: CC BY 4.0 by cybrkyd

Edge is now running in my Linux Mint because I became fed up with Chromium. The major annoyance for me with Chromium and Chrome is that it is no longer possible to set delete-everything-on-exit. There is a setting buried in:

Settings > Privacy and security > Site settings > Additional content settings > On-device site data > Delete data sites that have been saved to your device when you close all windows

which does…absolutely not clear data sites that have been saved to your device when you close all windows. Silly Google. Just typing all that hurts my fingers. Maybe that setting will wipe site data but does nothing for cookies and history, etc.

Rant over; digression over. Back to the matter at hand, Edge at least allows this but it too comes with its own little quirks, such as the MSN start page which is impossible to turn off from the settings. To kill it, you need to set a policy. Let’s be honest, there are only so many links in the style of “Dog lies down and lets out a deep sigh in bed in Shaanxi, China” and “23 famous actors who struggled with stardom after making it big” any sane person can reasonably tolerate before pulling out their hair and screaming.

OK, rant really over this time!

To set a policy — also known as an enterprise policy — for Microsoft Edge on Linux Mint, a JSON policy file is used. This is how I did it:

1. Create a policy directory:

   sudo mkdir -p /etc/opt/edge/policies/managed
   

2. Create a JSON file:

   sudo nano /etc/opt/edge/policies/managed/new_tab_policy.json
   

3. Add the following content to the file:

   {
     "NewTabPageLocation": "about:blank"
   }
   

4. Save the file (Ctrl+X, then Y, then Enter in nano)

5. Set permissions:

   sudo chown root:root /etc/opt/edge/policies/managed/new_tab_policy.json
   sudo chmod 644 /etc/opt/edge/policies/managed/new_tab_policy.json
   

6. Restart Microsoft Edge.

In my tests, this was not required as the policy loaded on save. Verify this in Edge by visiting edge://policy and the policy should be visible.

A few additional notes

• This assumes Edge was installed from the official Microsoft Linux .deb installer.
• The policy will apply to all users on the system.
• If you want a user-specific policy, you can use /etc/opt/edge/policies/recommended/ instead.

After following these steps, Edge will open a blank page for new tabs. Goodbye MSN start page.