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Profiles are the default way to store your browsing history, bookmarks, website activity, and search activity in Microsoft Edge. You can use your email account to create a profile.
But is one profile enough?
Office, home, and school are some of the different places where you use Microsoft Edge.
If you use the same profile at each of these locations, it can cause confusion. A boss at the office can snoop on your personal history at home.
In the same way, things done at the office can be viewed by your child sitting at home.
Related: If your problem is that Edge keeps opening the wrong profile, jump straight to our new guide on how to set the default profile in Microsoft Edge —it covers the launch behavior this article does not.”
You can also use Microsoft Edge on Android and Windows 10.
You want to keep a separate profile for each device.
To overcome these problems, you can use automatic profile switching or multiple profiles for your Microsoft Edge.
In this tutorial, we will see how to manage multiple profile preferences.
If you have two Microsoft accounts and want a different one as the main identity, see how to change the default account in Microsoft Edge.
How to Select Default Profile in Microsoft Edge
To achieve this, you need to have two or more profiles created. This feature is available on Microsoft Edge 81 and higher versions.
Total Time: 1 minute
Go to this path—edge://settings/profiles—in your Edge browser’s address bar.
Otherwise, click the three dots in the top right corner and select Settings.
Profiles on the left-hand side.
For every way to move between profiles — including the per-profile shortcut trick — see how to switch profiles in Microsoft Edge.
Click on “Multiple profile preferences.”
On the right-hand side, you can see the default profile for external links
Note: By default, Microsoft Edge uses the last used profile to open links in email or other applications. If you have other profiles in Microsoft Edge, you can choose which one to use.
Select the required profile.
Setting this up on a work laptop? Our full guide to Edge work vs personal profiles covers the workplace setup, employer visibility, and the sync trap.”
Restart the Microsoft Edge browser.
From next time onwards, this profile will take over as the default profile. You can save your bookmarks and other history to this profile.
How to use Automatic Profile Switching
This feature is available in Microsoft Edge 83 and higher versions.
All of these live on the edge://settings/profiles page, which we have documented panel by panel.
Follow steps 1-4 as above.
5. On the right-hand side, turn on the option – Automatic profile switching
Note: If Microsoft Edge detects that a link is a personal or work link, the browser will automatically prompt you to switch to the appropriate profile.
This option is suitable if you want to prevent the headache of going through settings to switch your profile.
Since this feature automatically suggests the profile, it is more convenient to switch to the required profile.
Source: https://blogs.windows.com/msedgedev/2020/04/30/automatic-profile-switching/
Generally, you use different devices at home and work.
When you visit your office, the required profile should automatically suggest itself.
For example, at home you use a personal profile, and when you log into your office system, the switch option should be available.
This feature makes sure that personal and work data are maintained separately. Otherwise, you can select the option “Don’t ask me again” and you can manually switch to the required profile.