Standardizing Microsoft Edge Favorites

If you’ve ever joined a new company and spent the first week hunting for the ServiceDesk link, the intranet, or “that one HR page everyone keeps mentioning”, you already understand the problem.

Managed Favorites in Microsoft Edge is one of those small-but-mighty configurations that quietly removes friction for users and support teams alike. One central place. Same links for everyone. No “where do I find…?” tickets.

Let’s walk through how to configure it properly using Intune, a clean JSON structure, and a generator that saves you from JSON-induced headaches.

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Table of Contents

1. What are Managed Favorites?
2. Why use Managed Favorites?
3. Example JSON structure
4. Use the generator instead.
5. Creating the Intune policy
6. Enable the Favorites bar (highly recommended)
7. Important limitation!
8. Wrap-up

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What are Managed Favorites?

Managed Favorites allow you to centrally define a set of browser favorites that:

• Appear for all users
• Cannot be removed by users
• Can be updated centrally
• Support folders and nesting

This is done via policy in Microsoft Edge, typically delivered using Microsoft Intune.

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Why use Managed Favorites?

This is one of those “why aren’t we already doing this?” features.

Managed Favorites are great for:

• Intranet links
• ServiceDesk portals
• HR systems
• Admin portals
• Onboarding resources
• Country- or department-specific tools

They’re always there, and they’re consistent.

In most environments, this reduces onboarding friction and “where is the link?” support requests, based on common enterprise deployment patterns.

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Example JSON structure

Below is a realistic, production-ready example of a Managed Favorites JSON.
This is exactly the structure Intune expects.

[
  {
    "toplevel_name": "TechWithLudwig"
  },
  {
    "name": "APENTO",
    "url": "www.apento.com"
  },
  {
    "name": "ServiceDesk",
    "url": "servicenow.com"
  },
  {
    "name": "HR Department",
    "children": [
      {
        "name": "Our idol",
        "url": "https://theoffice.fandom.com/wiki/Toby_Flenderson"
      },
      {
        "name": "Vacation",
        "url": "hotels.com"
      }
    ]
  },
  {
    "name": "IT department",
    "children": [
      {
        "name": "Entra Admin Page",
        "url": "entra.microsoft.com"
      }
    ]
  },
  {
    "name": "Employee Handbook",
    "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Employee_handbook"
  },
  {
    "name": "Intranet",
    "url": "Sharepoint.com"
  }
]

Yes, you can handcraft this.

No, you probably shouldn’t.

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Use the generator instead.

I’ve built a small tool that does exactly one thing: Generate valid Managed Favorites JSON without pain.

👉 https://techwithludwig.com/tools/edge-favorites/

With the generator you can:

• Add links
• Create folders
• Nest items
• Copy-paste directly into Intune
• Less time debugging brackets. More time doing literally anything else.

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Creating the Intune policy

Now for the actual policy.

Policy basics

• Platform: Windows
• Profile type: Settings catalog
• Name:
  Windows – Config – Edge – Favorites – Global

You can create the policy directly here: https://intune.microsoft.com/#view/Microsoft_Intune_Workflows/SettingsCatalogWizardBlade/mode/create/platform/windows10/policyType/SettingsCatalogWindows10

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Add the setting

1. Search for Microsoft Edge
2. Add the setting: “Configure favorites”
3. Paste the JSON generated by the tool
4. Save and assign the policy

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Enable the Favorites bar (highly recommended)

Managed Favorites are nice.

Managed Favorites you can actually see are better.

Add this setting to the same policy:

Microsoft Edge > Enable favorites bar

Set it to Enabled.

This ensures the links are always visible and not hidden behind menus. For most users, this dramatically improves discoverability.

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Important limitation!

A device cannot have multiple “Configure favorites” policies applied at the same time.

This means:

• ❌ No overlapping favorites policies
• ✅ You can create separate policies per department, country, or business unit
• ⚠️ Just make sure assignments never overlap

Overlapping policies are not supported and should be avoided.

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Wrap-up

Managed Favorites is one of those configurations that quietly improves daily life for users while making IT look very organized.

• Central control
• Easy updates
• Consistent experience
• Zero user effort

Combine it with a clean naming convention, the Settings Catalog, and a JSON generator, and you’ve got a solution that scales without drama.

If you’re not using this yet — now you are 😉

Happy deploying.