How to set up profiles in Microsoft Edge to separate work and leisure.

If you spend your day jumping between work emails, social media, shared documents, and leisure videos, it's very easy for your browser to become a real mess. Microsoft Edge It includes user profiles and workspaces which allow you to completely separate your professional and personal activities, without mixing logins, bookmarks, or history. (see How to manage and sync profiles in Chrome)

In this article we will see in detail how to take advantage of these functions: Create and manage multiple profiles in Edge, sign in and sync data, use dedicated workspaces, and understand what is shared and what is not.This applies both to individuals and businesses using Microsoft Entra (formerly Azure AD), OneDrive for Business, and Intune accounts. The goal is to create a well-organized Edge environment, with one profile for work and another for offline use, without any strange interference between accounts.

Sign in to Microsoft Edge and enable synchronization

Before you start creating profiles everywhere, make sure Edge is linked to your account and that synchronization is set up correctly. Signing in allows your favorites, history, and settings to travel with you, including managing saved passwords between devices, which is key if you alternate between remote work, a company laptop, and personal equipment.

To begin, you need to have the new Chromium-based Microsoft Edge installed. If you're still using an older version, it's worth downloading the latest one from the official Microsoft website.Since many of the profile and workspace features are only available in the modern versions, and if you want to try advanced options you can Activate experimental flags in Edge.

With Edge open, look at the top right of the window. Click on the Profile icon (a circle with a silhouette or your initials) Select the option that allows you to sign in or sync data, usually something like "Sign in to sync data." From there, the wizard will open, allowing you to sign in with your personal Microsoft account or your work or school account.

After entering your credentials, Edge will ask you what you want to sync. You can choose to sync favorites, passwords, history, extensions, settings, and more browser itemsThe usual way to avoid confusion is to activate full synchronization and review the Backups in Microsoft EdgeHowever, if your company has specific policies, there may be things that are already predefined by the administrator.

When you finish the wizard, your primary Edge profile will be associated with that account and Data synchronization will begin running in the background, keeping your devices aligned every time you use that same account in Edge.

Create and manage multiple profiles in Microsoft Edge

The real key to separating work and leisure in Edge is the use of multiple profiles. Each profile functions as a separate browser, with its own settings, favorites, history, extensions, and even its own login accounts.It's like having two (or more) browsers within the same Edge.

Edge Chromium allows you to add and switch between multiple profiles from the user icon itself. This is especially useful if you share a computer with other people or if you manage multiple professional identities.For example, when you work for two related companies or collaborate on an external project.

To create a new profile, click the Profile icon in the top bar and select “Manage profile settings” or a similar option that takes you to the profile settings page. On that screen you will find the “+ Add profile” button.Clicking it will display a pop-up window on Edge to add a new browser user.

In that window, confirm by clicking on “Add”. Edge will create a new profile, with its own isolated space for browsing data.If in the future you need clean orphaned profiles and cachesConsult this guide. You will then be offered the option to sign in to that profile with a different account (for example, your other work account or your personal Microsoft account) so you can also sync content specific to that profile.

When the assistant asks if you want to sync, use the slider to turn sync on to “Yes” and then tap “Confirm”. At that point, the profile will be linked to the account you used and will begin to synchronize its data independently. of the rest of the profiles you have in Edge.

From there, you'll see that when you click on the Profile icon, All the additional profiles you've created are displayed, and you can quickly switch between them.You can even open Edge windows with different profiles simultaneously, one for work and another for personal use, without any apparent interference with bookmarks or history, and if it detects high memory usage, it learns to Reduce RAM consumption in Edge.

Separating work and leisure with dedicated profiles

The easiest way to organize yourself is to have at least two main profiles: One professional account, connected to your corporate or Microsoft Login account, and one personal account, linked to your home Microsoft account or even without being logged in., if you don't want to synchronize anything in that environment.

In your work profile, configure your home tabs with tools like Outlook, Teams, SharePoint, your company's intranet or Office applications on the web. Save only sites related to projects, documentation, internal portals, or training resources in your favorites. And keep your extensions focused on productivity and security. (If you need to manage bulk bookmarks, see how.) open all bookmarks at once)

On your personal profile, however, you can have social networks, video platforms, blogs, online stores and any leisure site. This way you avoid checking work emails when you just want to disconnect for a whilekeeping at bay the feeling of always being "in office mode".

This separation also helps a lot with passwords and logins. By having corporate accounts logged in only on the professional profile and your personal accounts only on the leisure profileYou reduce errors when sharing links, documents, or emails from the wrong identity.

Even if you share the same computer with other people at home, you can create a profile for them. Each user will thus have their own set of favorites, history, and extensions, and will not necessarily have to see what others are doing., something especially useful when sharing services streaming or social networks with different logins.

Common problems with multiple Office profiles and accounts

In environments where multiple Office 365 work accounts are managed or Microsoft 365Some confusing behaviors may appear. Edge includes automatic sign-in features for Office applications on the webdesigned to make life easier in simple scenarios, but which sometimes complicate use with multiple accounts.

A typical case occurs when a user has, for example, two corporate email addresses because they work for two sister companies. If Edge has this automatic sign-in enabled and the primary profile is linked to the first work accountIt may happen that, even if the user tries to access Office or SharePoint with the second account, the browser always identifies it with the first one.

The situation can be frustrating: even if you set up a second profile in Edge and link it to the second work account, When accessing sites like office.com or SharePoint, Edge may continue to automatically use the primary profile's identity.This is due to how cookies, session tokens, and single sign-on policies are managed in the corporate environment.

Some administrators have linked this behavior to changes in the MAM/MDM configuration in Intune or to new policies that Microsoft is introducing. Sometimes, these adjustments can "break" the logic of automatic profile switching. or cause the browser to stubbornly insist on always using the same account, even if the user logs out of office.com and logs back in.

Similar experiences have been shared in technical forums and communities, often with unclear solutions or incomplete answers. The key usually involves reviewing the policies applied to the browser (both local and from Intune or group policy)Disable automatic profile switching or review the automatic login options for Microsoft applications.

Workspaces in Microsoft Edge: extreme project organization

In addition to profiles, Edge offers another powerful tool to help you get organized: Edge Workspaces. A workspace is an Edge window dedicated to a specific project or area.which saves its own set of tabs and favorites, and which can be shared with other people in your organization.

Each workspace is automatically maintained and updated. When you open a workspace, all the tabs and shortcuts you left the last time appear.so you can pick up where you left off with the project in question without having to rebuild your navigation "scenario" every day.

To start using them, in recent versions of Edge you will find in the upper left corner a menu icon usually called "Search tabs" and represented by a downward arrow. From that menu, you can access the workspaces section, create new ones, and manage existing ones.provided that your organization has this feature enabled.

In corporate environments, these spaces allow teams to literally “be on the same page”: everyone sees the same browser tabs, accesses the same sites, and can follow the work in real time. Although they share the tab structure, each user keeps their own logins, passwords, and personal content private.which represents a good balance between collaboration and privacy.

Edge Workspaces integrates with Microsoft Login accounts and OneDrive for Business. Your workspace data is stored in your corporate OneDrive. and they inherit the same protections and security policies as the rest of the content stored there, which is key to complying with internal regulations.

Practical scenarios for using workspaces

Workspaces shine especially when you work in a team or manage multiple projects at once. If you're bringing someone new onto a complex project, instead of forwarding dozens of links by emailYou can create a workspace with all the tabs you need (documentation, panels, apps internal) and share the link with him.

This new person only has to open the workspace to suddenly have all the important sites aligned. This avoids the back-and-forth of links, the typical loss of key URLs, and the feeling that everyone is browsing separately.Additionally, you'll see which tab each group member is on when they're working simultaneously.

Another very common scenario is that of someone who participates in several different projects. Instead of having all the tabs mixed up in the same window, you can create a workspace for each project.When you want to focus on one, you just create space for it and forget about the noise from the others.

Within a workspace, tabs that are opened and closed are synchronized in real time with all group members. If a person closes a tab in a shared workspace, that tab disappears for all other users using that same space.Therefore, it is necessary to act with a certain degree of coordination.

For finer control, Edge allows you to use locked tabs within a workspace. A locked tab cannot be closed, dragged, or moved out of the workspace window.Only the space creator or the user who locked it can unlock it, preventing someone from accidentally deleting a critical tab.

What do workspaces have in common (and what don't)?

When you share a workspace, it's important to understand what data is shared and what data is kept private. The workspace shares with the team the set of open tabs, the favorites associated with the space, and the browsing history of that space.all of this updated in real time.

It also shows which tab is active for each team member who has the space open, so you can see roughly where each person is in the work. However, this does not mean that all your activity or credentials will be shared., since Edge protects several personal aspects.

For example, a workspace does not share your logins, passwords, downloads, content collections, extensions or personal cookies. It also does not share its own browser settings, such as visual appearance, default search engine, or tabs open outside the workspace.so your profile remains yours.

Furthermore, content from sites only you have access to is not shared. If you open your email within a workspace, Only you will see the messages, even if the tab appears open to everyone else.Other users will know that there is an email in that tab, but they will not see its contents.

Your device screen is not shared, nor is the way you interact with pages, beyond information about which tabs are open. This means that a workspace is collaborative at the level of navigation structure, but it doesn't extend to your personal and detailed use of each site.preserving a much-needed layer of privacy in work environments.

Technical requirements and workspace management

To use Edge Workspaces in a corporate environment, there are some technical requirements. Users must have an account within a Microsoft tenant. Sign in and use Microsoft Edge version 114 or laterAdditionally, access to a OneDrive for Business license is required, as that is where the data for the spaces is stored.

If settings are managed using group policy, administrators need to have Microsoft Edge version 114 or later installed, along with the policy files corresponding to that version. The feature is controlled by the EdgeWorkspacesEnabled policy., which allows enabling or disabling workspaces for users.

Once enabled, any employee who logs into Edge with their Microsoft account will be able to access the workspaces. Administrators can also control finer aspects through specific browsing policies, which determine what types of URLs and behaviors are shared within the spaces.

These policies are especially useful when there are security standards to comply with or when you want to limit the scope of shared browsing on certain critical sites. The idea is to fine-tune the experience so that collaboration is seamless but without exposing excessive data or sharing actions that should remain within the individual sphere..

Regarding usage limits, Edge workspaces created within a Microsoft Entra tenant can only be shared with users in the same tenant. It is not possible, for now, to share a workspace with people outside the organizationeven if they collaborate on joint projects and use Microsoft accounts.

Advanced configuration of navigation in workspaces

For enterprise environments that need more granular control, Edge allows you to configure shared navigation behavior using the WorkspacesNavigationSettings policy. This configuration defines rules that specify what types of navigation are shared and how certain URL parameters are handled..

There are a number of general rules that always apply. Only top-level navigations are shared between users, that is, Navigations that occur within iframes or subframes of a page are not sharedFurthermore, only navigations initiated by the user (with some gesture or action by the user) are shared.

Navigations initiated automatically by the page, without user interaction, are not shared, nor are POST requests. This makes the experience more consistent and prevents certain sensitive actions, such as submitting forms, from being triggered., spread inappropriately among members of the space.

To customize this behavior, you can work with URL patterns defined using the url_patterns and url_regex_patterns properties. These describe which addresses will have certain special navigation options applied to them., using simple patterns or regular expressions as appropriate.

Among the available options is do_not_send_from, which prevents sharing a navigation if the referring URL matches a pattern, or do_not_send_to, which does the same when the destination URL matches. There is also the prefer_initial_url option, which ensures that, in the event of server-side redirects, the initial URL is shared instead of the final one.provided it is not a POST request.

Other options allow you to manipulate the URL query string before sharing it. For example, `remove_all_query_parameters` removes all query parameters before sending the navigation to the rest of the group, while `query_parameters_to_be_removed` lets you specify only certain parameters to remove. These functions are useful for protecting sensitive data or preventing session identifiers from being shared. and other types of sensitive information embedded in the links.

Common messages, errors, and user comments

When using workspaces in Edge, it's normal to encounter certain informational messages. The first time a user opens the Workspaces menu, a notification appears explaining what this feature is.giving you the option to read more details or to directly create a new space.

Sometimes the message “Reconnect to the workspace service” may also appear. This warning usually indicates a temporary connectivity problem between Edge and the cloud service that manages the workspaces.Usually, once the connection is restored, everything returns to normal without any further action required.

If the workspace software has been updated, the browser may display messages such as "Update Microsoft Edge" to continue using workspaces. In these situations, simply updating Edge to the latest version is sufficient. to regain full access to the function.

In more problematic cases, the error “Error: Workspaces cannot be loaded” may appear. A typical recommendation is to sign out and sign back in to Microsoft EdgeTo do this, you can go to edge://settings/profiles, click on “Sign out” and then select “Sign in to sync data” again. A typical recommendation is to sign out and sign back in to Microsoft Edge or Reset Edge settings.

If, after following this process, the problems persist, it is recommended to send feedback directly to the Edge team. Within the workspace menu, there are usually "Like" and "Dislike" buttons associated with the question of whether you are satisfied with the workspaces.Using these channels helps Microsoft identify real usage issues and improve them. There.

Overall, using user profiles and workspaces in Microsoft Edge is a very powerful way to bring order to your daily browsing. By clearly separating a professional profile from other personal profiles and combining it with dedicated work areas per projectYou can stay focused, reduce accounting errors, avoid mixing leisure and work, and at the same time collaborate with your team in shared environments that respect privacy and enforce corporate security policies when necessary.