Disclaimer: This is a guide so please follow your companies acceptable use policies, governance and guidelines before attempting any of the below.
With the recent Edge/Chrome v140 issue causing Blue Prism to freeze on wait stages I thought it would be helpful to share how to automatically keep Edge at a specific version using Windows group policy. This works best on a Windows domain environment where group policies can be applied to the digital worker computer accounts but can also be done directly on a Windows installation using local group policy. Work with your domain administrators for domain group policy.
Requirements:
- Microsoft Edge
- Internet access from the digital worker - required to update/downgrade Edge from Microsoft
- AD Domain (optional)
- Group Policy, local or domain - Computer Account
- Microsoft Edge Group Policy Templates
Background on group policy (local and group) - In an Active Directory domain, group policies are distributed by Domain Controllers. The templates are installed in C:\Windows\PolicyDefinitions on any domain controller and replicated to all other domain controllers in the domain. Local group policies are exactly the same policy template files and folder location but only apply to the client Windows machine the template files were copied to. For domain group policy please ask your domain administrators for assistance in creating the policy. For a local policy per-machines, please ensure you have a account with Administrator privileges.
The policy template files contain settings that apply to specific products, settings, controls etc and enforce setting for that product/service/setting. In this example the policy templates will be used to automatically keep Edge at a specific version - v139.x.x.x as is supported by Blue Prism Enterprise.
Step 1 - To get the policy files, download them from Microsoft at Download and Deploy Microsoft Edge for Business and select the link under the appropriate Edge platform. You will have a CAB file. Double click the cab file and extract the contained ZIP file. Open the ZIP file and copy the "windows" folder out of the ZIP. Inside the extracted "windows" folder is an "admx" folder. The "admx" folder contains 3 files in the root and folders for the associated language. From here you will copy the 3 files in the root and the folder for your language - or all folders, won't affect anything - into the C:\Windows\PolicyDefinitions folder. You will receive a prompt to overwrite the language folder. Click yes to merge the language folders. The policy files are now available to the domain or the local machine.
Step 2 - Applying the Edge settings. Your domain admin will either apply the version control settings in the appropriate group policy or if you are performing this on each digital worker individually, the steps remain the same. For a local-only policy launch the Group Policy console: Start Button - > gpedit.msc. Navigate to Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Microsoft Edge Update\Applications\Microsoft Edge. 3 Settings apply:
- Double-click "Target version override" and click the Enable radio button. In the Target Version text box enter 139.0.3405.125 which is the last version of Edge v139. You can enter your appropriate supported version for your processes. Click OK
- Double-click "Rollback to Target version" and click the Enable radio button. Click OK.
- Double-click "Update policy override" and click the Enable radio button. Click the Update Policy drop-down and select "Always allow updates (Recommended)". Click OK.
These 3 settings will ensure that Edge stays on the version number specified.
Step 4 - If the settings in Step 3 were done via domain group policy, wait for policy propagation. your domain admins can assist with testing this. If done locally run the following command from cmd.exe.
gpupdate /target:computer. This will fast-track applying the policy.
Step 5 - Kill any previously running Edge sessions from Task Manager. Do this if your Edge uses Startup Boost. Startup Boost keeps Edge running in the background even if you close it. Blue Prism recommends that Startup Boost be disabled in any case. This can also be set via the policies that were installed.
Step 6: Launch Edge. Click Settings. Click "About Microsoft Edge" or paste "edge://settings/help" in the URL bar. You will see Edge do a check for updates. If you were on older version of Edge than the one specified on the policy, Edge will update to that version. If you were on a newer version, Edge will downgrade to the version specified in the policy. After it is done a Restart button will appear. Clicking this will restart Edge for you. It doesn't restart Windows.
If you receive an error that the files couldn't be downloaded, check that the digital worker has internet access. If internet access is working, restarting the digital worker can help and then opening the "About Microsoft Edge" setting will rerun the update process.
If the policies are being done locally on each digital worker, the version number must be set on each machine if Edge needs to be set to a specific version number (update or rollback). If the above policy was done via domain group policy, the group policy must be amended. This can help with managing your digital worker's Edge versions and keep them at a specific version.
As always, this is a guide so please follow your companies acceptable use policies, governance and guidelines before attempting any of the above.
