In-Depth Guide: Suppressing the Microsoft Edge First-Run Experience with Intune
New devices often greet users with a series of setup screens in Microsoft Edge. These include data sync prompts, favorite-import suggestions, sign-in offers, and branded splash screens. In a managed environment, these interruptions can frustrate users and increase support calls. This guide shows you how to use Intune to disable that first-run experience and deliver a clean, ready-to-use browser.
Why Disable the First-Run Screens?
The built-in prompts help casual users configure Edge the way they like. In an enterprise, though, you typically enforce policies centrally and don’t want users making individual choices during initial use. Disabling the first-run wizard:
- Speeds up new device provisioning
- Reduces confusion and extra support tickets
- Ensures a consistent browser setup across the organization
How the HideFirstRunExperience Setting Works
Microsoft includes a policy named HideFirstRunExperience. Enabling it skips all startup prompts and applies default settings automatically. Behind the scenes, this policy writes a registry key under:
textHKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Edge
with HideFirstRunExperience set to 1. Edge recognizes this flag and bypasses the welcome screens entirely.
Detailed Intune Configuration Steps
- Sign in to the Intune admin center at https://endpoint.microsoft.com.
- In the left menu, go to Devices → Windows → Configuration profiles → Create profile.
- For Platform, choose Windows 10 and later. For Profile type, select Settings catalog, then click Create.
- Enter a name such as “Edge First-Run Suppression” and an optional description.
- Under Configuration settings, click Add settings. In the picker, type first to filter. Expand Microsoft Edge, then select Hide the first run experience and splash screen. Click Apply.
- Set the policy toggle to Enabled.
- Under Assignments, choose the device groups that should receive this policy. Targeting devices ensures the setting applies regardless of who signs in.
- Review the configuration and click Create.
The policy deploys automatically. Once on a device, Edge will no longer show any first-use prompts.
Verifying Policy Deployment
- Open Edge on a test machine. It should launch directly to the browser without any welcome or setup screens.
- Type
edge://policyin the address bar. Look for HideFirstRunExperience with a value of Enabled. - On the device, open the registry editor and navigate to the Edge policy path to confirm the key and value.
- In Event Viewer, check under Applications and Services Logs → Microsoft → Windows → DeviceManagement-Enterprise-Diagnostics-Provider → Admin for Event ID 814, indicating the policy applied.
Best Practices
- Pilot first. Apply the setting to a small group to catch issues early.
- Combine with baseline policies. Include this setting in your broader browser baseline to cover updates and new features.
- Maintain user choice. Even with first-run screens hidden, users can manage sync and data import in Edge’s settings if your policies allow.
- Document the change. Let support and help-desk staff know about the suppression so they understand why users don’t see setup prompts.
Alternative Methods
If you prefer other deployment mechanisms, you can also disable the first-run experience via:
- Administrative Templates in Intune’s policy catalog
- OMA-URI custom policies pointing to the same registry key
- PowerShell scripts pushed via Intune for advanced or transitional scenarios
Using the Settings catalog is the most straightforward and future-proof approach, since it natively supports all Edge policy keys as Microsoft adds them.
Suppressing the first-run experience helps users get started faster and keeps your managed devices consistent. With these steps, Edge launches cleanly every time.
