Recent Edge update attempts to sign-in to a profile every time a link is pressed from Outlook

[norrig_]

Hi.
In our set-up we only use local profiles for Edge. If a user attempts to sign-in anyway, they're met with a "Your system administrator has not granted xxx@xxx sign-in permissions", which is fine and has been fine for at least a year now.



However, the recent 8/8 update has 'caused the popup to appear every time a link is clicked in Outlook(and opened in Edge) which has caused our helpdesk to get multiple tickets from annoyed users.

I cannot for the life of me find the setting which triggers this. I assumed it was the outlook context from the sidebar, but a GPO that completely disables the sidebar still causes this pop-up to appear.

I am aware we can use the "RestrictSigninToPattern" GPO to allow the users to sign-in, but we are not interested in allowing the users to sign-in at all. We simply want Edge to stop trying to sign-in every time a link from Outlook is clicked on, just like it was before the .200/.203 update.

Does anyone know what can be done about this? Is there a GPO that stops this behavior? Is it an Outlook setting? A Windows setting? Can we stop Edge from even trying to sign-in?

tl;dr how do we stop Edge from trying to sign-in when a link is clicked in Outlook?

[#2]

@norrig_ Hi!  It looks like the team had a similar report of this issue.  (https://www.reddit.com/r/edge/comments/15rmdce/suddenly_getting_your_system_administrator_has/). I'll also send the team your feedback and follow up if they have any insights.  

Another option is to reach out to Support. (Support - Microsoft Edge Developer)  They should be able to gather logs and other diagnostic data to help investigate your specific case.  Thanks! 

-Kelly

[#3 · Accepted solution]

We have found a workaround!
As mentioned, we never used profiles and haven't set up any policies regarding this, besides an RestrictSigninToPattern pointing to a non-existent domain, which we pushed when we switched to Edge from Chrome a year or two ago.

However, today we've set up the BrowserSignin(to 0) policy which has fixed the issue to the point where the users are no longer met with the popup at all when clicking a link from Outlook.

While we still blame the recent update for changing the behavior, considering we haven't touched any policies or settings in months, enabling this policy works for us, at least for now.

In the future however, we would prefer such changes are better communicated in the release notes so we can prepare. The issue can be closed for now.

[#4]

@norrig_ 

We have the same issue, but this fix doesn't work, using the most up to date Edge but clicking a link in Outwood results in the same message as the OP.

I have changed the registry as per the reply, but again, the same errors occur. 

Any ideas on this issue please?