5 Microsoft Edge settings to change for more secure browsing than Chrome offers

Once upon a time, had you told me that one day I’d install and use a web browser made by Microsoft on Linux, I’d have thought you’d gone mad. I’m not saying Edge has become my default browser (that title still belongs to Opera) but after using Edge for a while on Linux, I can certainly see why it’s quickly becoming such a popular option.

Also: 5 Microsoft Edge features that might make it my new favorite Linux browser

It’s based on Chromium but offers quite a bit more features and options than Chrome. It’s pretty fast, and  – more importantly – it can be made much more secure than Google’s browser. 

However, by default, a number of those settings are either not enabled or set to their less secure options. Fortunately, those settings are easily changed.

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If you open the Microsoft Edge Settings window, you won’t find a Security section because these settings are included in the Privacy, Search, and Services section. But which settings do you change? There are five security settings I would recommend looking into. Here they are:

1. Disable Save Payment Methods

Although saving your payment methods in a web browser is convenient, it’s not something I would ever recommend. To that end, I always disable the saving of payment methods. The problem is that disabling the saving of payment methods is sort of hidden within Edge. On top of that, depending on your operating system, the saving of payment information will vary. For instance, when I installed Edge on Linux, the option was enabled. (It’s enabled on Windows 11 as well.) On MacOS however, not only was the option disabled, but there was an extra option for Automatically Save Payment Info (which was off by default). Whatever operating system you use, you should make sure that Saving Payment Methods and Save Payment Info are disabled.

Also: 5 reasons why Opera is my favorite browser (and you should check it out too)

Now, you might think this setting would be found in, well, Settings — but it’s not. Instead, the disabling of payment methods is handled within Microsoft Wallet. To open Wallet, click the small wallet icon in the left sidebar. If you don’t see that icon, open Settings and search for wallet. When you do that, the Wallet opens in the browser and you can immediately click Settings and then disable the Save and Fill Payment Info option. 

I would also suggest you disable one more option that is related to payment methods. Open Edge Settings (by clicking the gear icon in the sidebar) and type payment in the search bar. You should see, under Privacy, a listing for Allow Sites to check if you have payment methods saved. Click the on/off slider until it’s in the off position.

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