I’ve moved my daily browsing habits to the new Edge that is based on Chromium. I have been using it since the very first release. I am now using the stable beta version.

I noticed about a month or so ago that whenever I tried connecting to a Screenconnect session, the protocol handler would always ask me: This site is trying to open ScreenConnect Client, but it would not have the checkbox to allow me to always open these types of links in the associated app.

Edge Chromium protocol handler with no Always open these types of links in the associated app option

I finally decided to try and figure out if there was an option within Edge to enable this again. After checking the site permissions area, I could not find a setting that would allow this check-box to return.

I started searching the web, and through all the BS Google search results, don’t even get me started with that, I found a few other threads where people were reporting the same thing.

It appears that as of Chrome 77 which Edge Chromium is based on, they removed the option to always open these types of links in the associated app.

Their reasoning is because there was no way to undo the always remember option, they decided it was insecure and a security risk, therefore, they removed it completely.

Here is the thread I found: https://support.google.com/chrome/thread/14194567?hl=en

In the thread, there is a workaround. It entails modifying the preferences file in your default profile.

Hi All, there is a way around this, you can insert a record into the preferences file
found in C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default
The file “Preferences”  contains JSON serttings, our example is for a Web Client Print handler, so just added the below:
“protocol_handler”:{“excluded_schemes”:{“webclientprintiv”:false}}

You must close all instances of chrome including any running processes before you do this or chrome will overwrite the file and get rid of your changes.

And it works.
NB: you’ll have to check your own scheme names to add.
Hope this helps.
Jonesi

https://support.google.com/chrome/thread/14194567?msgid=15347344

I tried modifying the preferences file for the dev version of Edge that I am running alongside the beta and Canary. I went to: %HOMEPATH%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Edge Dev\User Data\Default and tried editing the preferences file found there. When I run Edge, I get an error message saying: Profile error – Your preferences file isn’t valid, or was corrupted. We couldn’t recover your settings. It changes the preferences file to preferences.bad and then creates a new Preferences file.

According to this ConnectWise technical bulletin: https://docs.connectwise.com/ConnectWise_Control_Documentation/Technical_support_bulletins/Constant_prompt_to_open_ScreenConnect_Client_in_Chrome, you should be able to add the following: “protocol_handler”: {“excluded_schemes”: {“sc-xxxxxxxxxxxxx”: false}}, to the Preferences file, and it should always remember your choice that you would like to allow this app to run without having click on Open.

I tried it multiple times, placing the code in different areas, making sure the formatting was right. It never worked. I am going to assume that Microsoft block this change. I really don’t know much about how you can modify open-source browsers, but I’d imagine, most if not all that are based on the same source, follow the same guidelines or standards.

If you figure out how to force the new Edge browser to always allow specific protocol handlers to run instead of having to click on Open all the time, please leave me a comment.