Use WebDriver to automate Microsoft Edge

WebDriver allows you to automate Microsoft Edge by simulating user interaction. Tests that use WebDriver have some advantages over JavaScript unit tests that run in the browser:

• WebDriver accesses functionality and information that's not available to JavaScript running in browsers.

• WebDriver simulates user events or OS-level events more accurately than JavaScript unit tests.

• WebDriver manages multiple windows, tabs, and webpages in a single test session.

• WebDriver runs multiple sessions of Microsoft Edge on a specific machine.

Relationship between WebDriver and other software

To automate Microsoft Edge with WebDriver to simulate user interaction, you need three components:

• Microsoft Edge.
• Microsoft Edge WebDriver.
• A WebDriver testing framework.

The functional relationship between these components is as follows:

Technology	Role
WebDriver	A W3C standard for a platform- and language-neutral wire protocol. This protocol allows out-of-process programs to remotely instruct the behavior of web browsers.
Microsoft Edge WebDriver	Microsoft's implementation of the WebDriver protocol specifically for Microsoft Edge. Test authors write tests that use WebDriver commands that Microsoft Edge WebDriver receives. Edge WebDriver is then responsible for communicating that command to the browser.
A WebDriver testing framework	Test authors use a testing framework to write end-to-end tests and automate browsers. Provides a language-specific interface that translates your code into commands that are sent to Edge WebDriver. WebDriver testing frameworks exist for all major platforms and languages. One such framework is Selenium.
Internet Explorer Driver	An open-source implementation of the WebDriver protocol specifically for Internet Explorer. To run legacy end-to-end tests for Internet Explorer Mode, we recommend using Internet Explorer Driver.
Microsoft WebDriver (legacy)	The previous, browser-specific driver for Microsoft Edge (EdgeHTML), which is also known as Microsoft Edge Legacy.

The following sections describe how to get started with WebDriver for Microsoft Edge.

Download Microsoft Edge WebDriver

To begin writing automated tests, make sure the Edge WebDriver version you install matches your browser version, as follows:

1. Go to edge://settings/help and note your version of Microsoft Edge.

   

2. Go to Microsoft Edge WebDriver.

3. In the Get the latest version section of the page, select a platform in the channel that matches your version number of Microsoft Edge.

   

4. After the download completes, extract the msedgedriver executable to your preferred location. Add the folder where the executable is located to your PATH environment variable.

Choose a WebDriver testing framework

After downloading Edge WebDriver, the last component you must download is a WebDriver testing framework. Test authors use WebDriver testing frameworks to write end-to-end tests and automate browsers. A WebDriver testing framework provides a language-specific interface that translates your code into commands that Edge WebDriver runs in Microsoft Edge. WebDriver testing frameworks exist for all major platforms and languages, such as Python, Java, C#, Ruby, and JavaScript.

This article provides instructions for using the Selenium framework, but you can use any library, framework, and programming language that supports WebDriver. To accomplish the same tasks using a WebDriver testing framework other than Selenium, consult the official documentation for your framework of choice.

Using Selenium 4

Selenium WebDriver is an open-source testing framework that can be used on any platform, and provides language bindings for Java, Python, C#, Ruby, and JavaScript. Note: Python 3 is required to run Selenium 4 tests. (Python 2.7 is not supported.)

To use WebDriver to automate Microsoft Edge, if you use Selenium, you must use Selenium 4, which has built-in support for Microsoft Edge (Chromium).

To install Selenium 4, see Install a Selenium library. In case you need it, the nuget packages page is Selenium.WebDriver.

Upgrading from Selenium 3

To use WebDriver to automate Microsoft Edge, if you use Selenium, make sure you are using Selenium 4. Selenium 3 is no longer supported.

You must upgrade existing Selenium 3 tests to Selenium 4. To learn more about upgrading to Selenium 4, see Upgrade to Selenium 4.

If you're using Selenium Tools for Microsoft Edge to add Microsoft Edge (Chromium) support to your Selenium 3 browser tests, update your tests as follows:

1. Remove Selenium Tools for Microsoft Edge from your project. You don't need to use Selenium Tools for Microsoft Edge with Selenium 4, because Selenium 4 already has built-in support for Microsoft Edge (Chromium).

2. Update your tests to use the built-in EdgeDriver and related classes that Selenium 4 provides instead.

3. Remove all usages of the EdgeOptions.UseChromium property. This property no longer exists in Selenium 4, because Selenium 4 supports only Microsoft Edge (Chromium).

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Automate Microsoft Edge with WebDriver

To automate a browser using WebDriver, you must first start a WebDriver session by using a WebDriver testing framework. A WebDriver session is a single running instance of a browser that's controlled through WebDriver commands.

Start a WebDriver session to launch a new browser instance. The launched browser instance remains open until you close the WebDriver session.

The following section walks you through using Selenium 4 to start a WebDriver session with Microsoft Edge.

Note

This article provides instructions for using the Selenium framework, but you can use any library, framework, and programming language that supports WebDriver. To accomplish the same tasks using another framework, consult the documentation for your framework of choice.

Automate Microsoft Edge

Selenium uses the EdgeDriver class to manage a Microsoft Edge session. The following code:

1. Starts a Microsoft Edge session.
2. Instructs Microsoft Edge to go to Bing.
3. Searches for "WebDriver".
4. Sleeps for a few seconds so you can see the results.

To get started automating Microsoft Edge with WebDriver, copy and paste the code snippet for your preferred language:

C#

using OpenQA.Selenium;
using OpenQA.Selenium.Edge;
using System.Threading;

namespace EdgeDriverSample
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            var driver = new EdgeDriver();
            try
            {
                driver.Url = "https://bing.com";

                var element = driver.FindElement(By.Id("sb_form_q"));
                element.SendKeys("WebDriver");
                element.Submit();

                Thread.Sleep(5000);
            }
            finally
            {
                driver.Quit();
            }
        }
    }
}

Python

from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.common.by import By
import time

driver = webdriver.Edge()

driver.get('https://bing.com')

element = driver.find_element(By.ID, 'sb_form_q')
element.send_keys('WebDriver')
element.submit()

time.sleep(5)
driver.quit()

Java

import org.openqa.selenium.By;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebElement;
import org.openqa.selenium.edge.EdgeDriver;

public class EdgeDriverSample {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
        EdgeDriver driver = new EdgeDriver();
        try {
            driver.navigate().to("https://bing.com");

            WebElement element = driver.findElement(By.id("sb_form_q"));
            element.sendKeys("WebDriver");
            element.submit();

            Thread.sleep(5000);
        } finally {
            driver.quit();
        }
    }
}

JavaScript

const { Builder, By } = require('selenium-webdriver');

(async () => {
    const driver = await new Builder().forBrowser('MicrosoftEdge').build();
    try {
        await driver.get('https://bing.com');

        const element = await driver.findElement(By.id('sb_form_q'));
        await element.sendKeys('WebDriver');
        await element.submit();

        await driver.sleep(5000);
    } finally {
        await driver.quit();
    }
})();

Manage and configure the Edge WebDriver service

When you create a new EdgeDriver object to start a Microsoft Edge session, Selenium launches a new Edge WebDriver process that the EdgeDriver object communicates with. The Edge WebDriver process is closed when you call the EdgeDriver object's Quit method. Letting each EdgeDriver object manage its own driver process can be inefficient if you have many tests, because each test must wait for a new driver process to launch. Instead, you can create a single Edge WebDriver process and then reuse it for multiple tests.

Selenium uses the EdgeDriverService class to manage an Edge WebDriver process. You can create an EdgeDriverService once before running your tests, and then pass this EdgeDriverService object to the EdgeDriver constructor when creating a new EdgeDriver object. When you pass an EdgeDriverService to the EdgeDriver constructor, the EdgeDriver object will use this EdgeDriverService, instead of creating a new one.

You can also use EdgeDriverService to configure command-line options for the Edge WebDriver process, as shown below.

The following snippet creates a new EdgeDriverService and enables verbose log output:

C#

var service = EdgeDriverService.CreateDefaultService();
service.UseVerboseLogging = true;

var driver = new EdgeDriver(service);

Python

from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.edge.service import Service

service = Service(verbose = True)

driver = webdriver.Edge(service = service)

Java

System.setProperty("webdriver.edge.verboseLogging", "true");
EdgeDriverService service = EdgeDriverService.createDefaultService();

EdgeDriver driver = new EdgeDriver(service);

JavaScript

const edge = require('selenium-webdriver/edge');

const service = new edge.ServiceBuilder().enableVerboseLogging().build();

const options = new edge.Options();
const driver = edge.Driver.createSession(options, service);

Configure Microsoft Edge Options

You can pass an EdgeOptions object to the EdgeDriver constructor to configure extra options for the Microsoft Edge browser process. The following section shows how to use EdgeOptions for some common scenarios. For a full list of options that are supported, see Capabilities and EdgeOptions.

Choose Specific Browser Binaries

You can start a WebDriver session with specific Microsoft Edge binaries. For example, you can run tests using the Microsoft Edge preview channels, such as Microsoft Edge Beta, Dev, or Canary.

C#

var options = new EdgeOptions();
options.BinaryLocation = @"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\Edge Beta\Application\msedge.exe";

var driver = new EdgeDriver(options);

Python

from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.edge.options import Options

options = Options()
options.binary_location = r"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\Edge Beta\Application\msedge.exe"

driver = webdriver.Edge(options = options)

Java

EdgeOptions options = new EdgeOptions();
options.setBinary("C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft\\Edge Beta\\Application\\msedge.exe");

EdgeDriver driver = new EdgeDriver(options);

JavaScript

const edge = require('selenium-webdriver/edge');

let options = new edge.Options();
options.setBinaryPath("C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft\\Edge Beta\\Application\\msedge.exe");

let driver = edge.Driver.createSession(options);

Pass extra command-line arguments

You can use EdgeOptions to configure command-line arguments that will be passed to the Microsoft Edge browser process when a session is created. For example, you can configure the browser to run in headless mode.

C#

var options = new EdgeOptions();
options.AddArgument("headless");

var driver = new EdgeDriver(options);

Python

from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.edge.options import Options

options = Options()
options.add_argument("headless")

driver = webdriver.Edge(options = options)

Java

EdgeOptions options = new EdgeOptions();
options.addArguments("headless");

EdgeDriver driver = new EdgeDriver(options);

JavaScript

const edge = require('selenium-webdriver/edge');

let options = new edge.Options();
options.addArguments("headless");

let driver = edge.Driver.createSession(options);

Other WebDriver installation options

Docker

If you use Docker, run the following command to download a pre-configured image that has Microsoft Edge and Microsoft Edge WebDriver pre-installed.

docker run -d -p 9515:9515 mcr.microsoft.com/msedge/msedgedriver

For more information, see the msedgedriver container on Docker Hub.

Application Guard

Trusted sites that use Microsoft Defender Application Guard can be automated using Edge WebDriver. Microsoft Defender Application Guard is also called Application Guard, for short.

Untrusted sites that use Application Guard cannot be automated or manipulated using Edge WebDriver. Application Guard launches untrusted sites in a container, and this container doesn't expose the remote debugging port that Edge WebDriver needs to communicate with the site.

Your enterprise administrator defines what are trusted sites, including cloud resources and internal networks. Sites that aren't in the trusted sites list are considered untrusted. Edge WebDriver can automate both InPrivate windows, and sites in the trusted sites list.

For more information about Application Guard, see:

• Microsoft Edge support for Microsoft Defender Application Guard.
• Microsoft Defender Application Guard overview.

Opt out of diagnostic data collection

By default, Edge WebDriver sends diagnostic data such as the status of the New Session WebDriver command to Microsoft. To turn off diagnostic data collection for Edge WebDriver, set the MSEDGEDRIVER_TELEMETRY_OPTOUT environment variable to 1. For more information about the data that Edge WebDriver collects, see the Microsoft Edge Privacy Whitepaper.

Legacy Microsoft WebDriver for EdgeHTML

Microsoft WebDriver is the legacy WebDriver implementation for EdgeHTML-based Microsoft Edge. Microsoft WebDriver was distributed as an optional Windows component, because legacy Microsoft Edge (EdgeHTML) was updated with the OS. Microsoft WebDriver isn't compatible with the latest, Chromium-based versions of Microsoft Edge. Microsoft WebDriver is still made available for developers who have written WebDriver-based tests for UWP apps, because these rely on EdgeHTML, but Microsoft WebDriver is no longer recommended.

See WebDriver (EdgeHTML).

Troubleshooting

These are troubleshooting considerations when using WebDriver to automate Microsoft Edge.

Developer Tools Availability policy

If your IT admin has set the DeveloperToolsAvailability policy to 2, Microsoft Edge WebDriver is blocked from driving Microsoft Edge, because the driver uses Microsoft Edge DevTools. To automate Microsoft Edge, make sure the DeveloperToolsAvailability policy is set to 0 or 1.

Upgrading from Selenium 3 to Selenium 4

To use WebDriver to automate Microsoft Edge, if you use Selenium, make sure you are using Selenium 4. Selenium 3 is no longer supported.

If you use Selenium 4, you don't need to use Selenium Tools for Microsoft Edge. Selenium Tools for Microsoft Edge are for Selenium 3 only. If you try to use Selenium 4 with Selenium Tools for Microsoft Edge and try to create a new EdgeDriver instance, you get the following error: System.MissingMethodException: 'Method not found: 'OpenQA.Selenium.Remote.DesiredCapabilities OpenQA.Selenium.DriverOptions.GenerateDesiredCapabilities(Boolean)'.

If you're using Selenium 4 and get this error, remove Microsoft.Edge.SeleniumTools from your project, and make sure you're using the official EdgeOptions and EdgeDriver classes from the OpenQA.Selenium.Edge namespace.

See also

• The Selenium Browser Automation Project - Information about WebDriver in the context of Selenium, and how to write automated WebDriver tests using Selenium.
• Contact the Microsoft Edge WebDriver team to send feedback about using WebDriver, WebDriver testing frameworks (such as Selenium), and Microsoft Edge.