Word Wedded to Edge!

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Hey Y’all,

I just ran across this today and thought I’d give y’all a heads-up.

My better half came to me complaining that Insert->Pictures-Stock Images… and Online Picutres… no longer worked.

Sure enough she got this:

So I went and tried it on my machine with the same results.
I did some googling and they were talking about deleting cookies and setting up a new user account blah blah. None of this made any sense to me.

So I put on the old thinking cap and said what could be causing this odd behavior which was working the last time she tried to use it. Ah, I said this is Microsoft aka the Evil Empire could the fact that I have disabled Edge via Edge Blocker be the culprit? So fire up Edge Blocker and click the UnBlock button…wait for it…

Everything now works as it should. Just another case of MS forcing you to do what they want as they could have easily just used what ever default browser was installed.

Don’t you just love it?

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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Andy M, windbg, Vincenzo, NaNoNyMouse

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Yes, i guess to use the online Pictures, they want you to use Edge. So they can keep an eye on what pictures you download. Or the other thing they do was change links that open from Microsoft Outlook. Even though you are using another default browser. I had to fix this for someone the other day.
Under Options. Advance, Then File and browser preferences Open hyperlinks from outlook in:

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windbg

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My experience, so far at least, differs from yours.

I’m using Office Click-to-Run, and have Edge blocked with EdgeBlock v1.9, and I still see the Insert menu as shown in your first screen capture.

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So fire up Edge Blocker and click the UnBlock button…wait for it… Everything now works as it should.

I’m using Office 365. Brave is my default browser. Two observations I found interesting.

1) Unless you have ALL of Words connected experienced enabled, the Insert feature is unavailable.

2) Then, with the “all connected experiences” turned on, the popup window showing “Online Pictures” appears but it’s not clear what software is displaying the “Online Pictures”. I would have assumed it would be a window using default browser (Brave). Wrong!

Desktop Asus TUF X299 Mark 1, CPU: Intel Core i7-7820X Skylake-X 8-Core 3.6 GHz, RAM: 32GB, GPU: Nvidia GTX 1050 Ti 4GB. Display: Four 27" 1080p screens 2 over 2 quad.

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windbg

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I don’t even have “all connected experiences”, or at least I can’t find it if I do have it.

Checked under “options” but it’s not there, and searched (in the top search bar) but no “hits”.

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In Office:

Account > Account Privacy > Manage Settings > Connected Experiences.  If you want to be able to download stock images and online pictures, check “Turn On Experiences that Download online Content”.

Dell XPS17, 11th Gen Intel I7, 64gb RAM, Windows 11 Home 23H2

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Paul, they are on and still doesn’t work with Edge disabled.

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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TechTango

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Ah, thank you, now I’ve found it.

And it’s selected. But with Edge disabled, in Word when I click Insert, Pictures, Insert Picture From, I still see the three options.

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@AusJohn, you’re missing @RetiredGeek’s point.

The “problem” occurs when you actually click either the Stock Images… or Online Pictures… option to insert an image.

Word will then try to open Edge to get the images you want to insert and, since it’s been disabled, you’ll get the blank screen he posted.

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Thanks! Now I understand. Slow learner I’m afraid.

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According to the following advice from Sordum – the creators of EdgeBlock – and my experience following that advice, you can block Edge and still have the Word picture options functional:

“After you have used the Block button, try to uncheck the BlockWebView2 option”

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I initially read this as “Word welded to Edge”!! – more difficult to break apart, I think.

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