How to Completely Disable ‘Follow Creator’ via Group Policy in Microsoft Edge

Microsoft Edge includes a built-in ‘Follow Creator’ feature that allows users to subscribe to content creators and website RSS feeds directly from the browser’s new tab page and Collections sidebar. When a user follows a creator, Edge establishes persistent background polling connections to fetch updated content, aggregating articles, videos, and social media posts into a curated feed displayed on the browser’s start page. While designed for casual content consumption, this persistent background data fetching introduces a significant operational security (OPSEC), bandwidth consumption, and compliance liability in highly restricted enterprise, government, or air-gapped environments. Allowing unmanaged, persistent outbound connections to arbitrary third-party content endpoints breaches the network isolation principles required for zero-trust enterprise browser deployments and creates a potential vector for content injection or social engineering attacks via curated feeds.

This guide explains how to completely disable the ‘Follow Creator’ feature via Group Policy in Microsoft Edge, enforcing a strict block that prevents users from subscribing to any content feeds and eliminating all associated background polling traffic.

Disable the Follow Creator Feature via Group Policy

To enforce a strict configuration that explicitly strips the browser of its ability to offer or maintain creator subscriptions, overriding any user preference or UI interaction, we must deploy an administrative template.

1. Log into Windows with an Administrator account.
2. Press the Windows Key + R to open the Run dialogue box.
3. Type gpedit.msc and press Enter to launch the Local Group Policy Editor.
4. In the left-hand navigation pane, strictly follow this exact path:

   Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Microsoft Edge

5. In the right-hand pane, locate the policy named Allow users to follow creators (internally known as EdgeFollowEnabled).
6. Double-click the policy to open its configuration window.
7. Select the radio button next to Disabled. (By explicitly disabling this policy, we instruct the Edge content aggregation engine to completely suppress the Follow button on all website surfaces, terminate any existing subscription polling threads, and remove the creator feed section from the new tab page layout).
8. Click Apply, then click OK.

Verify the Configuration Lockdown

Group Policy changes modifying Edge content aggregation features require the browser to update its local policy state.

Close all active instances of Microsoft Edge. To force the policy update immediately across the OS, open Command Prompt as Administrator and run gpupdate /force. To verify the restriction is actively enforced, launch Microsoft Edge and navigate to edge://policy. Search for EdgeFollowEnabled and confirm its value is set to false. Furthermore, navigate to any website that previously displayed a “Follow” button in the address bar area – the button will be completely absent. The new tab page will no longer display any creator feed sections, confirming total content subscription isolation.