Solved How to change the User Agent in Microsoft Edge to specific browser and device?

Hello!

I remember in older versions of Microsoft Edge that when you needed to change the User Agent you pressed F12 to open Developer's Tools and then you selected Emulation and the desired Agent (Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome etc). I wanted to download Windows 10 ISO to install on another computer, so I used the Windows 10 Media Creation Tool. While it was downloading OK, it gave an error at the end and didn't create the ISO file. So I decided to change the User Agent in order to download the ISO directly from Microsoft's site, but in Emulation all I could find was to change the page size and the device from desktop to mobile! WTF? How I do select which browser and which device I want to emulate?

Thank you in advance.

I don't know about the Developer's Tools/Emulation way you are talking about, but as an add-on (extension), 'User-Agent Switcher and Manager' is a popular one, and it looks like it's available on MS Edge...... also Firefox, etc.

That's weird. older versions didn't need any add-ons to change the User Agent. I will try it, thanks.

spapakons said:

That's weird. older versions didn't need any add-ons to change the User Agent. I will try it, thanks.

Click to expand...

I just used MCT, and told it to make a Windows 10 ISO for a different computer.
I did it on a Win 11 computer... It worked fine. I used Firefox.

re: How to get Custom User Agent in Edge.

Click the "+" icon in DevTools (F12) to add the "Network Conditions" to the Dev Toolbar (if it is not already showing).
In Network Conditions, untick "Use browser default" to show all Custom Agents in the dropdown.

das10 said:

re: How to get Custom User Agent in Edge.

Click the "+" icon in DevTools (F12) to add the "Network Conditions" to the Dev Toolbar (if it is not already showing).
In Network Conditions, untick "Use browser default" to show all Custom Agents in the dropdown.

Click to expand...

Very helpful.

It has been necessary to do it this way for ages but at some time the dev tookbar default changed to not show "network conditions" by default. I was looking the other day, and could not find it myself - it is not intuitive for sure to add "network conditions". Even when I googled it, no sites advised adding a hidden option and I restorted to an extension.

The extension is removed now.

One of the main reasons people use a custom user agent is to fool (spoof) the MS download site you are not a pc, and then you can download a standard MS iso directly. I use Safari Ipad normally to do this.

It is really bizarre after all this time, you still need this workaround on the Windows 10 download site, especially as the Windows 11 download site allows you to download a Windows 11 iso without any need to spoof the browser.

edit: MS must have changed something as I just refreshed the Windows 10 download site and it jumped to the iso download site even though I had not changed the user agent!

This is true with Firefox. With Microsoft Edge you are not given the ISO directly. I downloaded it yesterday.

I added "Network Conditions" in Developer Tools of Microsoft Edge and it works excellently. Pity it is not enabled by default. I also noticed that you have to use a non-Windows browser (such as Firefox Android Tablet), using the Windows version (such as Firefox Windows) it doesn't give you the option to download the ISO directly. Just a little detail to add in our inconvenience. I wonder why Microsoft won't let us to download the ISO directly... Why they hide the option in Windows?