Microsoft Edge: how to use the built-in free VPN? (2024)

Microsoft Edge’s VPN, called Microsoft Edge Secure Network, was rolled out earlier this year to secure your session on the Internet. Here’s how to use it

The VPN is free to use, but is limited to 5 GB per month in this version and requires you to be connected to your Microsoft account on the browser.

A VPN focused on data security

It was in April 2022 that we first heard about the VPN project integrated into Microsoft Edge. The following month, the company announced that the Secure Network was available for testing to insiders in Edge’s Canary channel. An additional step has been taken, since some users saw the functionality appear in the stable version of the browser at the beginning of the year. Initially capped at 1 GB of traffic, Microsoft now allows 5 GB of data per month.

As a reminder, with its VPN, Microsoft seeks above all to secure its users’ data. It therefore works in a fairly classic way: the data is sent to one of the service’s servers through an encrypted tunnel, preventing their interception and modification, before being transmitted to the destination. Thus, your IP address and your precise location are protected, and your browsing data is not known to your internet service provider.

However, if you mainly want a VPN to bypass geoblocks, Secure Network will not be for you, because it does not allow you to precisely choose a server. In order not to disrupt the web browsing experience too much, the service automatically connects us to one of the data centers closest to our location. This way of doing things ensures relevant results if you are looking for the nearest restaurant for example, but means that the VPN is completely useless for accessing Netflix US.

A free version limited to 5 GB

In the Secure Network settings of Microsoft Edge we have the choice between three options for its activation. For example, we can establish a list of sites for which the VPN should be activated automatically and use our classic connection for the others, which allows us not to use too much data. The second option, called “Optimized” and selected by default, activates the VPN when using a public or unsecured network, or when visiting a site without a valid certificate. Finally, we can also choose to enable it permanently for all sites.

Five gigabytes are provided for free every month when you sign in to Edge with your Microsoft account. For the moment, the company has not given more details on the monetization of its service and on the amount that will have to be paid to use the VPN beyond this free 5 GB. To find out if you already have access, you can open Edge and search for “Secure Network” in the options to see if the setting is there. If this is not yet the case, don’t panic, the functionality should become accessible to more and more users in the coming weeks.

VPN: to go further

If 5 GB/month of traffic is not enough for your usage and if you also want to take advantage of a VPN to unblock geo-restricted content, then you will need a more advanced service. Among the latter, Cyberghost or NordVPN or Proton VPN top our ranking of the best free VPNs.

Cyberghost

NordVPN

ProtonVPN

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