Edge 87.0.664.52 – is blocked from Trend Micro OfficeScan

[German]Microsoft has already released an update to the Chromium Edge 87.0.664.52 on November 30, 2020. However, there is trouble with this update if Trend Micro OfficeScan is installed, as I have learned from various reader feedback. The Edge will not start anymore. So here is an addition to the original article.

I had noticed it because Thomas S. had already pointed out yesterday (1.12.2020) the update of the Chromium Edge to version 87.0.664.52 and wrote the following:

New update for EDGE. Favorites function fixed to 80 %. But still takes 2-3 seconds. New version 87.0.664.52.

Apparently it takes very long to get the favorites list. According to the release notes, several bugs and performance issues are fixed, but Microsoft does not specify them in detail. The performance issues in the display of favorites are probably not fixed.

Trend Micro OfficeScan blocks start

Addendum: After the publication of this blog post I received this comment from user Arian van der Pijl. He reports that he had to go back to the Edge version 87.0.664.47 because Trend Micro OfficeScan Edge prevented the start.

Had to revert to 87.0.664.47 because Trend Micro OfficeScan kept Edge from starting.
A bit vague but details to be determinded.

He linked to the Techcommunity thread Microsoft Edge ver 87.0.664.52 cannot open, where a user wrote:

Microsoft Edge ver 87.0.664.52 cannot open

After update to ver 87.0.664.52, it cannot open any more. How to fix it?

EThere are other users there who have the problem that the Chromium Edge 87.0.664.52 will not start. In the course of the thread it turns out that affected users have installed Trend Micro OfficeScan, which blocks the start of the browser. Addition: Trend Micro is aware of the problem, by the way, because they answered the following to a user who opened a ticket there:

Thank you for contacting Trend Micro… This is a known issue and our development team are working on a fix as BM is indeed blocking it – you can try and add the following exclusion "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\Edge\Application\msedge.exe".
A fix for this issue will be released

A German user posted this comment with an excerpt from a Japanese Trend Micro support article, which contains some additional information.

Subject: Microsoft Edge ver 87.0.664.52 cannot open

There is currently a Japanese KB article available at Trend Micro:

https://success.trendmicro.com/jp/solution/000283021

Translation from the article:

Information on interim circumventions

Add the full Microsoft Edge path to the approved behavior monitoring program. Add the full Microsoft Edge path to your list of trusted programs.

In the meantime, consider using a browser other than Microsoft Edge.

WorkaroundsIt is currently under review.

Once the information is confirmed, we will update the questions and answers for this product.

After publishing my German blog post, I also received a similar email from an Austrian user reporting also Edge start issues:

have you heard an article about problems with the last Edge Chromium update?

After the automatic update to 87.0.664.52 the browser does not start anymore.

Attempts with folder/file deletion in the user profile did not help. Furthermore, uninstall and install with the 64Bit version did not work.

Only the installation of the 32Bit version achieved a success.

I guess that there is also Trend Micro OfficeScan a root cause, which prevents the browser from starting.

Workaround: Define exceptions in Trend Micro

To work around the problem, a simple workaround seems to help. A user writes in the Techcommunity:

same issue here. if u stop officescan agent and turn it on again, it works well, but officescan agent says it has to do an update. if u do the update, u can not start edge again.

We added

'C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\Edge\Application\msedge.exe'

to the trusted programms in officescan. Now it works with updated officescan agent

So once msedge.exe is set as an exception for Trend Micro Office Scan, the browser will appear to start in the current version.