Two separate Microsoft Edge browsers on one Mac
Can you run two separate Microsoft Edge browsers on a Mac?
Edge's profiles keep work and personal accounts apart, for free, in windows of one Edge. Parallex adds a second Edge as an instance of its own: Edge started with a data folder of its own, opened on its own, its windows outlined in its color, with the links you choose sent to it.
Keep a client's or a second organisation's Edge beside your own as a separate instance: its own Microsoft sign-in, cookies, history and extensions, opened from Parallex, the menu bar or a shortcut, its windows outlined in its color.
How
- Install Parallex (below). Your Microsoft Edge isn't changed.
- Choose New Instance and pick Microsoft Edge. Name it for what it's for, like “Microsoft Edge Work”, and give it a color.
- Open it and sign in with the other account. Both run at once, each in its own windows, outlined in the instance's color.
Or without Parallex: every way to run an app twice on a Mac, compared.
What you get with Microsoft Edge
- Its own data folder: Parallex starts Edge with a data folder of its own, so its sign-ins, cookies, history and extensions are separate from your Edge's.
- Window outlines in its color, and its name in the menu bar, so you can tell the two apart at a glance.
- Opened on its own: from Parallex, the menu bar, the ⌃⌥Space switcher or a keyboard shortcut of its own.
- Links to the right browser: send links from other apps to the instance, with rules per site.
- Own identity, when you want it: a copy of Edge with its own Dock icon, notifications and macOS permissions, which Parallex keeps up to date. The lab tries this copy every night too.
Tested every night
Parallex's compatibility lab makes a fresh instance of Microsoft Edge 152.0.4191.66 (the app itself, opened with a profile folder of its own, as New Instance makes it) every night on a clean Mac and opens it. On October 4, 2026, on macOS 26.6.2, it ran, and nothing reached the original's data. Its instances have run clean on all 2 nights since October 3. Made as its own copy instead (Own identity), it ran clean too. See every app's latest result.
Good to know
- The instance is Edge itself, so it shares Edge's Dock icon unless you turn on Own identity; its windows are outlined in its color instead.
Questions
Edge already has profiles. Why this?
Edge's profiles are often enough, work and personal included. An instance is for a second Edge opened on its own, with its own data folder, so a client's sign-in and policies stay out of your own Edge, and links you choose go straight to it.
Can I do it in Terminal instead?
Yes: open -n -a "Microsoft Edge" --args --user-data-dir=<folder> starts a separate Edge with its own data. Parallex does the same thing, with a name, a color, a shortcut and links that go to the right browser.
Get Parallex
Free to try, for macOS 14 and later. In Terminal:
curl -fsSL https://parallex.mandip.dev/install | shOr download the disk image, or with Homebrew: brew install --cask mandipadk/parallex/parallex. Then choose New Instance, pick Microsoft Edge, and give it a name.
Already have Parallex?
This opens New Instance with Microsoft Edge picked; you name it and choose its color.
Make a second Microsoft Edge