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In our workplace, we are running into a scenario where the best option would be to run 2 webpages in a kiosk account, with a fullscreen Edge window on each of 2 monitors. I have already tested and you can do a fullscreen window on each monitor on a regular windows setup, but it seems the shortcut to create a new window is missing in kiosk mode.

I have found a couple forums where it was mentioned in Edge v89 that feature was removed from kiosk accounts. I am just wondering if it's possible to re-enable that somehow, whether it's with the use of an XML provisioning package, or something like that, but I can't find a single good resource online.

Also, the option to create a new window isn't available whether you setup the kiosk with the option "As a digital sign or interactive display" or "As a public browser."

Any help is greatly appreciated!

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  • Please clarify your specific problem or provide additional details to highlight exactly what you need. As it's currently written, it's hard to tell exactly what you're asking.
    – Community Bot
    Commented May 15, 2023 at 17:27

2 Answers 2

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By using this you will get 2 Edge windows in kiosk mode:

start msedge --new-window --kiosk https://github.com/
start msedge --new-window --kiosk https://stackoverflow.com/

Tested out on Edge Version 113.0.1774.42 (Official build) (64-bit) - the latest version at the moment.

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    @justdoingmyjob - You should be able to open a shortcut to Edge with the arguments --new-window --kiosk https://github.com/
    – Ramhound
    Commented May 15, 2023 at 19:30
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    Hmm. I don't think you can run a bat file since these restrictions are set. It seems you could run multiple apps with multi-app kiosk, but you need to run a specific Windows 10 build. Then you can do it like here.
    – rd51
    Commented May 16, 2023 at 10:41
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    @rd51 Thanks for that link, I didn't come across that earlier. Very helpful. I have tried to setup a multi-app kiosk, but it looks like to make it work I will have to use a specific windows version. I'll try it and let you know.
    – justdoingmyjob
    Commented May 16, 2023 at 16:06
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    Hmm. There might be a solution, but I'll have to look into it tomorrow. The thing is there's a software that lets you run two different instances of an OS at the same time, but then you'd need to use 2 mice and 2 keyboards. But I suppose there must be a device (it must be strictly hardware) that can make a mouse and a keyboard control 2 OSes at the same time. Unfortunately, that software is paid if I recall correctly. I forgot its name, that's why I'll have to look for it. I also know it wasn't the only software like this, and I'm not talking about virtual machines.
    – rd51
    Commented May 16, 2023 at 18:58
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    @rd51 Don't think would work in this scenario. We are pretty limited space-wise since the tables barely have enough room for the keyboard and mouse as it is... This might be a last resort but it's nice to know the option exists. Thanks. Also, the mini-PCs we are using only have 8GB of ram, so I wonder if that would be enough for windows 10 to function properly with 2 OSs?
    – justdoingmyjob
    Commented May 17, 2023 at 13:41
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I ended up using Chrome instead of Edge for my solution, but it works either way. This solution will allow you to open multiple Chrome kiosk browser windows on multiple monitors. Create a batch file and paste in the following code:

start chrome --app="www.google.com" --kiosk --window-position=-1920,0 --user-data-dir=C:\monitor1
start chrome --app="www.google.com" --kiosk --window-position=0,0 --user-data-dir=C:\monitor2

--kiosk will make Chrome launch in fullscreen in kiosk mode

--window-position will set, in pixels, with what offset to create the window at. In my case I have 2 monitors, with the main one on the right. Not sure why, but the pixel count index seems to start on the main monitor, so if you have multiple monitors with monitors to the left of the main one, you will have to negatively index to create a window there.

--user-data-dir is necessary because if a Chrome process is running, if you launch a new Chrome window with arguments, those arguments just get added to the currently running Chrome process. The user data dir will force Chrome to create a new profile for each, meaning each process can have it's own launch arguments that are applied separately. You can manually set this, but Chrome will create the directories as long as it has permissions to do so.

If for whatever reason that doesn't work for you, you can use multiple web browsers without the --user-data-dir argument set.

This is NOT a solution to adding multiple windows of a web browser in an assigned access kiosk account in windows. That is impossible as of Edge v89. This answer is a workaround solution.

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