I had a strange issue today: I couldn’t open any webpage in the Edge browser on my Windows 10 machine:

Edge browser with error message "Can't reach this page"
Edge browser: “Can’t reach this page”

Network icon showing Internet access

The network icon was showing that there was Internet access and a quick check on the command prompt showed that the connection (including name resolution appeared to work fine):

Command prompt showing that ping to www.google.com works fine.ping www.google.comPinging www.google.com [172.217.168.196] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 172.217.168.196: bytes=32 time=15ms TTL=55
Reply from 172.217.168.196: bytes=32 time=14ms TTL=55Ping statistics for 172.217.168.196:
Packets: Sent = 2, Received = 2, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 14ms, Maximum = 15ms, Average = 14ms
ping to www.google.com

Other browsers such as Firefox (my default browser) and Chrome also worked fine but some other Microsoft applications also didn’t work such as the Microsoft Store:

Microsoft Store: Try that again
Page could not be loaded. Please try again later.
Code: 0x80131500
Microsoft Store app “Try that again”

And Outlook which seemed to be stuck at “Loading Profile”:

Outlook splash screen hung at "Loading Profile"
Outlook hangs at “Loading Profile”

Strangely enough good old Internet Explorer also worked fine (it opens on the Welcome page as I never use it):

Internet Explorer showing the "Welcome to the web" page:
You should try Microsoft EdgeThe newest browser from Microsoft for Windows 10The same people who brought you Internet Explorer proudly bring you Microsoft Edge. It builds on the Internet Explorer browser you trust and lets you take along all your favorites. Plus you can:•Write on web pages
•Read without distractions
•Get instant search resultsGo beyond browsing with Microsoft EdgeTRY MICROSOFT EDGE NOW
Internet Explorer works fine

Ironically Internet Explorer recommends to use Edge 😂

I then noticed that my internet connection was marked as “Public network” even though I am sure that it was previously set to “Private”:

Network Status showing the network is marked as a Public network
Network Status

When I switched the network to Private, Edge immediately loaded the page and the Outlook splash screen disappeared and it’s main window popped up.

Unfortunately I do not have an explanation (yet) for this strange error, I can only say it happened after updating VMware Workstation which may or may note have anything to do with it.

EDIT: 18-10-2019: Switched back to Public profile and everything stays working including Edge and Outlook.

I’ll update this post if/when I find out more…