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How can I remove the "Microsoft Edge" browser entry from the start menu in Windows 10 ?

It should disappear completely from the entire start menu. I obviously don't have Edge pinned to the pinned tiles area on the right hand side, but it stubbornly remains in the A-Z alphabetical all programs list on the left hand side. How can it be removed from there ?

scope of the question

This question asks how to ONLY remove the start menu entry/shortcut WITHOUT uninstalling the app (for fear that uninstallation of Edge might destabilize the system as MS alledges Edge to be a vital part of Windows and inextricably integrated).

related but different questions:

8 things I have tried so far without any success:

(yes, I have rebooted after each modification)

  1. As suggested in an answer below, I searched for *edge*.lnk in the entire C: drive.
    None found.

  2. I looked in c:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\
    and in c:\Users\{user}\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\
    --> Edge isn't present there.

  3. I looked in Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Clients\StartMenuInternet as suggested in the comment below. I don't have Edge there.

  4. But I do have Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Clients\StartMenuInternet\IEXPLORE.EXE\InstallInfo containing a key named IconsVisible whose value I changed from 1 to 0.

  5. adding this to the registry:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer]
"NoStartPageWebBrowser"=dword:00000001
  1. right-click on the entry: "open file location" is missing and there is no other option for removal, see screenshot below

screenshot
(Screenshot is taken from the web. My start menu looks almost identical, except that I still have an icon on the left side of the "Microsoft Edge" menu entry.)

  1. I renamed C:\Windows\SystemApps\Microsoft.MicrosoftEdge_8wekyb3d8bbwe to "C:\Windows\SystemApps\Microsoft.MicrosoftEdge_8wekyb3d8bbwe#REMOVE" as per these apparently obsolete answers from 2016: https://superuser.com/a/1105803/961501 and https://superuser.com/a/1156798/961501 . As a side-note: The renaming had the following effect on the Edge desktop shortcut icon when I drag&drop the start menu entry to the desktop (yet the start menu entry still remains listed as "Microsoft Edge" in both cases!):

BEFORE RENAMING:

screenshot

AFTER RENAMING:

screenshot

Maybe this can serve as a clue for some clever detective here ?

  1. I searched for the expression "Edge_8wekyb" in the registry and found hundreds of entries, but couldn't find any seemingly related to the start menu. But I might have overlooked it, as I got fatigued after half an hour staring at Microsoft Edge registry entries ...
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    Do you have in C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs` an item named Microsoft Edge.lnk`? What happens if you move it elsewhere? Or right-click, Properties, and change the target file.
    – harrymc
    Commented Feb 6 at 14:42
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    Use a fully customizable Start menu, such as free Open Shell Menu, which does not change with each Windows update.
    – DrMoishe Pippik
    Commented Feb 6 at 14:53
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    Check also for HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Clients\StartMenuInternet\Microsoft Edge.
    – harrymc
    Commented Feb 6 at 16:06
  • @harrymc : many thanks. I tried all your suggestions. Nothing worked. Sorry. I updated the question to reflect that.
    – summerrain
    Commented Feb 6 at 16:32
  • Have you rebooted for testing ?
    – harrymc
    Commented Feb 6 at 16:45

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
2

Use Everything to search for Edge.lnk case insensitively. Make sure that hidden files are not disabled in Tools -> Options -> Indexes -> Exclusions. Windows Search can fail at finding certain files and is generally very slow in comparison.

Normally it should be just this file: C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Microsoft Edge.lnk - it removes the entry for me. Make sure that the file doesn't reappear after restarts.

I'm almost certain it'll reappear at least after Edge updates, so deleting the file is not the best option, though. What works better is hiding the file by checking the box in its Properties -> General -> Attributes. It should stay hidden even after it's replaced, in theory, unless Microsoft works around it somehow.

Another option could be something like DropIt to watch and automatically remove it. Just create a rule with Delete action for the file itself and make sure that it'll run automatically.

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  • I searched for *edge*.lnk in the entire C: drive. None found. Thanks though.
    – summerrain
    Commented Feb 23 at 11:17
  • In Everything? How did you install Edge BTW? What's its current version?
    – Destroy666
    Commented Feb 23 at 11:38
  • In TotalCommander (also finds hidden files). I did not install Edge manually, so it must have either been there preinstalled out-of-the-box or got installed with automatic Win updates (that's why I dislike unwanted forced automatic updates). settings > apps says the most recent Edge update is from 20 January 2024 and has version number 1.3.181.5. Thanks for the useful hint to DropIt.
    – summerrain
    Commented Feb 23 at 19:14
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The start Menu contains Shortcuts pulled in from different folders. But it looks like that not in all installs and languages, those folders are in the same locations. Note that the link could be not only in the folder of your current user profile, but also in the Public User's folder, or in a "All Users" folder.

What you can do, is search your system drive for Microsoft Edge.lnk using the search bar in Explorer. Then remove any of those shortcuts until you find the right one. Make sure you include system folders and hidden folders in your search.

Such a search might take a long time for non-indexed folders, so initially restrict your search to the following directories:

  • C:\Users
  • C:\Program Data

Should this not help, there might be something corrupt with your windows install.

For my Windows 10 Home install, removing the links from the folders you have indicated in your question was enough to remove any start menu entry.

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  • I searched for *edge*.lnk in the entire C: drive. None found. Thanks though.
    – summerrain
    Commented Feb 17 at 23:00
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+50

The following method is taken from the article How to uninstall Microsoft Edge in Windows 11.

Make Edge removable

  • Start regedit
  • Position to key
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\Microsoft Edge
  • Double-click the NoRemove value and change it from 1 to 0.

Remove Edge

  • Start Settings > Apps > Installed Apps
  • Find "Microsoft Edge" in the list and click the three-dot button
  • Select Uninstall
  • Reboot to verify the change.

The article includes more methods for effecting the same change.

A last resort would be to use Autoruns to disable everything with the filter of "edge" and reboot.

Apart from this last advice, I searched and tested, but none of the suggested solutions here or elsewhere have worked for me.

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  • Thanks, this is useful, but does bypass the question a little bit. See the 2nd heading: "Scope of the question: This question asks how to ONLY remove the start menu entry/shortcut WITHOUT uninstalling the app!"
    – summerrain
    Commented Feb 17 at 22:56
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    I searched and tested, but none of the suggested solutions here or elsewhere have worked for me. I start to get the feeling that the latest versions of Windows 10 have disabled all the known methods.
    – harrymc
    Commented Feb 18 at 11:55
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    One idea: Use Autoruns to disable everything with the filter of edge.
    – harrymc
    Commented Feb 19 at 11:11
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    Fine with me, done as asked. Note that Autoruns gives many more results for me : image. Note that Microsoft is doing big efforts to make Edge unavoidable, and there is just so much that we can do against it. Perhaps more workarounds will be found in the future.
    – harrymc
    Commented Feb 23 at 19:37
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    @ harrymc: +50. thanks for the screenshot. I only had the 2 items in the "services" section: edgeupdate and edgeupdatem which can be seen in your image, too. Yes, I hope this question might be answered in the future.
    – summerrain
    Commented Feb 23 at 19:42

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