Is there any possibility to completely disable the new Edge browser? The old IE could be disabled in Settings → Default Programs, but in Windows 10, the checkbox is missing for Edge.
Is there any way to get rid of Edge, or at least to disable all entry-points?
UPDATE AUGUST 2018: Microsoft keeps changing things a bit, but you can still "Disable" the Edge browser by doing the following:
Edge should now be "disabled".
Keep in mind that Microsoft may try to re-enable Edge during a future update...
THE ANSWERS BELOW ARE OLDER ANSWERS...
UPDATE: In January 2017 I disabled Edge on a new Windows 10 install by simply renaming the "C:\Windows\SystemApps\Microsoft.MicrosoftEdge_8wekyb3d8bbwe" folder. (If you are asked to allow administrator privileges be sure to answer in the affirmative.) Renaming this folder was not possible in the past without following the more detailed steps below. This much simpler approach achieves the exact same results as the more complex instructions below! However, for older installations and/or Windows upgrades the below instructions may still be the only answer.
THE ANSWER BELOW THIS LINE IS THE OLDER ANSWER...
As already stated, the other answers are no longer valid due to changes in Windows 10 -- Microsoft has removed all supported methods for disabling Edge. As of today, this answer still works. Although parts of this answer were given, not all of it was given together in a step by step manner.
Been running Windows 10 Pro like this on 100+ PCs for several months without issues.
A NOTE REGARDING WINDOWS ANNIVERSARY UPDATE: The Anniversary update appears to undo the above changes and re-enable Edge. In my case I just ran the above steps again, and Edge is once again disabled.
Microsoft Edge is a "trusted" UI App and a core part of the Windows 10 Operating System; it can't be removed by conventional means, just like Internet Explorer could not be removed from previous versions of Windows by conventional means. There are a couple workarounds, however:
You can run PowerShell as an administrator and run the following command:
Get-AppxPackage
This will show you a list of all installed Apps and Core features for Windows 10. Scroll down until you find the one with the name Microsoft.MicrosoftEdge. Copy (you can use your mouse to highlight the full name and then press Ctrl + C to copy it) or write down the PackageFullName, which will change depending on the build of Windows 10 you are using. For the RTM version released in July, that is:
Get-AppxPackage Microsoft.MicrosoftEdge_20.10240.16384.0_neutral__8wekyb3d8bbwe | Remove-AppxPackage
or
Get-AppxPackage *edge* | Remove-AppxPackage
This should remove the app. Alternatively, you can navigate to the Windows Apps install location:
C:\Windows\SystemApps\
And right-click the Microsoft Edge folder, Microsoft.MicrosoftEdge_8wekyb3d8bbwe, and select Properties, where you can set the folder and all its contents to Read-Only (make sure the checkbox shows a checkmark, not a square). This will prevent Windows from making changes to the folder.
Then, you can open the folder and rename the Microsoft Edge executables (MicrosoftEdge.exe and MicrosoftEdgeCP.exe) and/or delete them.
Get-AppxPackage edge | Remove-AppxPackage no longer works in Windows 10 since RTM. It throws an error describing that it is part of the operating system and only an administrator can remove it. But even an administrator can't remove it. It also mentions turning it off via Optional Features, but it's no longer exposed through Optional Features, nor through PowerShell (Get-WindowsOptionalFeatures). They really don't want you to disable it.
If you're running Windows 10 Enterprise, you can try using AppLocker to block Edge and set IE as the default.
As has been mentioned, Windows PowerShell is no longer capable of removing Edge. However, there is a tool that (as of Windows 10 version 1709, build 16299) still can: wim_tweak. This is a tool that interfaces with the Windows package system and image files. After downloading the tool, the following script will uninstall Edge:
@echo off
cd /d "%~dp0"
echo Uninstalling Microsoft Edge...
install_wim_tweak.exe /o /l
install_wim_tweak.exe /o /c Microsoft-Windows-Internet-Browser-Package /r
install_wim_tweak.exe /h /o /l
echo Microsoft Edge should be uninstalled. Please reboot Windows 10.
pause
You can either download the tool and copy and paste the above commands into a text file and save it as something like UninstallEdge.cmd, or download the script prepackaged along with wim_tweak. In either case, once you have the script and tool in the same folder, you can right-click the script and select "run as administrator".
After running the tool Edge won't be actually removed yet, that occurs on your next Windows restart where the Windows update system kicks in to actually remove Edge. On your next login it should be gone - properly removed along with entry points. Caution should be exercised, while this does engage the Windows package system to properly remove it, Edge is tightly integrated with Windows and while this personally works well for me, there is no guarantee that this won't break other things in Windows 10.
The same tool is also capable of removing Cortana, and listing and removing many other Windows packages.
I needed to remove Edge so I can see how an application that uses Edge Chromium for embedded web pages reacts when Edge is completely removed. The following removed Edge entirely from my Windows 10 Pro computer. I didn't grab the URL, so I can't give credit to the original author.
Run the following from an Elevated CMD window, then restart your computer:
cd "c:\program files (x86)\microsoft\edge\application\???\installer"
setup.exe -uninstall -system-level -verbose-logging -force-uninstall
Replace ??? with the version number of Edge that is installed.
If your OS is 32-bit, also remove (x86).
The solution below is no longer working. I will leave it as-is, although I consider it obsolete.
I recommend trying this answer instead.
The rest of this post contains my original answer.
I opened PowerShell as an administrator and ran:
Get-AppxPackage *edge*
This resulted in three hits, for which the InstallLocation's are:
C:\WINDOWS\SystemApps\Microsoft.EdgeDevtoolsPlugin_cw5n1h2txyewy
C:\WINDOWS\SystemApps\Microsoft.MicrosoftEdge_8wekyb3d8bbwe
C:\WINDOWS\SystemApps\Microsoft.MicrosoftEdgeDevToolsClient_8wekyb3d8bbwe
I opened file explorer and changed the name of those three folders to:
C:\WINDOWS\SystemApps\Microsoft.EdgeDevtoolsPlugin_cw5n1h2txyewy-BLOCKED
C:\WINDOWS\SystemApps\Microsoft.MicrosoftEdge_8wekyb3d8bbwe-BLOCKED
C:\WINDOWS\SystemApps\Microsoft.MicrosoftEdgeDevToolsClient_8wekyb3d8bbwe-BLOCKED
It seems to work. I might come back later on to report my experience.
The solution below stopped working after
I made an in-place upgrade of Windows 10.
I will leave it as-is, although I consider it obsolete.
I recommend trying this answer instead.
The rest of this post contains my original answer.
Is there any possibility to completely disable the new Edge browser?
The following method will (almost) completely and permanently uninstall Microsoft Edge. 1
Press WinKey+e, then
Alt+D, copy - paste
(Ctrl+c - Ctrl+v)
%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft\Edge\Application
and hit Enter.
One of the subdirectories should contain only numbers and dots – the
current version number of Edge.
Double-click it, and then double-click its subdirectory by the name
Installer.
Press Alt+D, then Ctrl+C
to copy the path to the Installer directory.
Open a command prompt as administrator
(WinKey+r, type cmd, hold down
Ctrl+Shift, press Enter).
Type cd ", press Ctrl+V to paste the path,
" to close the double-quote and press Enter.
Finally, paste this command :
setup.exe --uninstall --force-uninstall --system-level
and press Enter.
That's it! – No restart is needed. Microsoft Edge will get removed.
(Expect your taskbar to flash momentarily.)
1
Ironically, for this method to work, you must have Edge installed.
So if you somehow already uninstalled it, the very first step is to
reinstall Edge.
Unfortunately, I haven't found a way to prevent the annoying message
This app can't open from
occurring every time I wake my laptop from sleep.
For the time being, I'll just have to live with that.
(Pressing Enter makes it go away.)
I've previously posted this solution,
and this one.
Each of those solutions worked fine at the time when I posted them
(at least for me).
None of them work after
I made an in-place upgrade of Windows 10.
I'm not the only one to fail uninstalling Edge, as testified by
this question (solved but not accepted),
this (accepted but not solved), this,
this, and this.
… but it's not the question asked here.
The question asked here is how to uninstall or disable Edge.
Yet, these days when almighty Microsoft tries to convince you that
Edge cannot be uninstalled,
it has become next to impossible to ask the question How? without
getting a bunch of answers back saying Don't.
If you have locked yourself in by using Microsoft 365 Apps, then you should probably not uninstall Edge.
If you think 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the pain of retaining Edge, by all means keep it!
At the time of writing, the latest Microsoft Edge version is 107.0.1418.35. Surprisingly, Microsoft Edge shows up in the Programs and Features section of the Control Panel. Less surprising is that there is no option to uninstall it – if you click Change, the only options are Repair or Cancel.
Microsoft Edge is a disobedient software that misbehaves.
Wouldn't you expect it to stop running when you close it?
– It didn't when I closed it.
It seemingly continues to eat CPU, Memory, and Disk indefinitely
after being closed – very similar to how trojan horses and viruses
behave.
And the non-existing option to uninstall it via
Programs and Features is combined with unsolicited startups each
time you wake your computer from sleep.
If that doesn't count as crapware, I don't know what does.
To stop it from running, start Windows Task Manager
by pressing Ctrl+Shift+Esc.
Right-click Microsoft Edge and click End task.
If you also see Microsoft Edge Update (MicrosoftEdgeUpdate.exe)
running, or Microsoft Edge installer
(MicrosoftEdge_X64_<version>.exe),
make sure to end those processes as well.
^ click to enlarge
Press WinKey+e,
then Alt+d,
copy-paste C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft, Enter.
If Microsoft Edge is installed, you should see at least three
subfolders whose names start with Edge,
namely Edge, EdgeCore, EdgeUpdate – possibly also
EdgeWebView.
I recommend moving all these folders to some other place on your
hard drive.
For example, create the folder C:\programs\MicrosoftEdge, and
move the four subfolders there.
No restart of Windows is needed. Microsoft Edge is now uninstalled. 1
As an extra safety, zip each of the four subfolders, and move the zip
files back to
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft.
The four zip files is your backup of Microsoft Edge.
2
As an extra check, press WinKey+r,
type appwiz.cpl, and press Enter to open
Programs and Features in the Control Panel.
Press F5. Microsoft Edge and Microsoft Edge WebView2 Runtime still show up, but with generic icons.
Now right-click Microsoft Edge and then Change.
Expect to see the message :
An error occurred while trying to uninstall Microsoft Edge.
It may have already been uninstalled.
Would you like to remove Microsoft Edge from the Programs and Features
list?
Click No.
That it may still show up in the Start menu isn't a big deal I think.
Once you've deleted Edge as described in Section 2,
clicking the Start menu entry will display a Problem with shortcut
window.
Clicking Yes upon the question Do you want to delete this shortcut? removes the Edge icon from the Start menu, but not the entry. I don't know if the entry can be removed as well – and I don't intend to find out. 4
If you followed my advice to create zip files, unzip them
outside of C:\Program Files (x86)\,
and move the four folders back to C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft.
Or go to the home page of Microsoft Edge, download and install. 6 – I don't recommend it!
1
If you don't delete the folder C:\programs\MicrosoftEdge\Edge, then
you can still start it :
Press WinKey+e, Alt+d,
copy-paste C:\programs\MicrosoftEdge\Edge\Application\msedge.exe,
and hit Enter.
The major difference is that it now runs on your terms, not on
Microsoft's.
And it now behaves more like any other average-Joe chromium browser.
2
You may think it would be easier to zip first and then move the
folders, but that would yield an Access is denied error.
Moving the zip files back isn't necessary, but may make it easier
to remember their location.
3
The command dir *Edge* doesn't change anything.
It displays what Edge subfolders you have.
/Q – Quiet mode, doesn't ask before removal with /S.
/S – Removes the specified directory and all subfolders
and files in it.
In an earlier version of this post, I also instructed to remove
the folders EdgeWebView and EdgeCore :
dir C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\*Edge*
Rmdir /Q /S C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\EdgeWebView
Rmdir /Q /S C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\EdgeCore
dir C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\*Edge*
On second thought, I don't think that is necessary if all you want to
get rid of is Microsoft Edge – the browser.
4 If you click the entry, you might momentarily be shown an empty gray window titled Microsoft Edge. Nothing else happens.
5
Reinstalling Microsoft Edge is not something I would do.
I already have Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Pale Moon.
They are all in this list of web browsers.
The browser Iridium is included in this
list of secure browsers.
The bottom line is: there are lots of hazzle-free web browsers.
Why would I ever want an intrusive browser that Microsoft
desperately tries to force down my throat? – Without my consent!
With that said, it's your choice.
6
In case you also removed the EdgeWebView subfolder, see
How to reinstall Microsoft Edge WebView2 Runtime.
C:\Windows\SystemApps\Microsoft.MicrosoftEdge_8wekyb3d8bbwe\MicrosoftEdge.exe