How to disable or uninstall Microsoft Edge in Windows 10

Question

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?

Answer 1

UPDATE AUGUST 2018: Microsoft keeps changing things a bit, but you can still "Disable" the Edge browser by doing the following:

1. Hold down the Ctrl and Alt keys and tap the delete key, then click on Task Manager.
2. If it says "More details" at the bottom of the Task Manager window, click on it to show more details.
3. Scroll down the list and look for "Microsoft Edge". If you find it in the list, right click on it and select "End task".
4. Now, open File Explorer and find the folder "C:\Windows\SystemApps\Microsoft.MicrosoftEdge_8wekyb3d8bbwe" and rename that folder to anything you wish. (I normally just append some text to it like "_remove" so I can easily re-enable Edge in the future if I desire.)

Edge should now be "disabled".

Keep in mind that Microsoft may try to re-enable Edge during a future update...

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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As already stated, the other answers are no longer valid due to changes in Windows 10 -- Microsoft has removed all supported methods for disabling Edge.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.

• Go to: C:\Windows\SystemApps\
• Open folder Microsoft.MicrosoftEdge_8wekyb3d8bbwe
• Right click on MicrosoftEdge file then Properties / Security / Advanced / Click Change (next to owner) and change to your username, then click OK
• Then Click Edit, then add your username and give full permissions
• Rename MicrosoftEdge file to MicrosoftEdge_remove or a name of your choice
• Repeat all above steps for file MicrosoftEdgeCP also
• Done! Edge will not run!

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.

Answer 2

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.

Answer 3

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.

Answer 4

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.