Windows 10: Turn On or Off Background Apps in Windows 10

Well, at least that means this issue gets fixed in a later version. Guess there's no more point in fussing over this for now.

 

Nevermind, Microsoft Edge has reappeared in task manager as a background app despite the policy. Guess I'll try the other options and see how it goes.

Edit: Okay, after a bit of fiddling I've discovered a few things.

1: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\BackgroundAccessApplications GlobalUserDisabled deletes itself after a restart. I'm guessing that this was the flag that affected background apps before 1803 and this is why it keeps resetting after every restart. Seems to be pretty useless now.

2: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Search BackgroundAppGlobalToggle seems to be the one that controls the background apps switch in the 1803 Settings. However, when used by itself without the policy edit, it turns itself back on after restart regardless.

3: With both the policy edit and the second registry edit, BackgroundAppGlobalToggle stays off even after restart. However, since Edge appeared as a background app for me even when I had the policy edit, I don't know if I need both active to stop this background app nonsense. Can't really do anything at this moment except wait and see.

4: The policy edit appears to remove some Cortana settings in Settings. Nothing that I really care about though.

I could have done a few more tests so take all this with a grain of salt... but frankly I'm tired of this nonsense so I'm just gonna try having both the policy and the second registry edit and see if that works out. If not, I guess there's nothing I can do except hope and wait for a fix.

Edit 2: Nope, that doesn't work either. Has anyone actually managed to stop Edge from running in the background automatically? Apparently this is only an issue with W10 Pro 1803.

 

I don't have Microsoft Edge running in the background.

If you like, post a screenshot showing it in Task Manager to see if it may help shed anymore light on it.

 

I can't grab a screenshot at the moment but Edge appears as a Background Process in Task Manager every time I leave my computer idle for a while. It's the same as when you (intentionally) allow Edge as a background app, which is what I don't want. Are you on 17134.1 with Pro? It's apparently only a problem in that version.

 

I'm on build 17655 (Skip Ahead) running the "Windows 10 Pro for Workstations" edition.

 

Hi

The only way to fix this is by setting another browser as default, for example, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox or some of your preference.