Windows 10: How to remove/disable Windows Edge browser?

I preferred to try and rename the two Edge .exe files with the prefix "No" to make them easy to find and change back if needed but despite being logged in as the top Administrator with all privileges I received and Error Message that "I needed permission from a trusted installer".

If you have Advanced System Care by iObit they have a Powerful Uninstall which I used for just the two .exe files although the confirmation message said it would be completely uninstalled after reboot. *I did un-check the read only attribute on the main folder where these were located and applied it to all contents within that folder first and then changed then re-checked the read only box before closing the window.

 

I paid $168 for a year of Adobe Acrobat subscription and one day after I started using it, unbeknownst to me, Edge hijacked it and set itself as the PDF default viewer without my permission. So every time I would try to use Acrobat payware, all I would end up with would be a useless HTML file instead of the typical editable PDF.

It took me an hour on the phone with Adobe's overseas call center to sort this out, because I assumed the problem was with Adobe. I didn't know that a browser had the automatic authority to make those kinds of changes at will - it never occurred to me as a possibility. Obviously I want to get rid of the toxic thing before it does something else that I'll need advanced computer skills to untangle.

 

Holy cow man. Just set Acrobat as the default and drive on. You actually called Adobe for this? *Doh And it's not the browser making those changes, it's the OS. It wants to push MS products on you by default, as has been MS's MO for decades. (I will admit that when we started rolling out WIN10 at work I was a bit thrown off as to why MS would ship it with Edge configured as the default PDF viewer.)

This is just like when you install Firefox or Chrome and you set one of them as the default browser. The only difference is that those browsers prompt you and ask if you want to set them as default. I know it's hard, but with a little google-fu you can figure out how to locate the "Default Applications" settings in Windows 10.

You get to pick the default applications on your system. No one is forcing you to use anything. The amount of resources Edge consumes in the background is totally negligible.

And whoever that was that suggested renaming the executables, good on you. If you really want it to stop running in the background, make it impossible to find by the system. As an IT professional, this is the quickest and easiest method I can recommend as well.

 

I needed to disable web browsing with Edge and iexplore so remote desktop users couldn't browse. In C:\Windows\SystemApps I renamed the Edge folder to NOT_Microsoft.MicrosoftEdge_8wekyb3d8bbwe. In C:\Program Files, and C:\Program Files (x86) I renamed the Internet Explorer folders to NOT_Internet Explorer. Both iexplore and Edge are now disabled.

 

that worked ,, but I don't want to disable it ,I just want to delete the favorites and replace with IE favorites , I did delete and replace the favorites ,but it still used the ones I deleted

 

Hello Jack, *Smile

If you like, the 1st tutorial below may be able to clear your favorites in Microsoft Edge.

Microsoft Edge Favorites - Add or Remove in Windows 10


Microsoft Edge - Import Favorites from Internet Explorer in Windows 10

 

thank you brink, I ran the file to remover the favorites ,It worked , but or some reason it will not import the IE favorites ,,I will keep trying .

edit - it did impost them ,but its not putting them on the favorites bar ,I have to go into setting to see them

 

It looks like you will need to manually add the ones you want to the Favorites Bar. *Sad

 

yeah, i think I might have to , when I dig into Edges settings they show up, but so do the ones I want to replace ,,thanks

 

weird , my Internet Explorer now has the toolbar with the sites I was trying to remove from Edge ,,,

edit-- I deleted the favorites that it put in IE, then followed these directions to put favorites in Edge it didn't work for Edge, but it put my favorites back into IE for me ,,, I give up ... a win10 reload was coming soon anyway ,TY