How to Disable Microsoft Edge in Windows 10

How to disable Microsoft Edge in Windows 10? Understandably so, this is a fair question, as Chrome seems to be the topmost browser choice around the world.

However, like any other manufacturer, if you’ve bought a laptop with a Windows Operating System, your default browser will likely be Microsoft Edge. Honestly, I think it has gone a long way in improving the entire experience since the seemingly bad days of Internet Explorer; still, it’s not the first choice for a lot of the users.

Disabling Microsoft Edge is not as straightforward as you might think (Although, not hard). Nevertheless, if you adhere to the instructions that’ll follow, it’ll be a breeze.

But, first things first. If all you’re looking for is to change your default browser, you don’t have to worry about disabling Microsoft Edge. For the uninformed, I’ll quickly go over on how to do that.

How to Change Your Default Browser in Windows 10

To change your default browser, follows the steps below:

Step 1

In your start menu, type in “default apps,” and open it. (See the screenshot below for reference).

Step 2

Then, on the window that opens up, look for “Web Browser.” In there, change your default app to the browser of your liking. Screenshot below.

With that out of the way, let’s finally discuss the primer of this post.

How to Disable Microsoft Edge in Windows 10

Doing this involves trickery since Windows does not make it easy to get rid of its Edge Browser. Be that as it may, follows the steps below to learn how.

Step 1: Finding Out Where “Microsoft Edge” Is Installed

If you haven’t made any crazy significant changes to your Windows operating system, the default Microsoft Edge installation Directory for you would be the path of –>C:\Windows\SystemApps\Microsoft.MicrosoftEdge_8wekyb3d8bbwe

Step 2: Rename “Microsoft.MicrosoftEdge_8wekyb3d8bbwe” Folder to Something Else

This is where the trickery part comes in. You see, Microsoft has a default folder name for its Edge browser. All you have to do is rename the folder to something else. Doing this will confuse the system, and disable Microsoft Edge from Windows 10. See screenshot below for reference.

In step 1, I showed you where its located. However, you need to go one directory level back, and simply locate the “Microsoft.MicrosoftEdge_8wekyb3d8bbwe” folder. Then, right click and rename it to something else.

Note that you’d need administrator level privileges to rename this folder. In any event, once you do so, Microsoft Edge will be disabled. I believe that you can use the same trick to deactivate other Microsoft System Apps. If you hadn’t noticed already, there were other app folders too, under C:\Windows\SystemApps.

Other Alternative Method

If executing on the method above doesn’t satisfy you, and you want to delete Microsoft Edge, there is one more thing you can try.

And since Edge is a “system” app, you cannot uninstall it, like other regular applications. You can find it in the list, but the option to remove it would be disabled.

In light of that, there is a shortcut you can employ to “delete” the executable files/a.k.a .exe files. (Files that are responsible for running or opening programs and applications).

To delete Microsoft Edge .exe file:

1. Navigate back to–>C:\Windows\SystemApps\Microsoft.MicrosoftEdge_8wekyb3d8bbwe
2. Then, find the “MicrosoftEdge” application file.

3. Then, press shift + delete to permanently delete the file.
4. The system may ask you to continue as an administrator. Click on continue to proceed forward.
5. If you’re not able to perform this action, you’ll have to figure out a way to adjust your folder and file settings.

On the other hand, if you want to try something else, this post discusses a few more novel methods that includes using command prompt, and registry.

Conclusion

There are a few methods you can employ, individually, to disallow Microsoft Edge to work correctly. Either of them should satisfy the need to not have it act as a default browser. Although, a super advanced user can also find a way to permanently, and more importantly, cleanly delete Microsoft Edge in its entirety.