Note
Access to this page requires authorization. You can try signing in or changing directories.
Access to this page requires authorization. You can try changing directories.
Question
Friday, February 16, 2018 4:34 PM | 9 votes
I do not want the Edge browser. I do not want to see Edge; I do not want to interact with Edge; I do not want to know that Edge exists on my machine.
Microsoft has unfortunately precluded the option of removing Edge entirely because apparently a Web browser has to be part of the operating system, so now I'm forced to interact with Microsoft technical representatives -- something I want to do even less. This simple question is bound to have an obtuse and unworkable answer. Please prove me wrong.
How do I, as a user in an Enterprise environment where a domain-controlled profile is initialized on every login, prevent Edge from being pinned to my task bar on each new session, without interfering with other parts of my profile?
I have already selected another default browser. I've pinned that browser to my task bar. That pinned shortcut never goes away; none of my other user-created pinned shortcuts ever go away. No other pinned shortcuts I didn't create ever re-appear after removal on every new login session except for the shortcut to Edge.
The domain profile and group policies applied to my machine have no particular enforcement of Edge having a shortcut in any particular location, which means the operating system is doing this unbidden for no other reason than to promote the use of Edge. I want this behavior to stop.
Tell me what has to happen to make Windows stop shoving Edge into my face without breaking other things, or give me the option to remove Edge from my environment entirely. I do not want to waste additional time replacing all of Windows with another operating system that lets me have control over choices that ought to have been mine to begin with.
All replies (7)
Friday, February 16, 2018 6:04 PM
You can unpin the Edge shortcut by adding a taskbar layout to your start layout. See link below:
/en-us/windows/configuration/configure-windows-10-taskbar
Friday, February 16, 2018 9:48 PM
The previous reply is the official MS way, and preferable. If you want to remove Edge later on, for existing desktops or whatever, you can use the 'managetaskbar' scripts: http://ccmexec.com/2015/12/removing-the-edge-icon-from-the-taskbar-during-osd/
I have this as part of our post-install scripts since we have some sites that work off USB sticks or whatever and have fairly vanilla Win10 but the script will strip Edge off the taskbar.
Monday, August 20, 2018 9:04 PM | 3 votes
I wish Edge could be as easily removed as other apps. It is totally unnecessary per user installation, anbsolutely waste of space & time
Sunday, October 28, 2018 8:48 PM | 2 votes
I know that this is the correct method and I'm sure it works fine, but by the time I was on my third opened tab to get this fix to work I wanted to gouge my eyes out. This shouldn't be this difficult.
Friday, March 29, 2019 9:10 AM | 4 votes
I've personally found another way around it:
- Open the explorer or the run prompt and go to %userprofile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Shell
- Edit the LayoutModification.xml file using the Notepad or some other text-only editor
- Locate the <taskbar:TaskbarPinList></taskbar:TaskbarPinList> entry and in that entry remove the line <taskbar:... /> adding Edge
- Save that file and reboot.
This will not survive "major" updates to the system/Edge such as the April 2018 one, but you can simply do the above again to get rid of that impolite shortcut.
Thursday, August 1, 2019 6:40 PM
Thanks, Leryra! This was way easier.
Sunday, September 8, 2019 11:47 AM
I just allowed an update and went to use Leryra's nifty maneuver, but I can't find <taskbar:TaskbarPinList> in the file now. On the other hand there is an option of a right mouse click on the bar to hide the search window (an option under Search).