windows 10 20h2 ms edge - fork in the road

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StanKasper-4297 asked Oct 25, '20 StanKasper-4297 commented Jan 28, '21

windows 10 20h2 ms edge - fork in the road

Running Windows 10 20h2. Startup MS Edge. Do a 'netstat -ano' and Edge has many network connections in place. Run 'task manager' and there are 5 or 6 copies of edge running. Now all these services and applications have some type of 'hook' into my desktop. But I prefer a minimalist configuration. I've gone into the settings for MS Edge (focused, tabs, privacy, etc) but that has not done much. I am considering how to remove it. But it seems the registry settings and group policy are now void for 20h2? I could either rename the package or do an app-get remove on the package. That might achieve some success for the day but may haunt me later? Maybe the best course is just disable it? What would be the best method for that?

The browser has become the OS ...

ms-edge

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YuZhou-MSFT · Oct 26, 2020 at 08:36 AM

Hi @StanKasper-4297 ,

I want to confirm with you about something:
1. What are you checking when you say all these services and applications have some type of 'hook' into my desktop?
2. Do you want to disable or remove Edge on Windows 10 20H2? If not, what is the excate thing you want to do?
3. Which version of Edge browser are you using now?

Best Regards,
Yu Zhou

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MirandaPings · Nov 04, 2020 at 03:00 PM

There is nothing wrong with Edge on Windows 10 20H2. it's the first party browser of the OS, just like Internet Explorer and Edge Legacy were.

Just like Safari on Mac OS, Safari on IOS, Google Chrome in Chrome OS, Google Chrome on Android devices are.
you can't uninstall them, majority of time you can't even disable them, just choose not to use them.

The fact is, Edge is better than Chrome (the most popular browser) and it gets better and better by time. so I don't see any reason as to why someone would want to disable it and then install other browsers that don't have as much features or are slower etc etc.

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StanKasper-4297 MirandaPings · Nov 04, 2020 at 05:40 PM

A number of years back the EU made Microsoft give the option to uninstall the browser. Has that changed?

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TamasSomogyi-6468 MirandaPings · Nov 14, 2020 at 07:59 PM

OFF: @MirandaPings Your opinion is not relevant to the question, but since you asked, one of the reason I choose to uninstall Edge is that Microsoft is not tolerating people choice so Edge is coming back after each update. Even if it is the best and most shiny product, I don't like companies who are trying to force their customers to use their product. Interesting why EU haven't taken any action yet.

ON: Go to C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\Edge\Application\<version>\Installer and execute "setup.exe –uninstall –system-level –force-uninstall".

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StanKasper-4297 TamasSomogyi-6468 · Nov 14, 2020 at 08:08 PM

And if you can use gpedit.msc add a policy rule to block the install for 'everyone'. Search on group policy applocker on how this is done.

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Firedog · Jan 28, 2021 at 08:22 PM

Run 'task manager' and there are 5 or 6 copies of edge running.

No. There are 5 or 6 processes running under msedge.exe. You can see exactly what they all are in the browser by pressing Shift-Escape to open its own task manager.

.. the registry settings and group policy are now void for 20h2

Edge has its own GP. Read the documentation - which includes details of the registry entries involved - here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/deployedge/microsoft-edge-policies.

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StanKasper-4297 Firedog · Jan 28, 2021 at 08:57 PM

My apologies. Using task manager instead of process explorer. Would have seen it there.
Appreciate the link. Thank you.

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StanKasper-4297 Firedog · Jan 28, 2021 at 09:01 PM

Looking back my point was less about what is running and more about the numerous network connections.
The default settings provide way too much information sharing with 3rd parties IMHO. At the end of the day I would rather see more separation between the browser and the OS. Edge is going in the other direction - tightly coupled vs loosely coupled.

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