How Difficult is it to Uninstall Microsoft Edge?

Umm, you misspelled the subtitle, "let's uninstall Chrome" when you were meant to say "let's install chrome". Lol

this is like the "linux users installing a browser" meme but in reverse

I love how this forces most users to download unsafe 3rd part uninstaller apps. Like Microsoft, this is practically malicious

Also worth to mention that you get free edge install in every third windows update. Plus on every fourth defaults could magically reset back to edge :) And another fun fact what actually happened to me on windows 10, i have a small fight with edge that was coming back and when i finally fully removed it, ive got 3 errors everytime i opened up settings app (caused by missing edge like wtf you want to run edge process in bg while opening settings) and some minor system stuff was broken. But i was lucky enough to get fresh new edge again after next bigger quater update which fixed all my unwanted changes :')

On Windows 11, Microsoft Edge can't be completely removed since it is used to render some parts of the system UI (like the taskbar or start menu)

I like how they say "open PDFs in your browser" implying that you are still gonna use it for a weird link in some random system application that opens edge and searches in bing despite any defaults

4:02 I think Firefox is better in this regard because it can somehow set itself as the default browser for all these file types without user interaction.

This is what we in the computing world call "anti-consumer".

Edge is a good browser, but it is pretty much a Chrome reskin. They both use Chromium and have a very similar layout. The thing is, MS tries to force it on us so much it makes you wonder why.

I think at this point the only reason we tolerate windows is because of how dependent we are for its program compatibility.

this is an older version of windows 11, newer ones have made browser switching much easier but still the fact that it begun like this was still very annoying

Also another HUGE issue. Even for people who WANT to use edge uninstalling and reinstalling is a pretty common troubleshooting step. So if edge breaks you're out of luck. The Microsoft store was 100% broken for me for about 2 years and I couldn't uninstall it and reinstall it to fix it just like you couldn't with edge. I basically just had to wait until some random update re-wrote whatever file was broken/corrupted and it randomly started working again. Microsoft needs to realize that doing stuff like this makes people LESS likely to use their web browser. Not more likely. Sure have it install with windows, have it shortcut itself on the desktop, and have it give a little "You sure you don't want to try edge?" pop up when you go to download firefox or chrome. But anything more than that is scummy and borderline malware IMO. If you have to go into the registry to uninstall something then I consider it malware.

You know, about a year ago i started using Edge just to have a concrete reason to hate it, but i actually grew up to enjoy it. It might be just some placebo effect, but it also seem to open up way faster than any other browser, probably because it's always partially opened in background (according to task manager)

7:08 That's not a leftover of the now-uninstalled Edge Chromium by the way. That's a leftover of Edge UWP. You know, the now fully obsolete, useless, and non-functional version of Edge that predated the switch to Chromium? That thing is still part of Windows 11, albeit in a very crippled, forgotten state, to what should be no one's surprise by now. You need to edit the AppX repository database with an SQLite editor to unlock the ability to uninstall that one too, and then there's removing the Internet Explorer optional package leftovers using install_wim_tweak. After that, all visible leftovers of Microsoft web browsers are gone for good. It should now follow as common sense that if you were to forget to install, or uninstall any alternative browsers, you'll have no web browsers on your Windows machine, period. As it should be. Not to mention if you wanna debloat further, it might be helpful to start with a uupdump-built ISO of Windows 11 made on a Linux OS, since that one, conveniently, doesn't support provisioning the default appx packages into the ISO, meaning you start with no UWP apps aside from the truly critical system ones, like the start menu and Configuration apps. Edge UWP is still in that special top-most critical list, so you still have to manually delete it, but it's progress.

Firefox can automatically set itself as default on 11 with one click. They reverse engineered the API.

The only one way for Edge to become popular is to be as private as Hardened Firefox, not a fucking data miner like Google Chrome or Opera

If you want to try another method, go to ‘Windows (C:)’, ‘Program Files (x86)’ and find the folder called ‘Microsoft’. Delete everything in it (you'll find all the MS Edge stuff in there) and then delete the folder itself. Empty your recycle bin and restart your computer. This method has kept my PC free of Edge for seven months now (as of end of July 2023) and the PC still works perfectly. Before this, Edge would reinstall itself every few days and I could only get rid of it temporarily with the "IObit Uninstaller" free software. I'm a retired plumber, not a PC expert, but I hope this helps you.

Windows 10 still has the legacy non-Chromium Edge that it will revert to if you remove the Chromium Edge, so you’ll have to delete that too in C:\Program Files\WindowsApps. I have to admire how MS puts out new versions before the end-of-life tbh, so before then the only benefit is which GUI is preferred.

It's not that hard to remove Edge right now. But in the future this is probably going to change as they integrate the browser tightly into the system causing it to lose functionality if uninstalled.

I did it too, but I used another method. This method is so much easier, thank you! :) Btw I hate their punishment to use their browser, because most people don’t know how to uninstall it. You helped them the rightway