Windows Update installed Edge. Can I safely Uninstall it?

Bree said:

I started with testing Macrium - I also stopped testing at Macrium as I could find no fault with it

Since I was coming from Norton Ghost,
and knowing what a quality software it is,
I did not want to stick with something that might not be the best option for that purpose,
so I invested the time and work in checking several ones..


Also it's not just some nice small utility.
It's something that you give the life of your computer installation to.
So you want it to be a really good and trustable one.

Bree said:

I have fond memories of Norton Ghost

Me too.

It can still be used today, it still works..

But for "offline" images, you have to boot to DOS,
and for DOS, you need to change the BIOS from UEFI Mode to Legacy (BIOS) mode.
(and when finished, change back to UEFI again.. or.. partition your disk as MBR instead of GPT, and save all this hassle)

Bree said:

and of their Ghost Walker for exploring the images and retrieving individual files.

Ghost Walker?
In my package it's called Ghost Explorer..

Bree said:

The one feature in Macrium that I'm using increasingly often is the ability to boot an image file as a virtual machine with viBoot.

Nice,
that's something I haven't done yet - all this SystemImage<->VM interchangeability.
(doesn't Windows scream, when it is ran inside the VM, that the computer/motherboard changed?
between your real physical computer, and the Virtual Machine's hardware)

Really cool.

Bree said:

Windows, even earlier versions is very good at sorting out new drivers should it find itself running on dissimilar hardware.

Except the Disk Drive driver..
You need to delete the specific driver of your current disk, and switch to the Generic one, before moving the disk to a different machine (physical, or virtual).

Move Windows XP Hard Drive or Change Motherboard Without Getting a Blue Screen STOP 7B Error • Raymond.CC

Bree said:

A VM requires its own licence (each VM has a unique hardware ID, just like a physical machine)
...
To that end I never delete a Hyper-V VM that I have activated for W10 after I have finished using it, rather I remove its virtual hard drive then export the machine so that I can import it and reuse it later. That's the equivalent of swapping the HDD from another physical machine into one that already has a digital licence for that edition of Win10.

So in terms of License association, Windows does not care to remember the Disk Drive..
Nice to know that..

Is there a difference in how Windows identifies a machine between a real physical computer and aVirtual Machine?
Does Windows have different code for each of these 2?

For example, in VMs, to get the HW-ID like you mentioned,
and in Physical Computers, to get something from the Motherboard..
(I remember that in Windows XP it was the Motherboard Model.. You could change motherboard to a new one, as long as it is the same model..)

spaceman5 said:

But it is a 1GB of waste of my SSD..

674 MB in my case with auto-updates disabled.

Matthew Wai said:

with auto-updates disabled

How do you disable updates in a way that actually works in Windows 10?

Using CMD script and VBScript to control Windows Update

Wow,
didn't know such an option exists..
Will read it now, thank you.

I use the following code in a CMD script to disable automatic Edge updates.

Code:

SC config "edgeupdate" start=demand & For /F "Tokens=1* Delims=" %%# In (
'SchTasks /Query /FO List^|Find "EdgeUpdate"') Do (
Schtasks /Change /Disable /Tn "%%$")

I'd just mention two things that this thread has missed. You most definitely can uninstall the new Edge, even on 20H2. Microsoft also provides policy files (for the Local Group Policy editor) that you may be able to use to block Edge from updating/installing in future.

First, here's a short powershell script:

Code:

cd (Get-Item "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\Edge\Application\*\Installer\setup.exe").DirectoryName
.\setup.exe --uninstall --system-level --verbose-logging --force-uninstall

Save that as a .ps1 file somewhere, and make a shortcut to powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted -File "Path\to\your\script.ps1" and set the shortcut to run as admin. That will correctly uninstall the new Microsoft Edge. Keep the shortcut somewhere convenient in case it ever comes back in an update, that way it can be quickly uninstalled next time. If you're on an earlier version of 20H2 Legacy Edge will now be usable, but as of the current cumulative update Legacy Edge has now been disabled (it will still be in the start menu unfortunately, but is non-functional).

If your edition of Windows 10 is Professional or greater you can then install the policy files from here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/edge...G8&OCID=MO12G8
You can use these to disable updates, the auto-update check, and disable the installation of Edge itself. Technically Microsoft says these only work for domain-joined computers, but anecdotally this has prevented Edge from being re-installed after a cumulative update on my Windows 10 Pro machines when it was re-installed on my non-Pro installations without these policies set.

Thank you xtcrefugee

It's amazing how Microsoft is doing everything to make it more difficult to people..