Windows Update installed Edge. Can I safely Uninstall it?

Bree said:

No, the ISO for Windows 10 includes many different editions.
...
All machines built and supplied by the OEM with Windows 8 or later pre-installed have their key in the firmware, machines built exclusively for distribution in the EU market will have a key for an N version.

Oh..
So getting/not getting N depends on the Product Key..
I see.

Bree said:

With your 66GB C: partition I can see why that may be a concern.

Actually the size of my C: partition is not the reason for the concern.
The reason is different:
I create a System image (of C: and the EFI partition before it) every several weeks.
Now the smaller your C: partition is (in terms of used size, not total size), the smaller your System Image file will be..

The System Image file is compressed of course,
yet If you start from 50GB used space in C: (uncompressed), vs If you start from 20GB used space in C: (uncompressed),
you will obviously get a difference in the resulting System Image file.

So I like to maintain my C: Partition as clean as possible, and not to have things that I don't need..

Bree said:

Your EdgeWebView is an Office Add-in, required as part of Office 365.
https://developer.microsoft.com/en-u...ffice-add-ins/

So I can go ahead and remove it?
(after creating a system image of course, since you can never know, with microsoft..)

And it won't be reinstalled by Windows Update?

dalchina said:

If you use differential or incremental imaging

I don't..
I like every image to be independent,
so If 1 gets corrupt, others are not affected by it.
Also independent ones enable you to choose which to delete freely, without any dependencies between them..

dalchina said:

I.e. it won't use more space for Edge in the next image, unless Edge has been updated.

Yes it is a benefit, If I used it..

dalchina said:

it's good that you're using imaging to protect yourself- perhaps from yourself!

From myself and from Microsoft.

You can never know if one of the Windows Updates that you get, will ruin your Windows.

Bree said:

What do you use to make these system images? Not Microsoft's built-in 'Create a system image' I hope...

Of course not.

In the past I used Norton Ghost,
and nowdays I use AOMEI Backupper.
AOMEI Backupper | Best Backup Software for Windows PC and Server
(it's completely free BTW)


In both, I do not use the version that runs in Widnows ("live backup"),
but the version that boots from a USB Flash Drive, hence Windows is shut down.

With Norton Ghost the USB Flash Drive is a DOS + DOS program,
and with AOMEI it's a Windows 10 PE + Windows program.

Bree said:

there are a couple of things I always used to do before making a system image: delete hyberfil.sys by using POWERCFG /HIBERNATE OFF in an admin command prompt, and set virtual memory to 'No paging file'. That's a good few GB that don't need to be in the image as they can be turned back on after the restore, and even with 4GB Windows runs fine without a pagefile (of course, I turned them back on after making the image).

So you Disable and Enable them everytime you create an image?
In my case, all of these are Disabled, except for the page file..

Never thought about maybe Disable+Enable them for System Imaging..

Bree said:

That was before I switched to Macrium Reflect Free. That, when run from within Windows

I recommend you to try AOMEI Backupper.
I also highly recommend you to do the extra work of booting a USB Flash Drive, and backing up your system when Windows is completely shut down,
and not do live imaging..

Bree said:

I can't say the same for Office 365 though (as I don't use it) that may want to reinstall it.

Already removed it..

But simply going to "Apps and Features" and clicking Uninstall on it,
does not remove anything.

You have to run this in addition, after the Uninstall button:

"Microsoft Support and Recovery Assistant":
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...f-88836856c72f

dalchina said:

I wish you good luck with your approaches.

Bree said:

Thank goodness for that - there's nothing worse than the MS imaging...

It makes me think the same about other Microsoft products, like Windows itself.
But we're stuck with it, since many programs were (and still are) created for it, which makes immigration to another OS (Linux, Mac) difficult.

Bree said:

I have found Macrium to be 100% reliable for live imaging in the three years since I started using it,
and I have done literally hundreds of restores by now

Mentally, it's hard for me to trust a live backup..
Even If Windows itself does indeed do everything that is needed, before the Imaging starts, there can always be other programs that might run in the background, and not do whatever is needed to close their files and not have them being snapshotted in the middle, with corrupt data.

I understand that the file will not be locked, due to VSS,
but no-one promises you that the file will be closed, and have all its needed data flushed.
You're saving something "in the middle".

For this, I put the extra work of booting outof Windows, to the USB Flash Drive, and back.

Bree said:

I have seen it claimed that Acronis Trueimage has the option to exclude folders when booting from an ISO image on a USB to make an image, but I haven't tried that one either

Acronis Trueimage became a crazy bloatware.
Just go to their product page, and see what they stuffed inside the product,
and the whole product page is filled with the words "cyber" "cyber" "attack", and everything that might scare the user.

I avoid such companies.
Makes me want to puke


I chose AOMEI after checking about 5 different System Imaging programs.
I literally installed all of them, creted a Bootable USB using them,
and tried the USB Flash Drive.

AOMEI was the best quality, IMHO.

Adding to that that it's free..
The only thing that can be better than that is Norton Ghost..
Which is no longer being developed.
But is a terrific software - really high quality.


The next time I format my SSD, I will repartition it using MBR instead of GPT,
and the reason I will do that, is only so I can return to Norton Ghost.

I have no need in UEFI+GPT.
I do not have or plan to have more than a 2TB SSD in the following years.