Disable EDGE but keep available?

Edge has recently become very annoying.

It starts automatically despite all related settings being off.

It keeps trying to get me to set as default browser. ( I use Firefox for privacy )

But I develop web sites and want to be able to use EDGE as a test platform at a time of my choosing but not have it running in background.

Edition Windows 10 Pro
Version 20H2
Installed on ‎10/‎27/‎2021
OS build 19042.1466
Experience Windows Feature Experience Pack 120.2212.3920.0

Hello Paul.

Have you tried this solution?

-James

I tried to use normal reply but there seems to be an error in this site.

"The message you have entered is too short. Please lengthen your message to at least 3 characters."

I added a dozen more and still get that same error.Anyway. Yes I tried that as noted all relevant settings to disable Edge are already off.

paulckruger said:

Edge has recently become very annoying.

It starts automatically despite all related settings being off.

It keeps trying to get me to set as default browser. ( I use Firefox for privacy )

But I develop web sites and want to be able to use EDGE as a test platform at a time of my choosing but not have it running in background.

Edition Windows 10 Pro
Version 20H2
Installed on ‎10/‎27/‎2021
OS build 19042.1466
Experience Windows Feature Experience Pack 120.2212.3920.0

I believe you need to upgrade to 21H2.
One of the things they "fixed" was MS Edge taking over being the default browser.

Or, to put it another way, once on 21H2, you can set any browser to be the default, and Windows will remember the setting.

Using this free tool (now EdgeDeflector is dead in the water) means Edge shouldn't be launched in place of your default:
Redirect links to default browser in Windows 11 using MSEdgeRedirect

It's small, and just has to be running, so easy to revert. (Valid for Win 10 of course).

Don't know if 20H2 will let you do this in Group Policy but it will in 21H2. I have mine set to not pre-launch (I set it a long time ago but can't remember exactly when)

Computer Configuration→Administrative Templates→All Settings→Allow Microsoft Edge to pre-launch at Windows start up.
Set it to Enabled and choose Prevent pre-launching from the drop down menu.

Right below that setting there's another one to prevent it from loading when it's been closed.

These work for me. Edge only loads when I want it to.

Just realized you mentioned default browser. I have Edge set as default but because of the Group Policy settings it hardly ever opens. I just use it to watch movies. It's completely stripped down (no bookmarks, home page is completely devoid of shortcuts except for weather). Also, you don't get those annoying reminders to make it default.

paulckruger said:

I tried to use normal reply but there seems to be an error in this site.
"The message you have entered is too short. Please lengthen your message to at least 3 characters."
Words here do not get counted by the forum software.
I added a dozen more and still get that same error.

Paul,

I suspect that you were typing within the quote.
The forum does not count words there because it is not expecting anything additional to the quote itself.

All the best,
Denis

paulckruger said:

It starts automatically despite all related settings being off.

There are only those 2 options I know of

Code:

reg add "HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Edge" /v "BackgroundModeEnabled" /t REG_DWORD /d "0" /f
reg add "HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Edge" /v "StartupBoostEnabled" /t REG_DWORD /d "0" /f

Also make sure that you turn off or restart for real, by default Windows only hibernates, keeping apps up.

Code:

shutdown /r /f /t 0
shutdown /s /f /t 0

For interest:
I just found that mht and mhtml file types can only be associated with Firefox or Chrome by browsing to them via Open With even when these browsers are set as default. Even when the default browser is FF or Chrome, these remain associated with Edge- Open With otherwise only offers Edge and IE as options.