Edge shortcut on desktop

This usually happens in an update. It almost resets itself back to how Microsoft want it. Sly eh?

Same- I also suspect a shortcut was added to the start menu (which I'd removed).

Glad to know it was due to a Windows update. Each Windows update changes a few user customization to the default. I make a few changes to the default settings like removing the application name from the shortcuts, changing the default shortcut icon etc.

Eg: How to Hide the Shortcut text from the user in Windows?

Each Windows update make some changes revert back to the original.

Windows update brought back the Widgets I had removed from my laptop.

They must be built-in Microsoft widgets.

Problems with removing Widgets from Windows

From further reading and another's experience this policy doesn't help unless Edge is a new install

It might seem adding the following policy (you need to add a key and value in the registry) may prevent this.

Windows Registry Settings
Path: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\EdgeUpdate
Value Name: CreateDesktopShortcutDefault
Value Type: REG_DWORD

Prevent Desktop Shortcut creation upon install default

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/de...hortcutdefault

Otherwise I think we may expect this to happen on every Edge (not Windows) update.

For those with Pro (Group Policy) there's an admx policy file you can download and install (in a zip file):
Get ADMX Templates for Microsoft Edge

This contains this and many more policies.

OldGuyFromCdn said:

Sly indeed. First time it's ever happened to me though. Sign of the times I guess.

I just deleted mine in Windows 11, it stayed gone.

Wait for the next Edge update-- bet you it'll bite back!

dalchina said:

Wait for the next Edge update-- bet you it'll bite back!

Correct.

It appeared once again with the latest Stable update.