Enable or Disable Microsoft Edge Pre-launching in Windows 10  

Those policy options appear under Computer Configuration and User Configuration. Do you change the group policy options for Edge in both?

Steve C said:

Those policy options appear under Computer Configuration and User Configuration. Do you change the group policy options for Edge in both?

Hello Steve,

Just to note, this doesn't apply to the new Microsoft Edge Chromium version.

If the policy is set via gpedit.msc, then only the Computer Configuration policy needs to be set to apply to all users.

If done manually in the registry like option 2, then both HKCU and HKLM keys need to be set to apply to all users.

Brink said:

Hello Steve,

Just to note, this doesn't apply to the new Microsoft Edge Chromium version.

If the policy is set via gpedit.msc, then only the Computer Configuration policy needs to be set to apply to all users.

If done manually in the registry like option 2, then both HKCU and HKLM keys need to be set to apply to all users.

Thanks. I kept the original Edge browser on my main PCs since I normally use Chrome. Having a browser like the original Edge based on alternative design might be useful in rare situations where a site doesn't work on Chrome.

sccmguru2020 said:

It looks like the locations to Enable or Disable Microsoft Edge Pre-launching in the Windows registry may have have changed. I'm currently running Windows 10 Home 10.0.19041 and these are the 3 locations in the Windows registry I found in regards to Microsoft Edge Prelaunch:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\PolicyManager\default\Browser\AllowPrelaunch]
"value"=dword:00000000

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\MicrosoftEdge\Main]
"AllowPrelaunch"=dword:00000000

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Policies\Microsoft\MicrosoftEdge\Main]
"AllowPrelaunch"=dword:00000000

Thank you sccmguru2020, and welcome to Ten Forums.

Just to note, this does not apply to the newer Chromium based Microsoft Edge.

Hello @FrankW,

You could check in your Start menu > All Apps list to see if Microsoft Edge with the old icon is listed to indicate it's still installed.

Do you have any of the other versions (ex: Beta, Dev, or Can) of Microsoft Edge installed?

This tutorial is for the old legacy Microsoft Edge, and not the newer Chromium based Microsoft Edge. Double check the tutorials below for Microsoft Edge Chromium to see if they may help.

How to Enable or Disable Startup Boost in Microsoft Edge Chromium

Disable Continue Running Background Apps when Microsoft Edge is Closed

Enable or Disable Preload New Tab Page in Microsoft Edge Chromium

Turn On or Off Background Apps in Windows 10

FrankW said:

Hi @Brink
I am still on Edge version 87.0.66.4.66 Dec.11 and that does not have Startup Boost yet (also not in Edge: Flags), I have checked your links and now processes are down to 3 (OK)

I never used beta versions of Edge but remember that when I upgraded to 20H2 it installed a later version, not sure what happened with the original version, is there a way to check if I have multiple versions of Edge installed, or is that standard having two versions of edge active? Start menu shows only one copy of Edge (my current version).
Background is turned off but that does not affect Edge, I also disabled the background in System "when Edge s closed" but it stills runs 18% in background permanently.

That's ok. Startup Boost is not available until version 88.

You most likely only have the Microsoft Edge stable version installed.