Originally introduced as part of the Windows 10 May 2020 Update last year, Microsoft Edge is the default browser in Windows 11. However, not everyone is in love with the new Chromium-based browser and prefers to use Google Chrome, Firefox, or whatever. another web. browser on your Windows 11 computer. If you are one of them, follow our guide to learn how you can uninstall Microsoft Edge on your Windows 11 PC.
Uninstall Microsoft Edge from a Windows 11 PC: A Step-by-Step Guide (2021)
In this article, we will show you how to remove beta and stable versions of Microsoft Edge from Windows 11. We will also tell you how to disable Microsoft Edge on your computer instead of completely uninstalling it. And finally, you will also find the steps to reinstall Microsoft’s browser, in case you change your mind. So let’s get started right away.
Remove Microsoft Edge Beta, Dev, or Canary Channel builds from Windows 11
It’s easy to remove Microsoft Edge Beta, Dev, or Canary builds from your Windows 11 computer. This is because none of these builds ship with Windows 11 by default, which means you must have manually installed it on your device. So follow our guide below to uninstall any prerelease version of Microsoft Edge from your PC.
- Open Settings using the Windows keyboard shortcut 11 Windows key + I. Then click on “ Applications” in the left sidebar and select “ Applications and Features ” in the right pane.
- In the list that appears, scroll down and find Microsoft Edge Beta / Dev / Canary. Now, click on the three-dot menu button next to its name and hit ” Uninstall“. Confirm when prompted.
That’s it. You have successfully uninstalled the preview version of Microsoft Edge from your computer. Unfortunately, this method will not work with stable build because Microsoft considers it a system application. However, you can still uninstall Edge browser from your Windows 11 PC easily, and we’ll show you how to do that a bit later in this guide. For now, let’s see how you can disable Microsoft Edge instead of uninstalling it from your Windows 11 computer.
Disable Microsoft Edge browser in Windows 11
If you are not the biggest fan of Microsoft Edge, you can choose to disable the browser in Windows 11 instead of completely uninstalling it. That’s how:
- Navigate to the following folder on your computer: C:WindowsSystemApps. Then, locate the following subfolder: MicrosoftEdge_8wekyb3d8bbwe. Now, right click on the folder and hit the ” Rename” icon to rename the folder.
- You can rename the folder to whatever you want. Once you’ve chosen a new name, press Enter and click ” continue” in the pop-up window to confirm your decision.
That’s it. Microsoft Edge should now be disabled on your Windows 11 computer. As for how to change the default browser in Windows 11, see the linked article for step-by-step instructions.
Uninstall Microsoft Edge from Windows 11
If disabling the browser isn’t good enough, you can choose to uninstall Microsoft Edge from Windows 11 using the command prompt or Windows PowerShell. We’ll show you both methods in this article, so let’s get started!
Method 1: remove Microsoft Edge from Windows 11 using command prompt
To remove Microsoft Edge via command prompt, you must first check the version number of Microsoft Edge on your computer. This is how you do it:
- Open Microsoft Edge and click on the three-dot menu button in the upper right corner. Now, go to ” Settings” from the drop down panel.
- On the next page, click ” About Microsoft Edge” at the bottom of the left sidebar.
- You will now see the version number of the Edge browser you are running front and center. Make a note of it because you will need it for uninstallation.
- Next, open a command prompt window in Administrator mode. To do this, search for ” cmd” (Without quotes) in the Windows search bar and click ” Run as administrator “.
- Then copy and paste the following command into the command prompt window: cd %PROGRAMFILES(X86)%MicrosoftEdgeApplication9*Installerand hit Enter.
Note : We are using the number “9” with a wildcard “*” to access the Edge installation folder because it is currently at version 9x.x.xxx.xx. You can also use the full version number, which is 92.0.902.62 in my case.
- Next, copy and paste the following command and hit Enter to remove Microsoft Edge from your computer: setup –uninstall –force-uninstall –system-level
That’s it. You have uninstalled Microsoft Edge from your Windows 11 PC for good.
Method 2: remove Microsoft Edge from Windows 11 with PowerShell
You can also remove the stable version of Microsoft Edge from your Windows 11 PC using Windows PowerShell. That’s how:
- Open PowerShell in Administrator mode on your Windows 11 PC. To do this, search for “powershell” in the Windows search bar and click ” Run as administrator“.
- In the PowerShell window, copy and paste the following command and press Enter: get-appxpackage *edge*. Now, copy the full path of the installed Edge browser. You will see it next to “PackageFullName”.
Note : There are several ways to copy text from PowerShell and the command prompt, but the easiest way to do this is by highlighting the target text and then using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + C to copy the highlighted text.
- Now type remove-appxpackageand hit the space baron your keyboard. Then paste the copied address next to the command you just typed. Please refer to the screenshot below to clarify your doubts.
Note :can paste the address using the shortcut Ctrl + V.
Finally, press Enter to run the command in Powershell and uninstall Microsoft Edge from your computer.
Reinstall Microsoft Edge on Windows 11
If you’ve changed your mind and want to reinstall Microsoft Edge on your Windows 11 computer in the future, here’s how you do it:
- Navigate to the official Microsoft Edge page. Then click ” Start Microsoft Edge” and follow the onscreen instructions to download the latest version of Edge to your computer.
- Alternatively, you can also use the new Microsoft Store to install the Microsoft Edge browser on your Windows 11 computer.
Image Courtesy: Twitter / ALumia_Italia
Get rid of Microsoft Edge from Windows 11
The Chromium-based Microsoft Edge is way ahead of the egregious security nightmare that Internet Explorer was and a significant improvement over the original EdgeHTML-based Edge. However, if you are still not up to par with your assessment, now you can get rid of Microsoft Edge from your computer for good. So go ahead and uninstall Microsoft Edge from your Windows 11 computer. In the meantime, check out some of our other Windows 11 tutorials, including how to change administrators in Windows 11 and how to remove your Microsoft account from a Windows 11 PC.
