It will soon be impossible to uninstall Microsoft Edge

The Chromium-based version of Microsoft Edge will soon be impossible to uninstall from Windows devices. Launched in January this year, the Chromium-based version replaced the older, outdated HTML-version (Edge Legacy). So far, Microsoft had opted for a phased rollout of the new browser, but it is soon going to push it out for all users.

According to a Microsoft blog, once the new browser has been pushed out and the transition is complete, users will no longer be able to remove Edge Chromium from their computers. At least via the traditional way.

For all intensive purposes, Microsoft Edge is used to download Google Chrome and then we forget about it. According to statistics, Edge Legacy holds just about 0.98% of the browser market as compared to Chrome’s 65.89% (as of end of July).

With the new Chromium-based version, Microsoft is hoping to gain a little more space in the market. The new version comes with a host of speed, performance and security upgrades that brings it more in line with the modern web browser that we are used to. And it's doing better than Mozilla Firefox. 

Also, it is going to be forced upon all Windows users as a part of a system update. This update is also going to make it permanent (of sorts) on Windows devices.

Microsoft writes in the blog post that they want to ensure all Windows customers have the latest Microsoft Edge browser for the performance, privacy and support features it offers. The post adds that the new version of the Edge is going to be included in a Windows system update, thus the option to uninstall it or use the older legacy version is no longer going to be available.

The newer version of the browser has been well received but the inability to uninstall it is going to annoy a lot of users.

However, if users are desperate to get rid of the browser, Deskmodder has a way to work around it. Please note - only experienced users attempt to uninstall Edge by this method.

Here’s how you go about with it -

- Navigate to C: \ Program Files (x86) \ Microsoft \ Edge \ Application

- Select the current version number

- Locate setup.exe

- Navigate to the file path within Command Prompt

- Execute the following command: setup.exe --uninstall --system-level --verbose-logging -- force-uninstall