How to Uninstall Microsoft Edge in Windows 11 or 10

Though now-a-days it's a perfectly fine browser, Microsoft Edge is not for everyone. In fact, by many estimates, Edge is not for most people, representing just 3.5 percent of the market, compared to 64.9 percent for Chrome. 

The majority of users who reject Edge, are content to simply install Chrome, Firefox or Opera and change the default browser in Windows 11 or 10. But for some folks, it's not enough to avoid using Microsoft's browser and leave it as a vestigial organ on the body of their Start menus; they want to remove Edge altogether.

Normally, if you want to uninstall an application in Windows 11 or 10, you just navigate to Settings->Apps->Apps & features, locate the name of your app, select uninstall and (Microsoft) Bob's your uncle. But, with Edge, the uninstall option is grayed out and you need to use some command-line magic to get the job done.

Note that uninstalling Microsoft Edge does not prevent it from being listed as your default browser (you have to change that separately) nor does it stop the Windows 11 widget and Windows search's web results from attempting (and failing) to launch themselves in Edge. There are workarounds, however, which we cover below. 

How to Uninstall Microsoft Edge in Windows 11 or 10

1. Navigate to the Edge About page by going to the browser's settings menu and then Help & feedback->About Microsoft Edge.

The edge About page will appear.

2. Copy the version number into your clipboard by highlighting it (just the number) and hitting CTRL + C. You may want to paste it into a notepad document for safe keeping.

3. Launch the command prompt in admin mode. The easiest way is by searching for "cmd," right clicking the top result and selecting "Run as administrator."

4. Enter the following command where [VERSION] is replaced with the actual Edge version number (in my case, it was 93.0.961.38). 

cd %PROGRAMFILES(X86)%\Microsoft\Edge\Application\[VERSION]\Installer

5. Enter the following uninstall command.

setup --uninstall --force-uninstall --system-level

6. Change your default browser if you haven't done so already. If Edge was your default before you uninstalled it, Windows 11 will still list it as the default (though with a blue box as an icon), which could cause problems when you try to click a link in another app. 

See our tutorial on how to change your default browser in Windows 11 for details on how to make the change. If you want to continue to click links in the Widgets box or those that appear in Windows search, you'll need to use EdgeDeflector.

If you want to reinstall Microsoft Edge, you can search for and download it directly from the Microsoft Store. 

Microsoft Edge will then download itself and install like any other app.