SUMMARY: Very soon new Chromium-based Microsoft Edge browser will start downloading and installing automatically in Windows 10 devices via Windows Update and will replace existing UWP version of Microsoft Edge browser. If you want to block new Microsoft Edge browser delivery or if you want to prevent it from replacing old legacy Microsoft Edge browser which came built-in with Windows 10, this tutorial will help you.Microsoft has released the new Chromium-based Microsoft Edge web browser to public. The new version of Microsoft Edge is based on Chromium project which also powers other popular browsers such as Google Chrome, Opera and Vivaldi.
Currently the new Microsoft Edge is available for manual download and installation which means interested people can download and install it manually in their computer systems.
But very soon in coming days, the new Chromium-based Microsoft Edge will be delivered via Windows Update automatically which means if you are using Windows 10 operating system in your computer, it'll automatically download and install new Microsoft Edge browser in coming days.
Once new Microsoft Edge will be offered via Windows Update, it'll automatically replace the old legacy version of Microsoft Edge which came preinstalled with Windows 10. The old Microsoft Edge is actually an UWP app and comes bundled or built-in with Windows 10.
When Windows 10 will automatically download and install new Chromium-based Microsoft Edge via Windows Update, it'll disable the existing legacy UWP version of Microsoft Edge and will completely replace it with new Microsoft Edge browser.
You'll be unable to launch and run old version of Microsoft Edge. All commands and shortcuts to run old Microsoft Edge browser will redirect to new Microsoft Edge browser. In fact, the shortcut to launch old Microsoft Edge browser will also be removed from Start Menu. You'll only see new Microsoft Edge shortcut in Start Menu as shown in following screenshot:
Now there might be 2 types of Windows 10 users:
- One who don't want the new Microsoft Edge browser and want to block Windows 10 from automatically installing it via Windows Update
- Second who want the new Microsoft Edge browser but they want to block it from automatically replacing and disabling old legacy (UWP) Microsoft Edge browser
There are ways or registry tweaks which can be used to block automatic delivery of Microsoft Edge browser via Windows Update as well as preventing or restricting new Microsoft Edge from replacing and disabling old legacy UWP version of Microsoft Edge in Windows 10.
CASE 1:
This method can be used by Windows 10 users who don't want the new Chromium-based Microsoft Edge browser at all. If you want to block Windows 10 from automatically downloading and installing new Microsoft Edge via Windows Update in your computer without your knowledge, you can apply the registry tweak given in following tutorial:
[Windows 10 Tip] Block or Prevent Automatic Installation of Microsoft Edge Browser via Windows Update
Above mentioned tutorial will help you in forcing Windows 10 to NOT installing new Microsoft
Edge from Windows Updates.
Once you implement the registry tweak, Windows 10 will not download and install new Microsoft Edge in your computer.
Keep in mind, you need to implement the registry tweak in advance before new Microsoft Edge releases via Windows Update. So apply it now.
CASE 2:
This method can be used by Windows 10 users who want the new Chromium-based Microsoft Edge browser delivered via Windows Update but do not want it to replace the existing legacy UWP version of Microsoft Edge.
If you want to be able to run and use both old and new versions of Microsoft Edge browsers side-by-side in your Windows 10 machine, following tutorial will help you:
Just follow STEP 2 given in above mentioned tutorial to implement the provided registry tweak in your Windows 10 device. Once you apply the registry tweak, it'll force Windows 10 to keep old UWP version of Microsoft Edge after installing new Microsoft Edge via Windows Update.
You need to apply the registry tweak in advance before Windows 10 downloads and installs new Microsoft Edge via Windows Update. So apply it now and it'll prevent and restrict new Microsoft Edge from replacing and disabling old legacy version of Microsoft Edge in your system.
Once new Microsoft Edge is installed in your Windows 10 computer, you'll get both new and old Microsoft Edge shortcuts in Start Menu as shown in following screenshot:
Now you can launch and run both old and new Microsoft Edge browsers at the same time in Windows 10.
Following screenshot shows both new Chromium-based Microsoft Edge and old legacy UWP version of Microsoft Edge running side-by-side in Windows 10 device:
