Edge should have been downloaded and installed manually months ago to replace the old legacy Edge even if you didn’t intend to use the browser.

Why doesn’t KB4576754 show up in the MS Catalog?

My problem is that on one of my laptops, Windows keeps bugging, uh, begging me to install Chredge, but every time I try, I get the message that Chredge works best when my computer is fully updated, so do it and then come back to install it. The problem is I keep getting this message even when the laptop is fully updated. Catch 22.

On my five fully-updated Windows 2004 Pro Version 19041.508 machines, all of which have Firefox as the default browser, Chredge has appeared on only my NAS, and without fanfare.  It just arrived as a desktop shortcut and an icon on the Taskbar.

It did not launch, nor did it take me on a tour.  I haven’t launched it, either, don’t know what it looks like.

Interesting.

Does crEdge install even with Updates set to paused because I’m not really interested in any MS browser but I’ve paused updates and that should include any updates but Defender definition updates.

I only have a local login so no MS account there and I’m not about to change that for anything!

“…a little more obnoxious?”

I refer you to “The Hucksters”, an old movie in which Sydney Greenstreet, playing an obnoxious advertising executive, yells out his ad formula:

“Irritate, irritate, IRRITATE, knock ’em dead!”

<sigh>

July 2020

Win10Pro 1909.18363.959 x64 i3-3220 RAM8GB HDD Firefox79.0
2020-05 Microsoft Edge Update for Windows 10 Version 1909 for x64-based Systems (KB4559309) was offered and installed via Windows Update on this machine.
https://www.askwoody.com/forums/topic/windows-updates-bifurcated-mess/#post-2283538

———-

Win10Pro 1909.18363.1082 x64 i5-9400 RAM16GB HDD Firefox82.0b3
Microsoft Edge Update for Windows 10 Version 1909 for x64-based Systems was not ever offered on this machine.

I’d ctrl-shift-esc and kill the sucker process! Or use the great Process Explorer to do the same!

Man, I haven’t posted a comment for a very long time.  But when I saw the headline to the story about Edge and read the content my thought was that I am so happy that I’ve stayed with Win8.1 update and let it do the work.  No ongoing, continuing hassles of Win10 whatever the version one had downloaded, installed and tried to use.  Nothing to worry about with Edge.  Win8.1, as Woody often says, IS apparently the most stable.

This new Chredge incident is just the latest in a long string of such behavior by Microsoft.  And it’s just more reason than ever to stop relying on Win10’s Windows Update settings to try and control how and when updates get installed.

For most of this year now, I’ve been using David Xanatos’ WUMgr to manage updates on my Win10 systems; and (at least so far) I have never had a single update pushed onto any of those systems without me selecting and approving it first.  Yes, WUMgr is a third-party utility; but quite honestly I trust WUMgr a whole lot more than I do Microsoft.

Actually, the new Edge has one very nice use: it can make stand-alone apps out of web pages.  I found a really nice radio station while I was visiting Palm Springs, CA last week (kwxy.com), and although they have apps for Android and iOS they don’t have one for Windows.  So I went to the website with “Chredge” (as you all call it) and used the new feature to create an app from it.  I can then bring up just that station in a separate window, as though it were a Microsoft Store app, and listen to the station that way without having to open a separate tab in Chrome.  I can also put it in the Startup options so it comes up when I boot Windows.  (Yes, I like the station that much!)  I live in Corona, CA (and no, doggone it, the virus isn’t our fault! 🙂 ) well outside the broadcast range of the station, and I don’t always want to tie up my phone to listen to it with their Android app, so this works nicely.

WCHS wrote:

Why doesn’t KB4576754 show up in the MS Catalog?

Because the update is there to enslave and torture consumers – you won’t find that in managed enterprise environments – read the notes of KB4576754:

Important

• This update is not intended to target Windows Update for Business (WUfB) managed devices.
• To get this update for the new Microsoft Edge for Windows 10, version 1803, see KB4576753.

[sic]

BTW: In the old kb article MS wrote ‘You do not have to restart your device after you apply this update.’ Obviously they changed their mind, if I understand Woody’s original post …

I see that Shawn Brink on Tenforums has a registry hack to keep Windows Update from installing Chredge. Far as I’m concerned, MS can install it — after all, it is their machine (cough) — but I’m not going to use it for a while.

Why tangle your fingers in the spaghetti of a registry hack when Microsoft issued a tool to block ChrEdge – Blocker Toolkit ?

anonymous wrote:

This really shouldn’t come as a surprise to anybody.

As Woody mentioned – the update – during patchday, in a modest silent way would be ok. But not that marketing driven b******t, they are enrolling to consumer machines only.

Side note: I remembered an episode from the 90s, when my employer did send through various management seminars. In one of these seminars we were coached by a psychologist on ‘How to motivate our employees properly’ (wasn’t bad and carried me for the last 30 years). His statement at that time about what you should never do: ‘Never act like some mothers who force their child to clean up their room and then expect or demand that the child does it with joy – that goes wrong and ends in a refusal attitude’. Why did this sentence suddenly came to my mind, when I read Woody’s story …

Side note #2: Guess it’s time, that the European Commission (EC) re-invoke the Browser Choice in Windows. Obviously Microsoft never learned or forget the lesson from 2009 (expired 2014).

My workstation updated to 2004 several weeks ago and Edge was put on the task bar by default along with Firefox which is what I routinely use.  I removed it from the task bar and have not had any issues at all.  I have been running Edge on my Win7 television PC that cannot be updated because Windows Media Center is not supported by MSFT any longer and I need this to watch cable TV.  It seems to work just fine for streaming videos outside of Windows Media Center which is all I use it for.  I haven’t peeked under the hood to see if the associated files are as huge in number as Firefox.

Web browsers… Everyone likes to relate their experience. This thread will no doubt get long.

Like many, I have downloaded several alternatives. But let me talk about an Edge anecdote…

Yesterday I found myself remoting into one of our corporate Windows 10 test systems to test a particular build, for which I have a link to a .zip file. The test system is not tweaked too much as the intent is to test in an environment much like one our customers might use.

1. I fire up the browser that was on the machine – turns out to be Edge. It shows a hugely busy MSN page with all kinds of images and things moving around. Hmmm, I thought I had originally set these systems up with about:blank as the home page. I check… Sure enough, it says about:blank. Why is it showing the MSN page? Ah well, no matter, grumble about Microsoft and forge ahead…

2. I paste in my build URL and hit Enter. Up pops a choice: Open, Save, or Cancel. I choose Open, as the first thing I want to do with the .zip file is extract the contents. Seems straightforward enough. The download completes and up pops Explorer showing my .zip file contents.

3. Great, I think, that wasn’t too long to wait for a 2 GB file; I’ll just close Edge as I no longer need the browser. BOOM, Explorer disappears. I guess they figure if I want to Open it directly and easily, I must want Edge to delete it when I close the browser window. NOT!

4. I open the browser and paste my URL AGAIN, and wait for the download AGAIN. This time I hit Save instead of Open, and when I close the browser the .zip file remains on the disk. Thank goodness! But I have to open Explorer myself then find the file and double-click it to get back to where I just was.

5. (Not an Edge gripe, but an ongoing Microsoft gripe): Explorer takes a FULL 5 MINUTES to unzip the file. When it’s about 3 minutes into it I decide to open 7-Zip (conveniently already installed on the machine) and even with having to remember how to use 7-Zip I manage to unzip the file into a folder while there’s still over a minute of time remaining in Explorer’s run. I just close Explorer.

6. When I go to run the software our team has just built it prompts me “Microsoft has protected your computer” dialog. Gee, thanks Defender, for not giving me enough credit to know what I want to run and what I don’t. I have to click through the More Information link (hm, certainly not where I’d expect to find further actions to do) and I find the Run Anyway function.

Conclusion: Microsoft is not AT ALL about productivity. Roadblocks at EVERY turn! Protect me from myself at all costs! None of this Microsoft stuff works well together or even just works well. They’ve forgotten what a desktop is even for.

Now I remember why I tweak my own personal systems SO heavily for productivity.

-Noel

I had the same thing  happen even though I had  Firefox as my default browser.  I went back into default programs and  reset Firefox as my default browser and the edge pop up has not come back since.

Didn’t the feds go after them once for this sort of thing?

I had exactly the same experience, except my experience was just a couple of days after doing a clean install/re-install of Windows 10 Pro.

Even if I was inclined to use Edge (which I’m not), this experience would definitely make me avoid it. NO app should take over a machine for any reason, especially not hijacking the boot process to force a tutorial.

Although I guess Microsoft has the right to force Edge to install, but I thought that Microsoft was forced years ago to separate Internet Explorer (Exploder) from Windows. So I wonder if the same still holds true for Edge/Chredge/Dreadge. I Dread the day that I’m forced to use Edge.

Here is some older news from July 2, 2020 that may be worth a re-read:

With Edge, Microsoft’s forced Windows updates just sank to a new low

“… I’m surprised Microsoft would shoot itself in the foot by stooping so low, using tactics I’ve only ever seen from purveyors of adware, spyware, and ransomware.”

Yikes! Far from Welcome to the New Chredge, Resistance is Futile, you will be assimilated. With Windows 10, I think MS Owns us. Did I say Yikes?

Carl036 wrote:

I thought that Microsoft was forced years ago to separate Internet Explorer (Exploder) from Windows

Microsoft was never forced to separate Internet Explorer from Windows. IE is still baked into Windows OS and can’t be removed. In EU Microsoft was forced to display a list of browsers for users to select from.
According the the EULA you signed with Microsoft they can install, delete, change… any part of Windows which of course is Microsoft’s property.

Lars220 wrote:

Here is some older news from July 2, 2020 that may be worth a re-read: With Edge, Microsoft’s forced Windows updates just sank to a new low

A there’s a user comment there: “The Edge / Chromium update doesn’t remove the old version of Edge and also installs Office bloatware.”

So I went looking and I came across this: PLEASE HELP ME GET RID OF THE NEW EDGE

So apparently you can block from installing it by creating a registry entry by running this command line:

REG ADD HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\EdgeUpdate /v DoNotUpdateToEdgeWithChromium /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f

Further on down there’s a link to this: How to uninstall Microsoft Edge Chromium

Which says to do this:

cd C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\Edge\Application\84.0.522.52\Installer
setup.exe –uninstall –system-level –verbose-logging –force-uninstall

The 84.0.522.52 looks like a recent chrome version so it may change over time.

I’m still running 1803 in my normal environment but I’ve put 2004 on my test and back up systems. Just had to do another Pause Updates for 35 days. It woke up from the last 35 day pause and for 6 days it respected the metered connection setting. When I do finally update I want to do what I did with those–a clean install keeping nothing from under C:\Users or C:\Program Files and reinstall current versions of of the programs I use. I would let WindowsUpdate install the 1803 updates beyond 2020-02 but it is bent on installing 1903 but I’m not interested in wasting my time on it.

I did notice that the files under C:\Program Files\rempl\Logs were eating 40 MB tied to perfmon tied to KB4023057 so based on Update to Windows 10, versions 1507, 1511, 1607, 1703, 1709, 1803, 1809, 1903, and 1909 for update reliability

I chose to remove it entirely (for x64-based systems):

msiexec.exe /x {32DC821E-4A7D-4878-BEE8-337FA153D7F2}

There’s was also an awful lot of noise after two years in the 165 MB of files shown by the event viewer so those all got cleared. I’ve been idly disabling those that grow back too quickly. I may just go a disable nearly all them. I wonder cynically whether this is a lot of the data Microsoft is collecting daily 🙂

This is what I’m referring to:

DIR /O:D %SystemRoot%\System32\Winevt\Logs|findstr /v /c:"69,632"
09/25/2020 03:07 PM 1,118,208 Microsoft-Windows-SMBServer%4Security.evtx
09/26/2020 10:55 AM 1,118,208 Microsoft-Windows-Partition%4Diagnostic.evtx
09/26/2020 10:56 AM 1,052,672 System.evtx
09/26/2020 10:56 AM 1,052,672 Application.evtx
09/26/2020 10:56 AM 1,052,672 Security.evtx
09/26/2020 10:56 AM 1,052,672 Microsoft-Windows-Windows Defender%4Operational.evtx
09/26/2020 11:06 AM 1,118,208 Microsoft-Windows-Storage-Storport%4Operational.evtx
09/26/2020 11:53 AM 1,052,672 Microsoft-Windows-Provisioning-Diagnostics-Provider%4Admin.evtx
09/26/2020 11:54 AM 1,052,672 Microsoft-Windows-WinRM%4Operational.evtx
327 File(s) 31,813,632 bytes

I see no reason to think Chredge can be kept out long-term.

W/regard to Marketing tactics, people worry over these messages, but just try disabling some of the services in the Services.msc list or any number of the other things Microsoft tries to protect from tampering by us. It can be done, but not through the snap-in, and it sometimes requires e.g., PsExec elevation to SYSTEM. It’s not a good trend, but it’s not going to stop.

-Noel

Noel Carboni wrote:

My reasonably tight fully net-connected and application-outfitted Win 10 system idles on 120 to 130 processes, where my similarly tweaked Win 8.1 system quietly supports an empty desktop on about 40 processes. That’s still about 20 to 50+ more processes of utter bloat.

Black Viper’s Windows 10 Service Configurations

To avoid using Windows Update for the “upgrade” to Chredge, isn’t there a stand-alone installer available from the MS catalog site? I’ve found a stand-alone installer, but it’s labeled on MS’s own site as Edge for Business/Enterprise (the download file’s name says that it’s for enterprise). What about the small business crowd/individual user? They deserve a stand-alone installer as well, but I haven’t been able to find it yet.

PKCano wrote:

That is the link to download the standalone Edge.
Open it in whatever browser you use and download the installer.

It won’t work in my Firefox browser. I get the screens shown in #229345

I downloaded the .msi with Chrome :

http://dl.delivery.mp.microsoft.com/filestreamingservice/files/5706f62d-83ae-43b9-bdda-ea7fb2a7476f/MicrosoftEdgeEnterpriseX86.msi

http://dl.delivery.mp.microsoft.com/filestreamingservice/files/cc746716-af14-48fa-a767-5a2e902b6340/MicrosoftEdgeEnterpriseX64.msi

We all have our preferences, but using the new Chrome Edge has been a pleasant surprise. It works much better than Google Chrome for ad blocking. The setting that makes the big difference is the “Privacy” setting for Tracking prevention. Change “Balanced” to “Strict” and it will block all annoying ads. Nothing else, no add-on apps, needed. It makes internet browsing a LOT more tolerable!

Can I just change DoNotUpdateToEdgeWithChromium from 1 to 0 if I want to get Edge Chromium? Is there anything else that needs to be done?