Dear Microsoft, why cannot I uninstall Microsoft Edge on Windows?

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https://www.ghacks.net/2024/04/17/dear-microsoft-why-cannot-i-uninstall-microsoft-edge-on-windows/

It is April 2024. The deadline for compliance with the Digital Markets Act was in March 2024. Still, even with all the latest updates installed, I cannot uninstall Microsoft Edge from any of my devices.

I tried on one Windows 10 system and three Windows 11 PCs. I even fired up a virtual machine just to see if it would make a difference. Nada.

According to Microsoft, customers from the European Economic Area should be able to do so. Whenever I check Microsoft Edge in the Settings app on Windows 10 or Windows 11 devices, I get a grayed out uninstall button. I double-checked to make sure that the latest Windows updates are installed…

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lmacri, NaNoNyMouse, Cybertooth

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On my personal laptop, I wasn’t able to remove Edge but I could on my work laptop. I looked into this because I was overly curious about the EU DMA changes and found an issue. There’s a new setting in the registry at:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Control Panel\DeviceRegion

The setting is named DeviceRegion and is a DWORD value. The decimal value of that DWORD has to match the Nation string value at these locations:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\International\Geo
HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\International\Geo

I’ve updated some scripts at work to check this value and if it’s not set to 0x44 hex, 68 decimal (Ireland) then it sets it to that.

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windbg, lmacri, NaNoNyMouse

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steeviebops wrote:

On my personal laptop, I wasn’t able to remove Edge but I could on my work laptop. I looked into this because I was overly curious about the EU DMA changes and found an issue. There’s a new setting in the registry at:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Control Panel\DeviceRegion

The setting is named DeviceRegion and is a DWORD value. The decimal value of that DWORD has to match the Nation string value at these locations:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\International\Geo
HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\International\Geo

I’ve updated some scripts at work to check this value and if it’s not set to 0x44 hex, 68 decimal (Ireland) then it sets it to that.

Thanks for that. I’ve just checked, and although my HKEY_CURRENT_USER value was set correctly to Greece, the other two values both eroneously indicated that I was in the US

For anyone interested a Table of Geographical Locations and their associated identifier values can be found: here (MS Site)

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windbg, steeviebops

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As a small P.S., I think this answers a question I asked here some while back, and never received an answer to, which went something like: “Would it be possible to fool Windows into thinking that you were in the EU when you really weren’t?”

This seems to suggest that it might be possible (although I’d guess that there could possibly be unintended and unwelcome side-effects)

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NaNoNyMouse wrote:

steeviebops wrote:

On my personal laptop, I wasn’t able to remove Edge but I could on my work laptop. I looked into this because I was overly curious about the EU DMA changes and found an issue. There’s a new setting in the registry at:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Control Panel\DeviceRegion

The setting is named DeviceRegion and is a DWORD value. The decimal value of that DWORD has to match the Nation string value at these locations:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\International\Geo
HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\International\Geo

I’ve updated some scripts at work to check this value and if it’s not set to 0x44 hex, 68 decimal (Ireland) then it sets it to that.

Thanks for that. I’ve just checked, and although my HKEY_CURRENT_USER value was set correctly to Greece, the other two values both eroneously indicated that I was in the US

For anyone interested a Table of Geographical Locations and their associated identifier values can be found: here (MS Site)

Yeah, my personal laptop was set to 242 (UK), probably because I used a UK English ISO to install Windows. The other two were correctly set to 68.

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NaNoNyMouse

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NaNoNyMouse wrote:

“Would it be possible to fool Windows into thinking that you were in the EU when you really weren’t?” This seems to suggest that it might be possible (although I’d guess that there could possibly be unintended and unwelcome side-effects)

One might find oneself having health care.

Alas, I find it impossible to regedit DeviceRegion.

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Not now wrote:

NaNoNyMouse wrote:

“Would it be possible to fool Windows into thinking that you were in the EU when you really weren’t?” This seems to suggest that it might be possible (although I’d guess that there could possibly be unintended and unwelcome side-effects)

One might find oneself having health care.

Alas, I find it impossible to regedit DeviceRegion.

I looked into this one, it seems that this value is now protected by the UCPD.sys driver. All the more reason to disable it!

https://kolbi.cz/blog/2024/04/03/userchoice-protection-driver-ucpd-sys/

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NaNoNyMouse

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Revo Uninstaller Pro can easily Force-Uninstall Microsoft Edge and Edge Update completely, including registry entries.  It’s a bit of a cat-and-mouse game, because Windows will eventually reinstall it. but it’s a simple enough fix.

 

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

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dgc-art, windbg

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@bbearren,

Does Quick Assist still work after the Edge uninstall?

I’ve had problems using Edge Block then trying to use Quick Assist. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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RetiredGeek wrote:

Does Quick Assist still work after the Edge uninstall?

I don’t use Quick Assist, I use RDP, and it still works just fine for my NAS and my Latitude E5420.  I have the Remote Desktop Connection icon pinned to my Taskbar.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

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bbearren wrote:

Revo Uninstaller can easily Force-Uninstall Microsoft Edge and Edge Update completely, including registry entries.

Unfortunately, that’s not available in the free version.

 

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OldGuyForum wrote:

Unfortunately, that’s not available in the free version.

I’ve edited my post.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

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Cybertooth

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Regarding OS Local accounts, I removed edge completely a few years back without issues,to a close-to-core OS sans adware and crApps.
Although, having typed that, Chredge was once re-installed via a CU and was rapidly kicked into touch on post update checks.
However, that happened a way back on W10 21H2 and hasn’t re-introduced itself since on 22H2 IIRC

I preferred the tried and tested batch script method by AveYo to keep the AI and ad-hog browser at bay.

I also erradicated edge on a fully functional now, completely rejected, W11 Pro 22H2/ 23H2 and don’t miss the OS at all.
No SFC/ DISM errors thereafter on two W10 Pro’s and W11 Pro over laptops and desktops. Respect to AveYo, very nice script work!

If trying, Remember to image prior to any MAJOR OS changes 😉
Take a look at the script, as it can be edited to exclude removal affiliate dependancies (change to zero, lines 5,7 and 9)

Windows - commercial by definition and now function...

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windbg

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MicroFix,

Thanks for the link!

I did some testing on “Canary” to answer my earlier question about QuickAssist.
If the script is run as is QuickAssist will no longer work!
If you use the following settings it will:

$also_remove_webview = 0
## why also remove webview? because it is 2 copies of edge, not a slimmed down CEF, and is driving bloated web apps
$also_remove_widgets = 1
## why also remove widgets? because it is a webview glorified ad portal on msn and bing news cathering to stupid people
$also_remove_xsocial = 1
## why also remove xsocial? because it starts webview setup every boot - xbox gamebar will still work without the social crap

@bbearren, I need QuickAssist as I help many people at our CCRC who struggle just to get QuickAssist running. I’ve placed a shortcut on their desktop to simplify the problem. RDP would be beyond them and frankly I’ve never used it either.

Now to Image my daily driver and see if it works there also!

UPDATE:

I found that the actions taken by the script also disabled Winget!
Winget-Errors

This one took me a while to fix. I tried restoring 3 different images of the entire boot drive and it stayed broken?

I finally deleted it in Settings->Apps and the reloaded it from the MS Store (Note: search for App Installer not Winget!) and that fixed it.

So I’m sticking with EdgeBlock and leaving WebView enabled. Solves the problem w/o errors.

I must be getting OLD things don’t get fixed as fast as they used to!

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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windbg

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RetiredGeek wrote:

RDP would be beyond them and frankly I’ve never used it either.

RDP requires that the PC one is connecting TO have a Pro version of Windows installed.  The PC one is connecting FROM can be any version of Windows.  There is also an Android app for RDP, as well as RDP for MAC.

Also, one can uninstall Edge (using Revo Uninstaller Pro > Force Uninstall) but leave EdgeWebView intact.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

1 user thanked author for this post.

RetiredGeek

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The free version of Revo Uninstaller, version 2.5.0, can now uninstall Edge from 24H2, or at least it did for me just now with Windows 11 Enterprise 24H2.

Also, winget not working was mentioned and I installed it through powershell at this link: https://www.powershellgallery.com/packages/winget-install/2.1.0
The page says to use this command: “Install-Script -Name winget-install -RequiredVersion 2.1.0”
But I used this one: “Install-Script -Name winget-install” without the “-RequiredVersion 2.1.0” to just let it install whatever version it wanted (“winget -v” reports v1.8.1911 which isn’t even in the list of versions!) because I’ve never used winget before and I have no idea what I’m doing.  If I installed the wrong version I’ll find out eventually and fix it then. Someone please correct me on this and I’ll edit my post about the winget stuff.

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