Microsoft has finally released Windows 10 version 1809 through the automatic updates. This version, also called, Windows 10 October 2018 update, offers some new features that users might find exciting, but also comes with a bunch of annoyances that can raise your eyebrows. For example, in this version of Windows, Microsoft has set their Edge web browser to be launched in the background at Windows startup whether you use it or not.
This means that even if your prefer to use Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox web browsers and never use Microsoft Edge browser, it will still be running in the background. This could be very annoying for most of the Chrome and Firefox fans.
Fortunately, Microsoft has also provided group policy configuration settings for preventing the per-launching of the Edge web browser. Here is how you can disable Edge browser from being pre-launched:
- Click on Start and type group policy editor, then click on Edit group policy. Alternatively, you can also launch gpedit.msc from the Run dialog (Win+R).
- In the group policy editor, navigate to Computer Configuration → Administrative Templates → Windows Components → Microsoft Edge.
- On the right-side, find a setting named Allow Microsoft Edge to pre-launch at Windows startup, when the system is idle, and each time Microsoft Edge is closed.
- Double-click on this setting to open the configuration window.
- In the window that opens, select Enabled, then select Prevent pre-launching and then click on the OK button.
- You have to restart Windows for the changes to take effect.
Microsoft has given a reason of pre-launching the Edge web browser at Windows startup – it will make launching Edge very fast. So when you launch Edge, it will appear on your screen instantly simply because it was already running in the background. But this is not useful if you never use Edge browser and use other great web browsers like Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox.