The new Chromium-based Edge browser is great in many ways and – despite a few occasional glitches – it’s as ready as Chrome is your default browser.
Installing Windows 10 version 20H2 will automatically switch your default browser to the new Edge (and version 1803 and later will also be updated through Windows Update, unless you’re using Windows Update for Business). It’s a pretty seamless experience, copying your favorites and passwords, and even reopening all the tabs you had open in Edge before you restarted your PC.
But if you’re a developer or IT admin supporting users on older versions of Windows 10, you might still need to go to the “ legacy ” version of Edge (or you might prefer Previews from thumbnail tabs to showing your last three to five tabs (in Alt-Tab when you need to find a browser tab among the dozen you’ve opened).
SEE: Windows 10 Start Menu Hacks (TechRepublic Premium)
It’s easier to keep the old Edge available before the new Edge is automatically installed, by running the Chromium Edge Blocker Toolkit (at an administrator command prompt).
This creates the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE SOFTWARE Microsoft EdgeUpdate registry key and the DoNotUpdateToEdgeWithChromium DWORD with the value 1. You can now install the stable, beta, or canary version of the new Edge as per your preference.
But if you missed a machine or (as it happened to me) ran the Blocker Toolkit on a new PC that rebooted with a blue screen bug check before the registry key was created, you can still recover the old Edge – but it’s much more complicated, and you may prefer to restore your system before installing the new Edge, run the Blocker Toolkit, and then reinstall system updates.
If you are using Group Policy, you can enable the Allow Microsoft Edge Side by Side browser experience group policy. Or you can create the Allowsxs DWORD, again in Computer HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE SOFTWARE Policies Microsoft EdgeUpdate, and set the value to 1.
Then you need to rerun the Edge installer (ignore any warnings that you already installed it). This places Microsoft Edge Legacy on the Start menu; if you pinned it to the taskbar or start menu, you need to do it again because the new Edge browser will have picked up those pins.
If you want to make Legacy Edge your default browser, you can do that from Settings> Apps> Default apps, but the browser you choose is Microsoft Edge rather than Microsoft Edge Legacy and won’t open from of the Microsoft Edge Legacy icon, so when you open a link in another app, you end up (confusingly enough) with two legacy Edge browser icons. Keep the Microsoft Edge icon (blue on black background) pinned rather than the Microsoft Edge Legacy icon (white on blue background), as the latter always opens with the Microsoft start page full of cheesy stories rather than tabs.
Even after enabling Side by Side, Legacy Edge repinning and setting it as default, Edgium can take over when you install a system update. We are investigating with Microsoft if there is a side-by-side crashing bug in cumulative update KB4568831. In the short term, if you need to access the old Edge to find something in your history or use Flash on Windows on Arm so that you can use a work site that requires it (Edgium does not support Flash on an Arm device like the Surface Pro X), there is a short term fix in the form of a registry key that you can delete. This is not a permanent fix as it will be recreated every time the stable version of Edgium is updated, but if you are stuck right now it will unlock you.
SEE: Windows 10 2004 Issues: Browser Bugs Now Occurring – Launching Edge Startup, Chrome Disconnects
In Registry Editor, open the Computer HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE SOFTWARE WOW6432Node Microsoft EdgeUpdate ClientState {56EB18F8-B008-4CBD-B6D2-8C97FE7E9062} key, and delete the BrowserReplacement key value. Now the Legacy Edge icon will revert when opening Legacy Edge (although you will likely need to change your browser’s default settings to remove it from the new Edge as well).
It’s a nudge nudge nudge world
Get used to remembering that you are going against the grain, because Microsoft wants to send a clear signal that you are holding onto the past. While Microsoft 365’s design philosophy is to create “experiences that embrace your well-being,” Microsoft is as committed to the “push theory” as the UK government.
When Microsoft says “because no one knows your outer situation or inner emotional state better than you, success has to happen on your terms to be sustainable” and asks “what superfluous visuals can we remove for your content, and no UI, become the only goal? ”that doesn’t mean Microsoft’s websites won’t trick you into setting the new Edge as your default browser, even if you tell Legacy Edge to stop asking, just like Outlook will prompt you to install Outlook mobile whenever you want. to read your e-mail.
This is what Google has been doing for years when you visit Google properties using a Microsoft browser (even a Chromium-based browser) and it’s not that different that Apple wants to keep its customers fully. in its ecosystem, so maybe it’s unfair to criticize Microsoft for doing it. The same is true when the issues with the old Edge are more about web developers who don’t support it than issues inherent in the browser – even if it seems to contradict its product principles.
The new Chromium-based Edge browser is great in many ways and – despite a few occasional glitches – it’s as ready as Chrome is your default browser.
Installing Windows 10 version 20H2 will automatically switch your default browser to the new Edge (and version 1803 and later will also be updated through Windows Update, unless you’re using Windows Update for Business). It’s a pretty seamless experience, copying your favorites and passwords, and even reopening all the tabs you had open in Edge before you restarted your PC.
But if you’re a developer or IT admin supporting users on older versions of Windows 10, you might still need to go to the “ legacy ” version of Edge (or you might prefer Previews from thumbnail tabs to showing your last three to five tabs (in Alt-Tab when you need to find a browser tab among the dozen you’ve opened).
SEE: Windows 10 Start Menu Hacks (TechRepublic Premium)
It’s easier to keep the old Edge available before the new Edge is automatically installed, by running the Chromium Edge Blocker Toolkit (at an administrator command prompt).
This creates the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE SOFTWARE Microsoft EdgeUpdate registry key and the DoNotUpdateToEdgeWithChromium DWORD with the value 1. You can now install the stable, beta, or canary version of the new Edge as per your preference.
But if you missed a machine or (as it happened to me) ran the Blocker Toolkit on a new PC that rebooted with a blue screen bug check before the registry key was created, you can still recover the old Edge – but it’s much more complicated, and you may prefer to restore your system before installing the new Edge, run the Blocker Toolkit, and then reinstall system updates.
If you are using Group Policy, you can enable the Allow Microsoft Edge Side by Side browser experience group policy. Or you can create the Allowsxs DWORD, again in Computer HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE SOFTWARE Policies Microsoft EdgeUpdate, and set the value to 1.
Then you need to rerun the Edge installer (ignore any warnings that you already installed it). This places Microsoft Edge Legacy on the Start menu; if you pinned it to the taskbar or start menu, you need to do it again because the new Edge browser will have picked up those pins.
If you want to make Legacy Edge your default browser, you can do that from Settings> Apps> Default apps, but the browser you choose is Microsoft Edge rather than Microsoft Edge Legacy and won’t open from of the Microsoft Edge Legacy icon, so when you open a link in another app, you end up (confusingly enough) with two legacy Edge browser icons. Keep the Microsoft Edge icon (blue on black background) pinned rather than the Microsoft Edge Legacy icon (white on blue background), as the latter always opens with the Microsoft start page full of cheesy stories rather than tabs.
Even after enabling Side by Side, Legacy Edge repinning and setting it as default, Edgium can take over when you install a system update. We are investigating with Microsoft if there is a side-by-side crashing bug in cumulative update KB4568831. In the short term, if you need to access the old Edge to find something in your history or use Flash on Windows on Arm so that you can use a work site that requires it (Edgium does not support Flash on an Arm device like the Surface Pro X), there is a short term fix in the form of a registry key that you can delete. This is not a permanent fix as it will be recreated every time the stable version of Edgium is updated, but if you are stuck right now it will unlock you.
SEE: Windows 10 2004 Issues: Browser Bugs Now Occurring – Launching Edge Startup, Chrome Disconnects
In Registry Editor, open the Computer HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE SOFTWARE WOW6432Node Microsoft EdgeUpdate ClientState {56EB18F8-B008-4CBD-B6D2-8C97FE7E9062} key, and delete the BrowserReplacement key value. Now the Legacy Edge icon will revert when opening Legacy Edge (although you will likely need to change your browser’s default settings to remove it from the new Edge as well).
It’s a nudge nudge nudge world
Get used to remembering that you are going against the grain, because Microsoft wants to send a clear signal that you are holding onto the past. While Microsoft 365’s design philosophy is to create “experiences that embrace your well-being,” Microsoft is as committed to the “push theory” as the UK government.
When Microsoft says “because no one knows your outer situation or inner emotional state better than you, success has to happen on your terms to be sustainable” and asks “what superfluous visuals can we remove for your content, and no UI, become the only goal? ”that doesn’t mean Microsoft’s websites won’t trick you into setting the new Edge as your default browser, even if you tell Legacy Edge to stop asking, just like Outlook will prompt you to install Outlook mobile whenever you want. to read your e-mail.
This is what Google has been doing for years when you visit Google properties using a Microsoft browser (even a Chromium-based browser) and it’s not that different that Apple wants to keep its customers fully. in its ecosystem, so maybe it’s unfair to criticize Microsoft for doing it. The same is true when the issues with the old Edge are more about web developers who don’t support it than issues inherent in the browser – even if it seems to contradict its product principles.