Don’t want Microsoft Edge to download AI models and save them on your computer? Here’s how to stop it in simple steps.
Most don’t know this, but Microsoft Edge may download AI models locally to your computer. This allows the browser to perform certain AI-related tasks locally, without sending data out of your computer. While this is a good thing, depending on the AI models being downloaded, it can take up several gigabytes of space on your C drive. For example, it will generally be between 3 GB and 10 GB. If you are already low on disk space or don’t want Microsoft downloading AI models to your computer without your explicit permission, you can stop this behavior.
In this quick and easy Windows how-to guide, I’ll show you how to stop Microsoft Edge from downloading AI models to your computer. Let’s get started.
Before You Start
- Please back up the registry before making changes to it.
Stop Microsoft Edge from Downloading AI Models Using Registry Editor
- Open the Run dialog using the “Windows key + R” shortcut.
- Type “regedit” and click “OK“.
- Go to the “Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Edge” folder.
- Right-click the “Edge” folder.
- Select the “New” > “DWORD (32-bit) Value” option.
- Set the name as “GenAILocalFoundationalModelSettings“.
- Double-click the value.
- Replace “0” with “1” in the “Value data” field.
- Click “OK“.
- Close the Registry Editor and restart your computer.
Detailed Steps (With Screenshots)
Since we want to make changes to the registry, we must first open it. For that, press the “Windows key + R” shortcut, type “regedit” in the Run dialog that opens, and click “OK“.
In the Registry Editor window, go to the following folder. You can also copy it, paste it in the address bar, and press “Enter”.
Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Edge
Important note: If you don’t have the “Edge” folder under “Microsoft”, right-click the “Microsoft” folder, select “New” > “Key”, and enter the folder name as “Edge”.
Once you are in the folder, on the left panel, right-click the “Edge” folder and select the “New” and then the “DWORD (32-bit) Value” option.
The above action creates a new and empty DWORD value. Name it “GenAILocalFoundationalModelSettings“.
By default, the newly created value is set to “0”. We need to change it. To do that, double-click the “GenAILocalFoundationalModelSettings” value. Next, replace “0” with “1” in the “Value data” field and click “OK“.
Finally, close the Registry Editor window by clicking the “X” icon on its title bar. After that, restart your computer.
Once your PC restarts, the Edge browser will not download any AI models to your computer.
That is all. It is that simple to stop Microsoft Edge from downloading AI models to your computer. If you have any question or need help, comment below. I’ll be happy to assist.
