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How to Get Back Old Edge Browser After Installing Edge Chromium

Like the legacy Edge browser? Here’s a simple way to keep or restore the old Edge browser after install the Edge Chromium browser.

Microsoft finally released the all the new Edge Chromium browser. In case you are wondering, the new browser is just called Edge and not Edge Chromium. However, since the browser is built based on the open-source Chromium project, that is what it is called. This also makes it easy to differentiate between the legacy and new Edge browsers.

Compared to the old Edge browser, the new browser is much faster, snappier, and highly compatible with new web technologies. You can download and install the new Edge browser like any other software in Windows 10.

Though downloading and install the Edge browser is a pretty simple matter, the only download side is that it will remove the old Edge browser. If you are still using the old Edge browser and would like to keep it around, you need to make some simple registry changes. Once those changes are made, you can keep or even get back the old Edge browser even after installing the Edge Chromium browser. Let me show how it’s done.

Note: For the below procedure to work, you should not have the new Edge Chromium browser installed. If you’ve already installed the Edge Chromium browser, uninstall it from the Settings app or from the Control Panel and then follow the steps below.

Important Note: If the new Edge browser is automatically installed via Windows Update, you cannot uninstall it. This is because Microsoft integrated the new Edge browser with Windows 10 and disabled the Uninstall option. Since you cannot uninstall the new Edge browser, you cannot get back the Old Edge browser.

Get Back or Restore Old Edge Browser

To get back the old Edge browser, we need to make a small registry change. Though the process is pretty easy, I recommend you back up the registry before making any changes.

1. First, open the start menu, search for “Registry Editor” in the start menu and click on the first result to open the Registry Editor. After opening it, copy and paste the below path in the Registry Editor’s address bar and press Enter to go to the folder.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft

Restore-old-edge-browser-go-to-folder

2. Once you are at the target folder, right-click on the “Microsoft” folder and select the “New → Key” option. Name the new folder as “EdgeUpdate” and press Enter to confirm the name.

Restore-old-edge-browser-dword-value
Restore-old-edge-browser-create-folder

3. Now, right-click on the EdgeUpdate folder and select the “New → Dword Value” option. Name the new dword value as “Allowsxs” and press Enter to confirm it.

Restore-old-edge-browser-new-value

4. After creating the value, double-click on it. Enter “1” in the Value Data field and click “Ok” to save changes.

Restore-old-edge-browser-set-value-data

5. Finally, close the Registry Editor and reboot Windows 10.

Wrapping Up

After rebooting, install the new Edge Chromium browser. Due to the changes we just make, the old Edge browser will still be available. In fact, you can see it in the start menu.

Restore-old-edge-browser-restored

Do keep in mind that the old Edge browser may not receive any updates. Moreover, as time progresses, the website or services may not work as they should due to inherent limitations. Also, the above change won’t stop Microsoft from removing the old Edge browser from your system with updates.

I hope that helps. If you are stuck or need some help, comment below and I will try to help as much as possible.

14 thoughts on “How to Get Back Old Edge Browser After Installing Edge Chromium”

  1. Avatar for Sam

    For some reason, this process did not work and I had to un-install the new browser on several users’ machines.

  2. Avatar for George Cinelli
    George Cinelli

    After installing the new edge when I print files using Microsoft print to PDF the files are 5 times larger than they were with the old edge and some of the files print sideways. Is there a way to correct this?
    Please email me any suggestions.
    thanks
    George

  3. Avatar for eve

    Hi,
    I accidentally installed the new edge and tried to follow your instructions to delete the new one before following your instructions. Apparently, now the new Chromium edge cannot be deleted. The uninstalled button is greyed out. So, is there any way to still bring back the old legacy edge?

    1. Avatar for avinash

      yes.follow the steps and after restart go to start menu>scroll to microsoft
      you will find both new and old edge there. worked for me.

  4. Avatar for NOT DABZ

    in reboot, do you mean restart computer or reset the computer? please answer as soon as possible and should i delete the microsoft edge chromium first before doing anything?

  5. Avatar for Marilyn L Sheldon
    Marilyn L Sheldon

    I hate this new chrom edge and hope I can successfully restore my old Edge. It is not faster; in fact it is much slower and I almost never get what I want. The old Edge was by far faster and I always got what I was searching for. I wish I had never installed this new junk.

    1. Avatar for christopher lindsay
      christopher lindsay

      go to the start menue and locate the new edge and right click and the uninstall option is there, it will put the last edge back on you computer and get rid of the chromium junk box

  6. Avatar for Donald S Edwards
    Donald S Edwards

    I hate this new Microsoft Edge update. All the old sites that I visited have all disappeared. Important places that I had to visit once a week have all disappeared. I could maneuver on the internet much easier with the old Microsoft Edge. I’m so sorry that I allowed this update. I will ignore all updates from now on. Because this one is really bad.

  7. Avatar for christopher lindsay
    christopher lindsay

    i have tried everything to open a PDF file in the edge chromium browser, it keeps downloading the same file over and over 30 times and just keeps going finally i got it to stop by hitting x and then clearing the downloads the old edge works fine so its a system problem with the new edge but you cant have both and you can uninstall the new edge in the control panel under programs just like always..

  8. Avatar for John Snow

    Wouldn’t it make more sense for Microsoft to just go back one step with edge to the one that worked correctly?

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