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