Microsoft will uninstall legacy Edge in April 2021 and replace it with Chromium Edge

Martin Brinkmann
Feb 7, 2021
Updated • Feb 7, 2021
Internet, Microsoft Edge
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16

Microsoft revealed its plans in regards to the legacy version of the Microsoft Edge web browser recently. The legacy version will receive security updates until March 2021, and then run out of support.

What Microsoft did not reveal back when it made the initial announcement was what would happen to the browser afterwards. Could users continue using it, at their own risk, or would it be removed?

microsoft edge legacy uninstalled

A new article on Microsoft's Tech Community website provides the answer to the question. Microsoft will push the new Chromium-based Microsoft Edge web browser to devices that still have the legacy Edge browser installed and not the new one, on April 13, 2021.

In other words: Microsoft Edge legacy will be removed from systems on which the April 2021 security updates are installed on.

When you apply this update to your devices, the out of support Microsoft Edge Legacy desktop application will be removed and the new Microsoft Edge will be installed.

The optional second update in March, the "C" release of the month, will do the same thing.

Not all versions of Windows are affected by the change. Since Microsoft Edge legacy was never released by Microsoft for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1, these two systems won't be impacted by the change.

For Windows 10, all versions of the operating system starting with Windows 10 version 1803 will have legacy Edge removed and replaced with the Chromium-based Microsoft Edge browser.

Windows 10 version 20H2 is a special case as the new Microsoft Edge is already the default browser on the system. Legacy Edge will still be removed from the system when the April 2021 updates are installed.

The Chromium-based version of Microsoft Edge is only installed if it is not available already on the system. If that is the case, if it is already installed, only Edge legacy will be uninstalled as part of the April 2021 update.

Microsoft notes that defaults and personalization will be respected, and that includes that legacy Edge shortcuts are replaced with shortcuts pointing to the new Edge browser.

EdgeHTML, the rendering engine used by the legacy version of Microsoft Edge, will remain on the system as other components may still require it.

Now You: Do you use the browsers? (via Deskmodder)

Summary
Microsoft will uninstall legacy Edge in April 2021 and replace it with Chromium Edge
Article Name
Microsoft will uninstall legacy Edge in April 2021 and replace it with Chromium Edge
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Microsoft plans to uninstall the legacy version of its Microsoft Edge browser in April 2021 to replace it with the Chromium-based version of Microsoft Edge.
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Ghacks Technology News
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Comments

  1. Giacomo said on February 13, 2021 at 1:00 pm
    Reply

    I don’t like that it’s not me to decide which program I can use on my system.

  2. Phillip said on February 9, 2021 at 10:21 pm
    Reply

    What is interesting to me is how easy it currently is to remove Chromium-Edge from Windows, but legacy Edge is so difficult it isn’t even worth it for me. If they remove legacy themselves and install Chromium-Edge, I wonder if it will still be as easy? And then you’d have a relatively simple Edge-free experience.

  3. browserless said on February 9, 2021 at 10:52 am
    Reply

    “Now You: Do you use the browsers?”
    No. :trollface:

    “A survey on our site showed that all site users have access to the Internet”.

  4. Anonymous said on February 9, 2021 at 1:57 am
    Reply

    More proof that anything made in UWP is crap.

    1. Allwynd said on February 9, 2021 at 11:08 am
      Reply

      The UI was limited, the amount of extensions was limited. UWP is something that Microsoft are desperately pushing, because nobody in their right mind would use an UWP app compared to a Win32 Program.

      AFAIK, you can’t drag and drop files between UWP and Win32… still.

  5. Joseph said on February 8, 2021 at 3:14 pm
    Reply

    When are they going to completely remove the Internet Explorer browser?

    1. James said on February 10, 2021 at 1:16 am
      Reply

      Due to backwards compatibility reasons, most probably never. How is it affecting you anyway? Just turn it off (i.e. hide it) using the Optional Features dialog, and forget about it…

  6. Dandelion Sprout said on February 7, 2021 at 7:17 pm
    Reply

    From what I can determine, Microsoft have forgot to add Chromium Edge to “Windows Sandbox” yet, which still uses the legacy browser.

    So that means that things could potentially get strange for Windows Sandbox in the next few months.

    1. James said on February 8, 2021 at 2:30 am
      Reply

      Already answered by Microsoft:

      https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-365-blog/new-microsoft-edge-to-replace-microsoft-edge-legacy-with-april-s/bc-p/2116108/highlight/true#M1353

      “Microsoft Edge Legacy will also be replaced by the new Microsoft Edge in Windows Sandbox.”

  7. Martin Brinkmann said on February 7, 2021 at 12:41 pm
    Reply

    Internet Explorer 11 won’t be removed anytime soon, many Enterprise customers still need it.

  8. Paul(us) said on February 7, 2021 at 11:31 am
    Reply

    Thanks Martin, But I still have a question concerning the Microsoft internet explorer browser.

    Recently I installed from scratch Windows 20H2 and I noticed that still on board is the ” Good old” Microsoft internet explorer Windows 10 version 20H2 (OS Build 19042.76).
    Is there a (Maybe even slight) change that Microsoft is going to install this particular browser at any time given?

    1. Yuliya said on February 7, 2021 at 11:09 pm
      Reply

      Windows requires Trident engine for many of its core features, including taskbar and start menu functionality. Some programs also rely heavily on it, such as most VPN clients.

      Internet Explorer is merely a frontend for Trident. If you have no use for IE you can disable it from Optional Features “C:\Windows\System32\OptionalFeatures.exe”.

      Funny, to this date Internet Explorer is the only browser to do a good job fully utilising the hardware for video decoding. The browser in the second place, Chromium, is so far behind it’s not even worth comparing them in this aspect.

      1. MRFF said on February 8, 2021 at 6:40 pm
        Reply

        Interesting… Would you have any video examples to compare decoding performance of IE vs Chrome?

      2. John G. said on February 12, 2021 at 9:35 am
        Reply

        Just perform the fishbowl test on both browsers and you will see the difference clearly. :]

      3. Corky said on February 8, 2021 at 10:25 am
        Reply

        Just wanted to say what Yuliya said is 100% spot on, the most you can do without breaking the OS is remove the front end of IE through add/remove programs option features.

        On a side note i do wonder if this removal of legacy Edge will be similar to the removal of IE and only remove the front end (the .exe).

      4. James said on February 10, 2021 at 1:13 am
        Reply

        > On a side note i do wonder if this removal of legacy Edge will be similar to the removal of IE and only remove the front end (the .exe).

        The article addresses this – read the last sentence.

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