The never-ending saga of Microsoft’s obnoxious antics to force its users upon its web browser continues. As PCWorld discovered, searching for ways to uninstall Microsoft Edge web browser on Bing will give you a support article that takes you to the Microsoft Edge homepage. Wait, what?
More Microsoft Edge Antics
You can try this yourself: go to Bing (doesn’t matter which browser you use), type ‘how to uninstall Edge’ or something similar, and you may see the first or second result being Microsoft’s own support article titled “How to Uninstall Microsoft Edge”. From the publication’s perspective, the sub-title reads: “Follow these simple steps and learn how to uninstall Microsoft Edge from your device, whether from Windows 10, Windows 11, or other systems.”
Certainly sounds convincing especially from a verified source – until you click on it and you get mysteriously redirected to the homepage for the browser with no guides in sight, no matter how far down you scroll. Instead, all you get is Microsoft boasting about its browser’s great features. You might ask: isn’t that just clickbait? It is!
While we tried searching the same, we got a slightly different sub-title under the same result: “Learn how to uninstall Microsoft Edge from your device, but be aware of the features and benefits you will lose. Compare Microsoft Edge with other browsers and see why it is the smarter choice.”
The same term also gets you an AI-generated response which does give an unofficial way of uninstalling the app, while in the first term we used, it showed a real support article (seemingly artificially boosted with a full text instead of a usual search result) that explains why the browser can’t be removed, before showing the fake support article.
Notably, when we searched the same term on Google, Microsoft’s fake support article is nowhere to be seen – nor does any official Microsoft website for that matter when we searched 10 pages deep, short for a few forum posts asking the same.
But if Microsoft is unwilling to answer, here’s one: you can’t uninstall Edge, at least not without breaking some crucial features in Windows. And even when you do, reports in the wild indicates that a Windows Update will instantly revive it back, so the best you can do is just ignore it and use something else. The sole exception is that if you’re a resident in the European Union, laws effectively forces Microsoft to loosen its grip and allow users to uninstall Edge at will.
Pokdepinion: Just how low does this company want to go?
