Microsoft’s ‘can’t uninstall Microsoft Edge’ support page is hilariously telling

The company is clearly aware some customers are trying to revolt

by Sean Hollister

Aug 17, 2020, 11:24 PM UTC

Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge

Part Of

Every trick Microsoft pulled to make you browse Edge instead of Chrome

see all updates

Sean Hollister is a senior editor and founding member of The Verge who covers gadgets, games, and toys. He spent 15 years editing the likes of CNET, Gizmodo, and Engadget.

Look, I’m sure that the new Microsoft Edge is a fantastic web browser. I’m looking forward to trying it someday.

But Microsoft, I have a piece of advice for you: if so very many Windows users are googling “Can’t uninstall Microsoft Edge” that you feel the need to utterly own that search result by making it the title of your FAQ... maybe just don’t force it on Windows users to begin with?

Here’s a screenshot of the new support page, for posterity:

To be clear, I’m not saying Microsoft shouldn’t have updated users to the new version of Edge, particularly after today’s announcement that Internet Explorer and legacy Edge will be fully phased out exactly one year from now. Continued security updates are important!

But instead of telling users what effectively boils down to “you can’t uninstall it because we decided not to let you,” perhaps Microsoft could take a hint and give users what they apparently want. Here’s how Google search volume for “uninstall Microsoft Edge” has evolved in recent months:

By the way, you apparently can still get rid of the new Edge. (Strange how Microsoft’s page omits that.) You’ll just have to be comfortable with a few shell commands.

Follow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.