To play devil’s advocate, that’s because Edge is the system web view used for system components. Removing it means certain UI for system components won’t be able to be rendered. It’s the same reason why uninstalling Chrome from Android breaks a bunch of stuff. They should decouple the web view from the browser but here we are.
Actually, Edge WebView2 is a separate system component pushed out via Windows Update (can also be bundled with individual apps), and is independent of Edge the browser.
So you can actually uninstall Edge the browser completely if you wanted to, and still keep using Webview.
Of course, it’s a different story that Microsoft like to sneak it back in as part of an update or something.
I don’t care. None of the stuff that breaks is even remotely important to me.
If I’ve made a point of removing a piece of software; reinstalling it, re-adding shortcuts in 3 different places, and changing my default back to edge with every system update (and now automatically harvesting all the data from every other installed browser) makes me want to personally lynch Satya Nadella. (Microsoft’s CEO)
Exactly. Those OS updates are most likely fixing / reinstalling Edge since it is either considered corrupted or to push newer version. Set different default browser, unpin it from taskbar and you are good to go.
All these “fixes” and “debloaters” in a long run most likely will cause problems.
To play devil’s advocate, that’s because Edge is the system web view used for system components. Removing it means certain UI for system components won’t be able to be rendered. It’s the same reason why uninstalling Chrome from Android breaks a bunch of stuff. They should decouple the web view from the browser but here we are.
Actually, Edge WebView2 is a separate system component pushed out via Windows Update (can also be bundled with individual apps), and is independent of Edge the browser.
So you can actually uninstall Edge the browser completely if you wanted to, and still keep using Webview.
Of course, it’s a different story that Microsoft like to sneak it back in as part of an update or something.
I don’t care. None of the stuff that breaks is even remotely important to me.
If I’ve made a point of removing a piece of software; reinstalling it, re-adding shortcuts in 3 different places, and changing my default back to edge with every system update (and now automatically harvesting all the data from every other installed browser) makes me want to personally lynch Satya Nadella. (Microsoft’s CEO)
Exactly. Those OS updates are most likely fixing / reinstalling Edge since it is either considered corrupted or to push newer version. Set different default browser, unpin it from taskbar and you are good to go.
All these “fixes” and “debloaters” in a long run most likely will cause problems.