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It's my understanding that Edge is an app, not a program in Windows 10. Removing it is difficult, but can be done. That's good, and I can easily find help on that matter.

However, what if I wanted to just remove the tendrils of Edge throughout the OS and still have access to it for legacy/compatibility reasons? Much the same way even a staunch Firefox user still has IE available for those websites that require it. Is there a way to downgrade it to a regular app or program? Maybe with 3rd party software?

Also, if you completely disable UAC (not just drop the slider all the way down), Edge, and all the rest of the apps, will not run. Or at least that's what people say.

Is there a middle ground where I can have a Windows OS that runs Windows software, but that I still control? Maybe a button like another user said "I know wtf I'm doing, let me do it!"

Reasons why I want to sandbox Edge: I want to disable UAC, Edge is considered a PDF viewer, compatibility, it's more secure than IE, etc.

I'm thinking I may need to just have a plain W10 VM side by side with my usual OS.

P.S.

OK, I get that the new apps are sandboxed by by design; I guess I meant more of a flower pot. Where I would uproot an existing app (Edge), and then transplant it into it's own "flower pot" so that it was still usable and had everything it needed, even in a system where it could otherwise not live (UAC disabled). It sounds like that's not possible though. That would probably require a massive OS overhaul. At that point, it's just time to go to Linux I guess.

YetAnotherRandomUser
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1 Answers1

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Is there a way to downgrade it to a regular app or program?

In order to convert Edge to be traditional Win32 desktop application, and it is indeed a Universal Windows Platform application (UWP), you would need the source code to it. Since the source code to Edge, has not been published, you will be unable to convert. If you want the ability to launch UWP applications then UAC must be set to at least the default setting.

Also, if you completely disable UAC (not just drop the slider all the way down), Edge, and all the rest of the apps, will not run. Or at least that's what people say.

Universal Windows Platform applications were designed to only function if UAC was set to the required minimum setting. If you disable UAC, you have set UAC at a setting below, the required minimum UAC setting.

Reasons why I want to sandbox Edge: I want to disable UAC, Edge is considered a PDF viewer, compatibility, it's more secure than IE, etc.

Universal Windows Platform applications are already sandboxed. That is the major benefit of Universal Windows Platform applications, they can only access certain locations on your system, unlike traditional desktop applications which can access any location the user which launched them can access.

However, what if I wanted to just remove the tendrils of Edge throughout the OS and still have access to it for legacy/compatibility reasons?

You have been able to completely remove Internet Explorer since at least IE9. While difficult, you can remove Edge, and any of the Universal Windows Platform applications that are installed by default.

I'm thinking I may need to just have a plain W10 VM side by side with my usual OS.

You could also just use the current versions of Windows 10 Enterprise LTSB (1511,1607) which by default does not have Edge installed.

Edge is considered a PDF viewer, compatibility, it's more secure than IE, etc.

If you install a different application to view PDF files you can set that as the default application. This makes it so Edge, even if you click on a link to a PDF, itself will not be the application that displays the contents of the PDF.

it's my understanding that Edge is an app, not a program in Windows 10

In reality there is no different between the term App and Program both are applications which are launched by the user. The term App became popular with Android and iOS due to their "Application Stores" ( i.e. Apple App Store )

Ramhound
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