Same Windows, same Edge - but on a PC set to a European country, the Uninstall button that is greyed out everywhere else simply works. No tools, no scripts, no risk. This is the cleanest removal that exists, and it exists because European law required it.
When the EU's Digital Markets Act named Microsoft a “gatekeeper”, one of the concrete results landed on ordinary PCs: in the European Economic Area, Edge became a normal uninstallable app, Microsoft had to stop forcing its own defaults, and Windows started respecting the browser you chose. If your PC lives in the EEA, you do not need the remover tool from the video at all. This page shows the official path and answers the questions everyone asks next - including the one about faking your region.
👆 The same screen as the rest of the world - with one difference that matters. In the EEA, Microsoft must let you remove its browser like any other app.
This works on Windows 10 and Windows 11 PCs whose region is set to an EEA country and which have received recent updates - if your button is still grey, run Windows Update first and check again.
The uninstall removes the browser. It intentionally leaves the WebView2 Runtime, because your other apps - new Outlook, Teams, Office add-ins and many third party programs - borrow that engine to show their windows. This is the same careful split the good removal tools aim for, done by Microsoft itself. You will also find your Edge favourites and profile data are not vaporised from the disk immediately; the program is gone, which is what you asked for.
The same rules gave EEA users more than a button. Windows in the EEA must respect your default browser everywhere - links from Widgets, Search and system help open in your browser, not Edge. The Widgets board offers a feed without Microsoft's forced sign-in behaviour, and several built-in apps became removable too. In practical terms: an EEA user who uninstalls Edge gets the complete, quiet result that users elsewhere chase with tools.
The honest answer: the region setting is meant to say where you actually are. Switching a PC in India or the US to “France” purely for the button can ripple into your Microsoft Store country, prices, subscriptions, content availability and payment methods - and parts of the EEA behaviour are tied to more than the one setting. We do not recommend faking it. If you are outside the EEA, the tame route costs you nothing and the video's one click route is built exactly for you. If you genuinely move to Europe, change your region properly and the button will be waiting.
Mostly, yes - better than any unofficial route. Normal monthly updates respect the uninstall. A full in-place feature upgrade can reinstall Edge as part of the new Windows image, because the image itself contains it; if that ever happens, the button is right there to remove it again in ten seconds. Compare that with the rest of the world, where the fight restarts from zero each time, and the EEA deal looks even better.
See every step live on screen - the one click removal, the safety checks and the default browser setup.
▶️ Watch Full VideoCountries in the European Economic Area - the EU member states plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. The PC's region must be set to one of those countries and Windows must be up to date. Microsoft introduced this to comply with the EU Digital Markets Act.
No, and that is by design. The WebView2 Runtime remains installed because other apps - Outlook, Teams, Office add-ins and many third party programs - depend on it to render their windows. Removing the browser does not require removing the engine.
Technically the setting exists, but it is meant to reflect where you really live, and changing it affects your Microsoft Store country, pricing, subscriptions and content. We do not recommend faking your region. Use the tame route or the one click removal from the video instead - both are made for non-EEA PCs.