[Windows 10] What are Microsoft Edge EXE Processes Running in Task Manager and How to Disable Them?

If you are using Windows 10 operating system in your computer, you might have noticed following 3 processes in Task Manager:

• MicrosoftEdge.exe
• MicrosoftEdgeCP.exe
• MicrosoftEdgeSH.exe

Press Ctrl+Shift+Esc keys together to launch Task Manager and then check for MicrosoftEdge.exe, MicrosoftEdgeCP.exe and MicrosoftEdgeSH.exe processes in Details tab. You’ll find these processes with Suspended status and their description read Microsoft Edge, Microsoft Edge Content Process and Microsoft Edge Web Platform respectively.

Following screenshot shows these 3 processes running in Windows 10 Task Manager:

Also if you check “Processes” tab in Task Manager, you’ll find these 3 processes with different names as mentioned below:

• Chakra JIT Compiler
• Microsoft Edge Manager
• User Interface Service
• Browser_Broker
• Runtime Broker

Following screenshot shows them in Processes tab of Task Manager:

These 3 executables are related to the built-in Microsoft Edge web browser and they keep running in background in Windows 10 even if you didn’t open Microsoft Edge browser at all.

As soon as you turn on your computer and sign in, Windows 10 automatically starts these processes. Sometimes when you launch Microsoft Edge browser and close it, these 3 processes start running in background and never exit.

This is done to launch Microsoft Edge faster in Windows 10. It is called preloading or pre-launching. It is done to minimize the amount of time required to start up Microsoft Edge and to start a new tab in Microsoft Edge. Since these processes keep running in Windows 10, whenever a user opens Microsoft Edge, it launches instantly without any delay.

If you use Microsoft Edge browser for net surfing, you should not worry about these processes as they make Microsoft Edge load faster.

But if you don’t use Microsoft Edge, then you may want to disable these processes and want to restrict/prevent them from automatically launching and keep running in background to save system resources.

Fortunately Windows 10 provides a way to disable this behavior and force Windows 10 to not automatically launch these processes at startup or keep running them forever in background.

If you want to disable these Microsoft Edge processes in Windows 10, following steps will help you:

There are 2 ways to block Microsoft Edge processes from running in background:

• METHOD 1: Using Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc)
• METHOD 2: Using Registry Editor (regedit.exe)

Let’s discuss both methods in detail:

METHOD 1: Using Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc)

1. Press WIN+R keys together to launch RUN dialog box. Now type gpedit.msc and press Enter. It’ll open Group Policy Editor.

2. Now go to:

3. In right-side pane, look for following option:

The option is set to Not Configured by default. Double-click on the option and set it to Enabled. Now select “Prevent pre-launching” option from the drop-down box present under “Configure pre-launch” section.

Click on Apply button and then OK button to exit.

4. Now again look for following option in right-side pane:

This option is also set to Not Configured by default. Double-click on the option and set it to Enabled. Now select “Prevent tab preloading” option from the drop-down box present under “Configure tab preloading” section.

Click on Apply button and then OK button to exit.

That’s it. Now Windows 10 will never pre-launch Microsoft Edge processes and you’ll no longer notice these 3 processes in Task Manager.

PS: If you want to restore default settings in future, simply set both options in Group Policy Editor to “Not Configured” again.

METHOD 2: Using Registry Editor (regedit.exe)

If you are using Windows 10 Home edition, you’ll not be able to run gpedit.msc command because this edition doesn’t come with Group Policy Editor.

If you can’t use or don’t want to use Group Policy Editor, you can take help of Registry Editor for the same task. Just follow these simple steps:

1. Press WIN+R keys together to launch RUN dialog box. Now type regedit and press Enter. It’ll open Registry Editor.

2. Now go to following key:

3. Create a new key under Microsoft key and set its name as MicrosoftEdge

4. Create another new key under MicrosoftEdge key and set its name as Main

5. Now select Main key and in right-side pane create a new DWORD AllowPrelaunch and set its value to 0

6. Now again create a new key under MicrosoftEdge key and set its name as TabPreloader

7. Now select TabPreloader key and in right-side pane create a new DWORD AllowTabPreloading and set its value to 0

That’s it. Restart your computer to take effects.

Now Microsoft Edge processes will never keep running in Task Manager.

PS: In future if you want to restore default settings, simply delete both DWORDs created in above steps.

NOTE: If you are not familiar with Registry editing tasks, we are also providing ready-made Registry script to do the task automatically. Download following ZIP file, extract it and run .REG file. It’ll ask for confirmation, accept it. Restart your computer to take effects: