Microsoft Edge is Microsoft’s flagship browser on Windows 10 PC, which has replaced the Internet Explorer historian.
On the new operating system Microsoft Edge is quite performing and fast, and this can be seen particularly in the startup phase of the Internet browser, in the loading of the start page and the New Tab page, which in fact are loaded in virtually instant way.
However, these performances are due to a stratagem adopted by Microsoft, which by default automatically preloads Microsoft Edge processes at the start of Windows 10 (as you can see in the Task Manager as shown in the example below) :
in such a way that they are already running, thus allowing the final loading and consequent rapid start of the browser, the start page and the New Tab page, as soon as the user clicks the navigator icon.
These processes will remain in preloaded execution even when you end the current Microfost Edge session, so you can start it quickly even the following times.
Feature that can be interesting for all those who on Windows 10 use Microsoft Edge as the main internet browser; but at the same time this feature may not be appreciated by users who instead preferred a competitive web browser, and therefore find useless system resources dedicated to preloading Microsoft Edge.
In this case it is good to know that the Microsoft Edge processes preloaded at the start of Windows 10 can be disabled. Next, let’s see how to proceed from the Local Group Policy Editor and the Registry Editor.
Method from Local Group Policy Editor (for Windows 10 Pro only)
1. Open the Start menu, type in the keyboard and send gpedit.msc to open the Local Group Policy Editor.
2. From the left panel of the Local Group Policy Editor window go to Local Computer Policy> Computer Configuration> Administrative Templates> Windows Components> Microsoft Edge and in the right panel, locate and double-click the “Prevent the First run Webpage from opening on the Microsoft Edge” setting. As in the example below in the figure:
this will open the windows management of this setting which must first be set to “Activated“, then in the “Options” field below you must expand the drop-down menu of the option “Configure tab preloading” and select the option “Prevent” preloading tabs” instead of the default “Allow tab preloading“; confirm by clicking the Apply and OK buttons.
3. Restart the computer to apply the new policies that will prevent Microsoft Edge from preloading from the next time Windows 10 starts.
Open Start menu, on the keyboard type and send regedit to open the Registry Editor.
2. From the left panel of the Registry Editor window, go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft.
Right-click on the “Microsoft” key, in the context menu that appears, click New> Key and rename the newly created key in Microsoft Edge.
Now right click on the “Microsoft Edge” key, in the context menu click New> Key and rename in Main the new key just created.
Right-click on the “Microsoft Edge” key, in the context menu click New> Key and rename the newly created key in TabPreloader.
3. With a click, select the previously created Main key, move to the right panel of the Registry Editor, right-click on an empty area and in the context menu click New> DWORD Value (32 bit), then rename the new value in AllowPrelaunch; as in the example below in the figure:
double-click the AllowPrelaunch value to open the edit window and in the “Value data” field, type zero and confirm by clicking the OK button.
NOTE: This Azeri-set value disables Microsoft Edge preload when Windows starts.
4. With a click, select the TabPreloader key previously created, move to the right panel of the Registry Editor, right-click on an empty area and in the context menu click New> DWORD Value (32 bit), then rename the new value in AllowTabPreloading; as in the example below in the figure:
double-click the AllowTabPreloading value to open the edit window and in the “Value data” field, type zero and confirm by clicking the OK button.
NOTE: This Azeri-set value disables the Home Page preload and the New Microsoft Edge tab when Windows starts.
Restart the computer to apply the new registry values that will prevent Microsoft Edge from preloading starting next time Windows 10 starts.
Obviously in both methods the process is reversible at any time: from the Local Group Policy Editor setting the setting to “Not configured” “Prevent Microsoft Edge to start and load the homepage and New Tab when Windows starts and whenever Microsoft Edge is closed“; Editor of the registry setting to 1 the value data of the two values “AllowPrelaunch” and “AllowTabPreloading”.