How do I switch from Edge to Chrome?
Hi, everyone.
Leo Notenboom
here for AskLeo.com. Microsoft Edge, the browser that comes with Windows.
It's a fine browser, it actually is,
but it comes with a really checkered past, mostly because of its initial version
being kind of crappy, and mostly now by Microsoft's almost
forcing it on you, or at least making it seem like they're forcing it on you.
As it turns out, the process to switch from using Microsoft Edge to using
a browser like Google Chrome is actually really simple.
Download and install Chrome, start using it seriously.
That's as simple as things can get.
There's a setting or two that we'll take a look at in a moment.
And I'll also take a look at whether or
not you really want to uninstall Edge after you've installed Chrome.
So here we are in windows eleven.
This is actually a fairly recent installation of Windows Eleven.
So you can see it's got everything set to its default, including the start menu
being there in the middle and the contents of the start menu being relatively normal.
The random stuff that shows up when you first install Windows Eleven.
Unfortunately, you might think the purpose of Microsoft Edge has often been stated as
being a tool from which to download Google Chrome.
And that's exactly what we're going to do with it.
Right now, I'm just going to search for Chrome, if I can spell it right.
And there it is, Google.com Chrome.
Or if you just search for it in your favorite search engine, you'll get it too.
And sure enough, we just hit Download Chrome.
I'm going to go ahead and open it after
it's done downloading, click on yes to the user account control.
And now I'm going to close Edge because I don't need it anymore.
What actually got downloaded was this downloader, a tool that is currently
downloading the full Google Chrome browser.
It's installing it.
You can see that Chrome actually has been downloaded.
It's been installed, and I can start using it.
I'll move this window to the side here because you can also see that it's been
added to the desktop, a shortcut on the desktop.
And if we want to,
since we've got it running, one of the things I like to do is
rightclick on the icon in the taskbar and click on Pin to Taskbar.
That way, just like Edge over here next
to it, it's always there whether it's running or not.
In other words,
it's one click away with the taskbar being visible if you are so inclined.
One of the things you can do, of course, is to right click on Edge and unpin it
from the taskbar to reinforce the fact that Chrome is your browser.
I'm not going to sign in.
We don't really need to do that.
But as you can see, we are here, ready to go.
I can actually go to ask Leo.
I can do whatever other things I might want to do in my browser.
If I want to fire up a browser,
all I really need to do to start using Chrome is to click on it.
And there it is.
We don't need to worry about Settings.
I'm going to resize it.
It will come back up in this larger size the next time I run it.
But honestly, that's almost all there is.
With one exception, edge is still the default browser
in Windows, and I think that's where a lot of people get caught up.
So, as you can see, Google Chrome is telling me it's not my default browser.
We'll go ahead and click on Set as default.
That will bring up the Settings app in Apps.
Default apps.
Scroll down to find Google Chrome.
Click on it, and now it switches to a page that's showing all of the different things
that Google Chrome might be set as the default for.
And as we might imagine, Microsoft Edge is the default for everything.
Click on Set, default appear at the upper
right that will have Google Chrome make a selection of all the things that it
thinks are important to be the default for.
That's really all you need to do.
You can investigate the other settings if
you like, but at a minimum, this will make a Google Chrome your default browser.
When you click on links or run web pages, basically you're done.
Google Chrome is here. It's ready.
It's easy. It's ready for you to use.
Most of the time when you click on links,
google Chrome will be the browser that comes up, I have to say most of the time.
And that's because,
as we'll see in a moment, edge is really kind of embedded into Windows.
It's one of those things that while you might think you can uninstall it,
in a way you can't really, because there are certain aspects
of Windows that are hardcoded to continue to use.
Edge, with no option to turn it off.
Unfortunately, it is what it is,
and this is part of Microsoft's heavyhanded approach to the problem.
But I do want to show you what you can
and can't do with respect to Edge before we leave.
Normally, this is where I'd stop on my own machine.
If I'm going to make Google Chrome the default, this is where I stop.
But let's take a look at a couple of other things.
I'm going to go ahead and fire up.
Right clicking and hitting Settings in Settings make this a little bit bigger.
To make it a little easier to see.
I'm going to click on Apps and installed Apps.
You can see that Microsoft Edge is listed, and theoretically, I can modify it.
But you'll notice that uninstall is not an option.
Like I said, Edge really is a part of Windows.
If we could remove Edge, we're kind of removing a part of Windows itself.
And unfortunately, there are other parts
of windows that could rely on not necessarily Edge,
but parts of Edge that we would otherwise be removing if we removed the browser.
So uninstall is generally not an option.
Now, there's one other place, depending on your version of Windows,
that you may want to look, and that is in optional features,
under apps, optional features and then scroll down to more Windows features.
This dialog box will look very familiar.
It's been around forever and in fact was
one of the ways that a number of features used to be controlled in Windows.
There are a number of features listed here.
I do not have Internet Explorer listed here.
It used to be Internet Explorer has been removed from Windows Eleven.
Depending on your version of Windows, you may find Internet Explorer here.
This is also another place where you may find Microsoft Edge.
You can uncheck it, you can turn it off, you can then do whatever this does.
I simply don't advise it.
And as you can see here in this copy, this fresh copy of Windows Eleven,
there isn't even an option to get rid of Microsoft Edge.
The good news about not getting rid
of Edge is that for the most part, it doesn't affect you.
You are running Google Chrome as your default browser.
It's installed, it's available and ready for you to use.
Yes, there are a couple of annoying situations in Windows itself that may
cause Microsoft Edge to continue to pop up.
In those cases, you can either just close it or copy the URL that shows up
in the address bar over to your Chrome browser and close Microsoft Edge.
But that's the state of the world right now.
Downloading and running Google Chrome really is that simple.
There are just a couple of little issues around the edges.
No pun intended.
For updates, for comments,
for related links and more, visit askl.eo.com/149768
I'm Leo Notenboom.
And this is Askleo.com. Thanks for watching.