How to Prevent Microsoft Edge From Preloading on Windows 10

In the Windows 10 October 2018 Update, Edge received a performance boost that lets it pre-launch processes and preload the Start and New Tabs during Windows startup. If you don’t use Edge, though, these optimizations are wasting resource and slowing startup. With a quick Registry hack or Group Policy setting, you can disable it.

All Windows 10 Users: Prevent Pre-Launching and Preloading by Editing the Registry

If you have Windows Home edition, you will have to use Registry Editor to make these changes. You can also do it this way if you have Windows Pro or Enterprise, but feel more comfortable working in the Registry. (If you have Pro or Enterprise, though, we recommend using the easier Local Group Policy Editor, as described later in the article.)

Standard warning: Registry Editor is a powerful tool and misusing it can render your system unstable or even inoperable. This is a pretty simple hack, and as long as you stick to the instructions, you shouldn’t have any problems. That said, if you’ve never worked with it before, consider reading about how to use the Registry Editor before you get started. And definitely back up the Registry (and your computer!) before making changes.

To do this, you’re going to have to make two separate edits in the Registry: one to prevent pre-launching of processes and another to prevent preloading of the start and new tab pages. We’ll take them one at a time.

Prevent Pre-Launching of Microsoft Edge Processes

To get started, open the Registry Editor by hitting Start and typing “regedit.” Press Enter to open Registry Editor and then permit it to make changes to your PC.

In the Registry Editor, use the left sidebar to navigate to the following key (or copy and paste it into the Registry Editor address bar):

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\MicrosoftEdge\Main

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