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I have upgraded my laptop to Windows 10 Home. But I can't find the Microsoft Edge web browser.

Does anyone know where it is located, or do I need to install it?

Update: I could find MicrosoftEdge.exe at C:\Windows\SystemApps\Microsoft.MicrosoftEdge_8wekyb3d8bbwe. But when I click on it, it doesn't run.

Ben N
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Naman Gala
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  • Where are you from? Do you perhaps have a K or N edition? – Daniel B Aug 04 '15 at 10:49
  • @DanielB, I am from **India** and I have **windows 10 Home** edition – Naman Gala Aug 04 '15 at 10:56
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    The MicrosoftEdge.exe cannot be run like other programs. If you do not have the Microsoft Edge shortcut in the taskbar, search for it in the search bar or start menu. Then pin it to the taskbar. – MC10 Aug 04 '15 at 11:07
  • How sure are you that the edge browser is not being run when you click the Internet Explorer like icon on your task bar? I believe it should be the default browser rather than the old IE. – Mokubai Aug 04 '15 at 11:24
  • @MC10, thanks. I followed your instruction and I could run Microsoft Edge. Before also I searched in search bar, but I did not find it. But now I unpin MicrosoftEdge.exe from start menu which I pinned previously and search for it in search bar. And now it is running. – Naman Gala Aug 04 '15 at 11:26
  • @Mokubai, It was not running. I tried running internet explorer and it was running but it was not edge browser. By the way I got it running now. Thanks – Naman Gala Aug 04 '15 at 11:27
  • @NamanGala Sounds good, glad you could get it working. – MC10 Aug 04 '15 at 11:29
  • *"I have located the MicrosoftEdge.exe but it is not running when I am clicking on it."* Congratulations! You have found it! But if you can't run it, then perhaps you should change the title of the question. Also, have you tried turning it off and on again? If you were too eager to start testing your new Windows and Edge, you might want to try a reboot first, after completing the upgrade. That might be helpful. – Samir Aug 04 '15 at 11:40
  • @sammyg that (reboot) I tried earlier but it did not change anything. And also I have updated my question. – Naman Gala Aug 04 '15 at 11:41
  • Win+R > microsoft-edge:https://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-edge or Win+R > microsoft-edge: – Ashish Singh Feb 24 '17 at 18:57
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    anyone have a clue why MS insists on making its own executables hard to find? i am just trying to open a PDF with Edge, but it's not on the suggested apps list for some reason and without a path, it's hard to browse for it. They do the same with Office and a whole of other stuff, totally, utterly, pointless. – JL Peyret Aug 01 '17 at 21:08
  • I just run iexplore on run (year 2023). Works for me. – Antti Rytsölä Mar 02 '23 at 08:14

7 Answers7

62

Make a new shortcut for it

Correct link is:

%windir%\explorer.exe shell:Appsfolder\Microsoft.MicrosoftEdge_8wekyb3d8bbwe!MicrosoftEdge

Then add it's icon from its own .exe if you don't like the default look.

 %windir%\SystemApps\Microsoft.MicrosoftEdge_8wekyb3d8bbwe\MicrosoftEdge.exe
Overmind
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  • This is great. Is there anyway to pin an incognito version (private mode) to the taskbar? – Brad Bamford Aug 05 '15 at 18:34
  • Browsers can start in that mode with a specific parameter (Opera -newprivatetab, IE -private, Chrome -incognito). According to MS -private should work for Edge, but we'll have to test this. – Overmind Aug 06 '15 at 06:55
  • Where do you see Microsoft suggesting -private will work for edge? Even so, how could that be passed via "explorer.exe shell:Appsfolder\Micr.... " which is the only known way to create a shortcut? – Brad Bamford Aug 07 '15 at 21:48
  • It's on their page. – Overmind Aug 12 '15 at 05:42
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    Thanks, but "it's on their page" isn't helpful. I submit there's no currently known way to add a -private or any parameters to an Edge shortcut at this time. You can launch a site using "microsoft-edge:www.cnn.com" Or "%windir%\explorer.exe microsoft-edge:www.cnn.com" but I've found no way to add -private parameter. – Brad Bamford Aug 12 '15 at 14:59
  • +1 This worked great to get a shortcut. Is there anyway to open a specific web page this way? I've done it in the past with IE by adding the URL after the shortcut Target, but in this case that just opens up a file explorer window. – Kurt E. Clothier Mar 21 '18 at 13:27
  • Edge works differently. For a specific page you can use the start command: start microsoft-edge:http://www.msn.com - this will open msn-dot-com. – Overmind Mar 22 '18 at 20:31
  • Using cmd in the shortcut, you can start an private mode window, but you will see the cmd window for a very short time during startup: `%windir%\System32\cmd.exe /c start shell:AppsFolder\Microsoft.MicrosoftEdge_8wekyb3d8bbwe!MicrosoftEdge -private` – wimh Jun 28 '18 at 09:56
31

Outdated

This information is outdated. OP may not be around to switch the accepted answer. Please refer to answers from Overmind or Yanzzee, or Europa's comment for newer information.

Old Answer

Microsoft Edge should be in the taskbar. It is the blue 'e' icon.

Taskbar

If you do not have that or have unpinned it, you just need to repin it. Unfortunately the MicrosoftEdge.exe can not be run by double clicking and creating a normal shortcut will not work. You may have found it at this location.

Location

What you need to do is just search for Edge in the Start menu or search bar. Once you see Microsoft Edge, right click on it and Pin to taskbar.

Search

MC10
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  • There is a way to create a shortcut to Edge. Yanzzee below has what should be the correct answer. – Ed DeGagne Dec 09 '16 at 19:34
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    May 2021: Edge is located in C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\Edge\Application\msedge.exe. It can be found by either goint to that location or shell:Appsfolder. – Europa May 03 '21 at 06:36
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To create a new shortcut from the existing shortcut file, you can also enter this path into file explorer: 

shell:Appsfolder

Scroll to Microsoft Edge, then and drag or right click to create a new shortcut. I used this method to put Edge in the startup folder.

Yanzzee
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3

Not sure when this changed, but in my version of Windows 10 (21H1 - 19043.1023) the executable for Edge is located in: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\Edge\Application\msedge.exe

nVitius
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    The author's question was specifically with regards to Legacy Edge, not Chromium Edge which has a different installation directory entirely. – Ramhound May 31 '21 at 18:19
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    That's not really clear from the question. I suppose it's implied based on the time it was asked. But this question is the top result on Google if you look up "where is Edge installed?". I'm pretty sure anyone looking for that today is asking about the Chromium version. – nVitius Jun 02 '21 at 06:41
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You can launch Microsoft Edge in private mode by using this AutoHotkey-script:

^P::                
Run %windir%\explorer.exe shell:Appsfolder\Microsoft.MicrosoftEdge_8wekyb3d8bbwe!MicrosoftEdge
Sleep 1000
Send ^+P
Return
I say Reinstate Monica
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Albert van Leeuwen
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1

The Open With addon needs the command line to have the %s so that the currently open site gets launched in Edge. C:\Windows\explorer.exe "microsoft-edge:%s"

Shiyaz
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0

On my system, Microsoft Edge is really installed at:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\Edge\Application\msedge.exe

Create a shortcut as normal in Explorer. This loads much more quickly than the strange %windir%\SystemApps\Microsoft.MicrosoftEdge_8wekyb3d8bbwe re-direction.

The final shortcut has Target set to one of:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\Edge\Application\msedge.exe

or if you prefer:

%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft\Edge\Application\msedge.exe

Copy and strip off \msedge.exe for the Start in parameter of the shortcut.

AlainD
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