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As the title says, I was wondering why Edge is running in the background after Windows Update installed and I disabled Copilot from the taskbar. Edge's settings right now are like this:
Sidebar: disabled
Show Bing chat on sidebar: disabled
Startup Boos: disabled
Continue running background extensions and apps when Microsoft Edge is closed: disabled
And now I found this running in the background with the browser closed:
That's not even the browser's updater service. I stopped the task and it opened itself again a few minutes later.
As if the fake widgets I don't like or use are always running in the background despite many things I've tried, now I have Edge using system resources for no apparent reason.
Please help me find a solution to this problem.
Other issues or features related to Microsoft Edge on Windows 11
Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.
Hi Chandy and thank you for answering.
And yes, all the other settings are disabled, so I guess all I can do is wait to see if another update fixes the problem even though I'm not using Copilot in this computer.
In any case, thank you for submitting the issue and I'll just hope for the best.
Hello, Panlo
Welcome to Microsoft Community.
The Windows Copilot sidebar is actually an Edge interface, which means the Edge web browser needs to be running behind the scenes whenever you open the Windows Copilot. This could be why you’re seeing Edge running in the background even after disabling Copilot from the taskbar.
If you’ve already disabled the “Continue running background extensions and apps when Microsoft Edge is closed” setting and Edge is still running in the background, you might want to check other settings that could affect this. For instance, there are settings like “Start-up boost” and “Continue running background apps when Microsoft Edge is closed” that you could try turning off one by one to see if the behavior persists. Or you can try holding down Ctrl+Shift+Esc to open the Task Manager, On the startup apps tab try disabling the Microsoft Edge startup item, and restart the computer to see if it runs in the background.
If none of these solutions work, This may be a recent update issue, and some users have also encountered this issue.
Although we cannot reproduce this issue, other community members have been reporting this issue, thus I have submitted this issue for you through internal channels. In addition, you can also submit your problem through the Feedback Hub (if convenient, please provide as much detail as possible, including pictures, repro videos, etc.).
Please share the feedback link after submitting, I will submit your feedback to the relevant team for investigation.
Best regards,
Chandy |Microsoft Community Support Specialist