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Removing the Edge icon from the Taskbar during OSD

Posted on December 2, 2015August 25, 2017 by Jörgen Nilsson

This one isn’t pretty but it does work just fine. One of the most common questions I get when we do Windows 10 projects are how to modify the taskbar and to be more specific remove the Edge icon. The configuration of the Taskbar is stored in a big blob in the registry so what I simply do is modify the taskbar as I want it and then export the registry key and the files needed as well.

The script can be downloaded here: https://ccmexec.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/ManageTaskbar-1.0.zip

It consists of two different scripts as the Taskbar is per-user I use a .CMD file to copy all the files needed locally and then add a Runonce command to the default user profile so that the Taskbar is imported once for each user when the profile is created.

Couldn’t this be done in the default user profile? No, as the Edge icon is added as well when the user profile is created. I will post later in the week how to export/import a Custom Taskbar to add the IE icon instead of the Edge icon.

To implement it:

  1. Download the file above and extract it and place it in your Package Source structure, the content of the file looks like this.
    Managetaskbar1
    The .cmd file will copy the following files to C:\Windows\ManageTaskbar where the Runonce command will run the Powershell script from.
    Managetaskbar2
  2. And then create a Package in Configuration Manager without a program and add use the folder created with the files as package source and distribute it to your DP’s.
  3. In your Task Sequence add the taskbar.cmd command using the Run Command Line task.
    Managetaskbar3
    Managetaskbar4
  4. Then you are ready to test it out.

The script will import the registry file, copy the ManageTaskBar folder and then restart the Explorer process so that the users TaskBar is updated. The Powershell windows will show for 2 seconds, this can be solved in different way’s like calling the Powershell script using a Vbscript.

In my deployment the TaskBar will look like this with some help from Group Policies after the script is implemented.

Managetaskbar5

I hope it is useful! I will post an how-to later in the week on how to use the same scripts to import a Custom Taskbar with an IE icon as well.

42 thoughts on “Removing the Edge icon from the Taskbar during OSD”

  1. Andrews says:
    December 4, 2015 at 4:49 pm

    Thumbs up! Great work!

    Reply
  2. Alan says:
    December 6, 2015 at 8:01 pm

    Thanks for this post. Can this be modified to remove both Edge and the Windows store icon? Looking forward to seeing your follow up on the custom task bar.

    Reply
    1. Jörgen Nilsson says:
      December 10, 2015 at 10:41 am

      Hi,
      The Store icon can be removed using a group policy which is the best way to do it..
      Regards,
      Jörgen

      Reply
  3. Raymond says:
    December 7, 2015 at 2:53 am

    Thanks heaps!

    Reply
  4. Tamir Levy says:
    December 7, 2015 at 3:09 pm

    Thanks Jorgan.
    I admit it’s the best thing I found so far, though it is still not a solution for Inplace-Upgrade.
    In an inplace-upgrade scenario users continue to use their existing profile without touching the default profile.
    The most annoying thing here is that Edge is being added to any taskbar of any profile (New or existing), so you get it, you just have no option to get rid of it automatically… even if the organization doesn’t going to use Edge at all…

    still trying to find an automation for removing this from any profile, either by group policy, logon script or any other method

    Reply
    1. Jörgen Nilsson says:
      December 10, 2015 at 10:36 am

      Hi,
      I have done that as well, run the same script using a Schedule Task, run it as log on instead then it will run for each user regardless of existing profile or not.
      Regards,
      Jörgen

      Reply
  5. francis frialde says:
    December 8, 2015 at 8:27 am

    Hi Jorgen,

    Greate post by the way. Script perfectly works in our enviroment if user have admin rights on the machine. For our standard account, where regedit was disabled, the script will not be able to import the current user registries. Any workaround that you can give? Thanks

    Reply
    1. Jörgen Nilsson says:
      December 10, 2015 at 10:32 am

      Hi,
      You could re-write it so the scripts writes the keys instead of importing them with reg.exe
      /Jörgen

      Reply
  6. Raymond says:
    December 10, 2015 at 2:43 am

    @Tamir

    Looks do-able.

    1.Export the taskband key, figure out which part of it relates to edge and store.

    2. Use the Run Once key to run a script which exports taskband, finds/replaces the section from part 1, Restart explorer.

    ———————————————————————————————-
    I’ve figured out the part which does the edge and store icon. I just can’t find/replace. If I could get that part sorted, then I’d have the working solution

    Reply
  7. Pingback: Customizing the Taskbar in Windows 10 during OSD - CCMEXEC.COM – System Center blog
  8. Arnaldo says:
    December 11, 2015 at 2:34 pm

    Is there a way to run this script (Taskband.ps1) at each new created user profile’s first logon when using sysprep?

    Reply
  9. Pingback: » Removing the Edge icon from the Taskbar during OSDKlient.nu
  10. Simon says:
    December 30, 2015 at 2:07 pm

    Nice, I does what it’s supposed to 🙂

    Is there any way to use this solution to also ADD pinned apps to taskbar?
    I”ve tried messing around with the scripts to add IE and Outlook 2016.

    I’ve added the two shortcuts (.lnk) to the source folder (\ManageTaskbar\….\Taskbar\) and also replaced the TaskBandCU.reg with a file that was exported from the reference user. The script runs once, Edge disapears but all that is added are two broken blank pinned shortcuts.

    Best Regards,
    Simon

    Reply
  11. Pingback: Windows 10 – Retirer l’icône Edge de la barre de tache. – Les2t.fr Blog IT – TRARBACH Jean-Yves et THONON Stéphane
  12. Eddie Rio says:
    January 29, 2016 at 9:57 pm

    It does replace the Edge icon with IE but only if the user is member of the administrators group, otherwise is just delete the Edge icon.

    Reply
    1. Jörgen Nilsson says:
      February 1, 2016 at 10:02 pm

      Hi,
      I haven’t seen that, it works great on all my customers, are you deploying any Powershell restriction, applocker policies? COuld be a timing issue as well, so that the script runs before the taskbar is loaded the first time.
      /Jörgen

      Reply
  13. Malo says:
    February 23, 2016 at 12:35 am

    Hello Jorgen,

    Nice a job!

    What must I do to integrate this in a SYSPREP image? Shoud I run the .cmd on First running commands in my Unattend (XML) file?

    Regards,

    Malory

    Reply
  14. Joeq says:
    March 15, 2016 at 2:45 am

    I see an issue with it. When the user first logs in and the script run, the start menu stops responding until the users logs out and logs back in again.
    Is there any way to either fix that problem or else make a workaround by adding a restart command to the script so the PC reboots automatically after the task bar is reset?
    Maybe just restarting explorer.exe might work?
    The ps1 script ends at “Stop-Process -ProcessName explorer -Force” but that seems to make the Start menu unresponsive.

    Reply
    1. Jörgen Nilsson says:
      March 21, 2016 at 2:28 pm

      Hi,
      It shouldn’t have to be used, I added the restart of explorer.exe so that it would load the new taskbar and haven’t seen any issues with it..
      /Jörgen

      Reply
  15. simon says:
    March 24, 2016 at 8:25 pm

    Hi – am interested also in your defaultapps task sequence step, do you have any info on how you achieve this at all?

    thanks 🙂

    Reply
  16. Activitymonitor says:
    April 6, 2016 at 12:43 am

    I am looking for a cleaner/simpler way to accomplish this.

    What do you think about changing the permissions on the Taskband registry key so Edge never gets added to begin with?

    Reply
  17. Harmen says:
    April 19, 2016 at 5:20 pm

    Jorgen.

    Thanks for this one it worked like a charm.

    Sincerely,
    Harmen

    Reply
  18. Stan says:
    June 2, 2016 at 10:32 pm

    Any way to do with without using config manager for default user only?

    Thanks!

    Reply
  19. Mr_ZT says:
    June 22, 2016 at 9:35 am

    Thanks Jörgen for sharing this with us, i have used your work as a basis for a vbscript i have written that can be placed in the default users startup folder that will run, remove edge and clean itself up all within a single file, thought i would post it here in case anyone finds use for it.

    http://pastebin.com/UUkYRVJZ

    Reply
    1. Robert says:
      August 29, 2017 at 5:32 pm

      This works well thank you! However, shouldn’t the file stay in the default startup folder? That way it can run for all new users the first time they login? Seems like it was staying there before but now after logging in with a couple of users and it worked, I am logging in with an admin account and the vbs is not in the default folder anymore.

      Reply
  20. Jesse I Barron says:
    August 11, 2016 at 5:56 pm

    Jörgen, I just noticed this is changing the Desktop link in Quick access to always point to default user, no matter who logged in. Any ideas of what i did wrong? I narrowed it down to this TS. It is running perfectly otherwise, the users taskbar is perfect, but that users quick access will have a desktop link to the default user account, not their own account.

    J

    Reply
  21. Tobias says:
    September 8, 2016 at 8:00 pm

    Thank you Mr_ZT for your script! And thank you Jörgen for your initial work!

    Microsoft keeps creating the Edge and Store icons in the Task Bar after their updates… 🙁

    Those scripts needs to be runned after every MS-update that adds the icon, but at the same time, some users might want the icon so that can be an issue.

    Reply
  22. JonG says:
    November 18, 2016 at 11:48 pm

    @Mr_ZT the VBS script works beautifully to remove the Edge icon! Many thanks!

    Reply
  23. Gizmo says:
    January 18, 2017 at 2:37 am

    Muchas Gracias Mr_ZT,
    Your VBS script cleaned that Ms Edge trash from the taskbar instantly.
    Ditto what JonG said.

    Reply
  24. RichardC says:
    March 9, 2017 at 10:45 am

    Great work, it removes the Edge icon but not the Cortana search bar. What do i need to change for it to do that?

    Reply
  25. Matt Dillon says:
    March 16, 2017 at 4:53 pm

    Fantastic work!! Love the PowerShell script and the Stop-Process. This was the only way I could get this process to work without forcing the user to log off. This is so much simpler than the convoluted process my predecessor left me. Thank you so much!

    Reply
  26. QWade says:
    March 16, 2017 at 5:50 pm

    I have great success with this when performing a clean OSD but it fails to work when used with the in place upgrade TS. Anyone tried this with that scenario?

    Reply
  27. Rahul Jindal says:
    April 24, 2017 at 1:37 pm

    Excellent solution. Worked flawlessly. Thank you.

    Reply
  28. ErikN says:
    June 16, 2017 at 3:21 pm

    Still works like a charm on Windows 10 (1607)!

    Reply
  29. ErikN says:
    August 9, 2017 at 11:12 am

    (Also) Still works on Windows 10 Creators Update (1703) !

    Reply
  30. Jeff D says:
    September 6, 2017 at 6:52 pm

    How does this work with MDT Workbench and WDS? Anyone tried it?

    Reply
    1. Jörgen Nilsson says:
      September 10, 2017 at 9:18 am

      Hi,
      It will work as there are no System Context permissions required in the script, local admin is enough when it is added to the folders/registry.
      Regards,
      Jörgen

      Reply
  31. Jay says:
    December 6, 2017 at 4:15 pm

    Where te hell do i place the task in de task sequence? 🙁
    Every place i put it , it gives back an error in de task sequence..

    Reply
    1. Jörgen Nilsson says:
      December 6, 2017 at 4:18 pm

      Hi,
      I normally run it near the end, it must be run in the full OS.
      Regards,
      Jörgen

      Reply
      1. Jay says:
        December 7, 2017 at 7:50 am

        Thank you sir! !

        Reply
  32. Tim Bailen says:
    May 10, 2019 at 8:54 pm

    As of Windows 10 build 1607, the recommended way to do this is with a layout customization XML file. See https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/configuration/configure-windows-10-taskbar

    Reply
  33. juston roca says:
    September 26, 2019 at 10:23 pm

    The will not be able to change it then. The point is to allow users to change but also remove Edge icon.

    Reply

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My name is Jörgen Nilsson and I work as a Senior Consultant at Onevinn in Malmö, Sweden. This is my blog where I will share tips and stuff for my own and everyone elses use on Enterprise Mobility and Windows related topics.
All code is provided "AS-IS" with no warranties.

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