Windows, like any operating system, constantly manages and executes processes to make our computer work and that we can interact with it. However, there are times when there are processes that are there without any meaning. An example is your edge browsercurrently running on your PC, even if you’ve never opened it in your life.
Edge is the successor to Internet Explorer, a browser that dominated the market until its limitations and problems led to the creation of much more advanced applications that left Microsoft’s option far behind. A peculiarity that differentiates the new application from its predecessor is that it is not part of the operating system, despite the fact that Redmond says so.
Edge browser consumes resources without using them
Microsoft Edge is Microsoft’s current web browser, like Apple’s Safari and Google’s Chrome, it is based on Webkit engine. However, and this is something that very few people know, it is always running in the background. Even if the user has never run it on their PC or simply hasn’t opened it. How do we know? Well, for a simple visit to the Windows command line that gives us the hint that the Microsoft browser is running, even without us having the application activated.
The screenshot contains a series of interesting information, in total we have 8 running processes, 5 of them in unknown condition and 3 others working. At this very moment. Moreover, the third column tells us that it’s not a system service and therefore not something Windows needs to run. The motive behind this? Well, it seems to have to do with the browser extensions we installed on it. At least that’s the official explanation.
Since extraordinary claims require demonstrations of the same caliber, we decided to remove two previously installed extensions from our Edge browser. We closed this app and again encountered the same problem. A Microsoft Edge without extensions if consumed using the system and 200 MB of the RAM memory, so that we can save it for various gigas of memory, but its cycle of the malgastado CPU and part of the memory in order that we use it and tampoco the system.
How do we close Microsoft Edge?
Since the program is not displayed as open, we cannot see it in the task manager and therefore we cannot terminate its execution from the Windows graphical interface. So we have to do it from the command prompt or from its most advanced version, PowerShell. As always, accessing this part of Windows is simple:
- Simultaneously press the Windows and X keys.
- In the context menu that appears, select Power Shell (administrator) and the system symbol (administrator).
- After that the advantage will open in the command line, to close Microsoft Edge just type the following line: taskkill /f /IM msedge.exe.
- The terminal will inform us with a series of consecutive messages that all instances of msedge.exe have been closed.
What we will see next is something curious, we will see that the information on the taskbar regarding the temperature and the weather of the day begin to flash to be updated, as well as the set of news of the day that appears when we click on that. However, visiting the command line again will tell us that Microsoft Edge is no longer active.
Is Microsoft spying on us?
The answer is yes, but it’s not as crude as using the browser to do it, but rather the spying is done through a small processor that we don’t have access to and that Microsoft recently renewed and has been included in the latest AMD and Intel processors we are obviously talking about Pluto. On other older systems They exploit the TPM chip as a Trojan horse.
Instead, Windows 10 has a series of background apps that are always there, running, but no one uses. An example is a series of universal applications. An example of this is PhoneExperienceHost, which is used to synchronize our mobile phone with the PC. In this case, it is easy to remove the application, but with Microsoft Edge, the argument is that the system uses it for certain key functions. If that were the case, closing the app would cause the system to crash immediately, however, it doesn’t and it doesn’t try to reopen the app again.
On the contrary, the conclusions are that Edge is not really a crucial element of the system and Microsoft’s policy is rather based on an attempt to standardize its browser.
