Unpin the new Edge from Windows 10 taskbar with Powershell

Question

Here's the code I have been using... (and it's been working great!)

function DoUnpin([string]$appname) {
   $ErrorActionPreference = 'silentlycontinue'
    ((New-Object -Com Shell.Application).NameSpace('shell:::{4234d49b-0245-4df3-b780-3893943456e1}').Items() `
     | Where-Object { $_.Name -eq $appname }).Verbs() `
     | Where-Object { $_.Name.replace('&', '') -match 'Unpin from taskbar' } `
     | ForEach-Object { $_.DoIt(); }
   $ErrorActionPreference = 'continue'
}
DoUnpin "Microsoft Store"
DoUnpin "Mail"
DoUnpin "Store"
DoUnpin "Edge"
DoUnpin "Microsoft Edge"

But in the last couple weeks Microsoft has been rolling out the new Chromium-based Edge (the one with the swirly icon) and I have not been able to figure out how to unpin it without using the mouse/GUI.

Anyone have any inisght on as to why this might be?

Ricky Cobb III Ricky Cobb III · Accepted Answer · 2020-12-07T01:22:07

MS is getting sneakier with their edge-forcefulness. It is now saved (for new users on 20H2) in the Registry under:

"HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Taskband"

Under "Favorites."

That key is where the user modifications to the taskbar are saved. Since we want to remove Edge from there for new users just delete that Key and all values inside of it which will remove all taskbar customizations. If you have a custom LayoutModification.xml it will still apply your customizations without the forced pinned Edge shortcut in the Taskbar.

Remove-Item "HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Taskband" -Recurse -Force

Then just stop and restart the Explorer process and the shortcut is removed for the current user.

Stop-Process -Processname Explorer -WarningAction SilentlyContinue -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue -Force

If you want this to happen for all new users you can add a RunOnce key to the Default registry hive to run the above two commands.

Unpin the new Edge from Windows 10 taskbar with Powershell

2 Answers