Disable or Remove "Desktop App Viewer"

Hi forum.

Whenever I open Edge, the DPA (Desktop App Viewer) process starts as a background process. Does anybody know how to disable it (or remove it)? I don't know if it has something to do with "Microsoft Edge WebView2 Runtime" or PWA. I never use PWA. I uninstalled that, but it comes with the next Edge update automatically!

How many sites do you have 'installed' to the desktop in Edge, any at all?

I mentioned I never use PWA, they are useless for me.

I found you can't use the Teams UWP app without the WebView thing!

I don't use Teams and have it uninstalled. That's something with PWA or Widgets. I have no PWA app installed (I hate them), also have Widgets disabled (not uninstalled yet).

No idea what PAWs are. Read somewhere it's something to do with Outlook and Office maybe?

As @johnlgalt said, they are installed apps (websites) from Edge browser (Progressive Web Apps). The websites you install, work as a dedicated desktop app!!! (just a link with a window and dedicated UI! Mini browser).

atinfo said:

As @johnlgalt said, they are installed apps (websites) from Edge browser (Progressive Web Apps). The websites you install, work as a dedicated desktop app!!! (just a link with a window and dedicated UI! Mini browser).

Click to expand...

Ah.. Progressive Web Apps. Don't know if you use Office web apps maybe?

I had spelling mistake (now I have edited them) in my first posts, the acronym is PWA not PAW ! I use my sister's Office LTSC 2021 (October update) because I hate O365's Fresh UI and Office Web Apps, I never use them, just love its (Office Web) simplified ribbon.

atinfo said:

I had spelling mistake (now I have edited them) in my first posts, the acronym is PWA not PAW ! I use my sister's Office LTSC 2021 (October update) because I hate O365's Fresh UI and Office Web Apps, I never use them, just love its (Office Web) simplified ribbon.

Click to expand...

I should have caught that, as many times as I make spelling typing mistakes myself lol. My bad.

I checked with my profile dedicated to work, and I have none of those at all. I have plenty of tabs that have "Dedicated Workers" and "Service Workers" but not those Desktop App Viewer items at all.

Another thought - do you have Edge set to continue running in the background?

edge://settings/system - copy pasta into your browser addressbar, or else Open Settings --> System and Performance --> Continue running background extensions ...

johnlgalt said:

I should have caught that, as many times as I make spelling typing mistakes myself lol. My bad.

Click to expand...

Another problem is my native language isn't English/British, and my unconscious was telling me to type PAW, probably because I play a lot with my (and my sister's) cat's paws these days... I have PAW in my brain's dictionary, not PWA!

johnlgalt said:

Another thought - do you have Edge set to continue running in the background?

edge://settings/system - copy pasta into your browser addressbar, or else Open Settings --> System and Performance --> Continue running background extensions ...

Click to expand...

No. The first thing I do after a clean install is customising the Edge. The first thing I changed in (Edge) settings was disabling "Startup boost" and "Continue running background...". I don't like background processes and the startup of any app! Just Windows native Services, Process and Startup (Drivers ...), nothing more.

I don't play games anymore cause my system doesn't meet the latest version of my favourite games' requirements (I am crazy about Dirt and F1, DIRT is my absolute love). I don't know if "Game efficiency mode" has something to do with my problem or not. I think the default was on, and I didn't turn it off.

It's weird, then, that I don't see any of those instances and yet you do.

You could try this cumbersome method to see if it helps.

1. Bookmark all your open tabs into a single folder (CTRL + SHIFT + D is the shortcut for that).
   
   
2. Close all your tabs, then close and restart Edge with no other tabs open other than the new tab. If those processes still exist / start to repopulate with no other tabs open, go to step 4.
   
   
3. See if those items still exist. If not, then, one by one, open one of your saved tabs and see if the items start populating. If not, restart Edge again with that one tab still there, verify the processes don't start populating, then open a second of those bookmarked tabs. Repeat until you find the culprit. If none of them causes the issue, then you can also try the next step.
   
   
4. Disable all of your addons, and then do a similar process, where you restart Edge, then enable one addon, and see if the processes return. If not, restart Edge, verify again, then enable a second addon. Repeat until you find the culprit.

Now, if none of this makes them appear, but they appear later on, something *else* is probably also running somewhere access Edge for whatever reason. But I suspect it's something in Edge itself, not an external factor, because of the number of instances of that Desktop process that your screenshot shows.

Now, a much *easier* way to test all of this in one shot is to simply make a brand new profile and then switch to it (do not log in to sync anything, since this is going to be a test profile).

Keep us posted.

I did step 1, that was there:



I did step 4, that was there:



I don't think it's about Edge. I suspect that's Widgets. I will do a test tomorrow (I have to go to sleep, cause have to wake up early morning). I will post the result here.

Autorun inspection:

Photoshop!!! I found out by chance! Task Manager was open, Ps opened and then DAWV (Desktop App Web Viewer) was there. I am wondering how Ps calls the DAWV from here C:\Windows\SystemApps\Microsoft.Win32WebViewHost_cw5n1h2txyewy ! Why?! I have no extension or plugin installed in Ps. I am sure it has nothing to do with Ps, something else has woken it up. I have not seen this collaboration before (22H2)!