Solved Should a game start Edge and Edge Gaming Assist running as background processes?

In Edge Settings>System & Performance>System plus Edge Settings>System & Performance>Performance I have everything disabled. In Task Scheduler I have the two standard Edge scheduled tasks disabled. In Services I have the three standard Edge services disabled. There is nothing else to disable to stop Edge from running as a background processes.

After I disabled all of these things, yesterday when I started the PC, Edge did not start as a App and did not start running in the background as a process and Edge Gaming Assist was not running as a background process. Late in the morning I noticed that Edge and Edge Gaming Assist were running as background processes again.

Today I was able to figure it out, when you start the Elite Dangerous client from the Elite Dangerous launcher (press the "Play" button in the launcher) Edge and Edge Gaming assist starts running as background processes. See the below video. At time stamp 0:58 - 1:01 you can see that first Edge Gaming Assist starts and then Edge.

Personally I don't think Elite Dangerous should be starting Edge and Edge Gaming Assist running as a background processes. After I figured this out I also found out Edge and Edge Gaming Assist started running in the background from Steam launching my X Foundations game.

Below the video are screenshots of what has been disabled in Edge, Task Scheduler and Services.

Microsoft has designed several system features that use Edge components even when you’re not actively browsing. That’s why you often see Edge processes lingering in Task Manager.

My advice would be to ignore it. I can’t imagine what harm it’s doing, especially on your system which is more than capable of running background processes without them having an impact..

Also, it would be Edge/Windows doing this as a result of detecting a game, not the game requesting Edge. That would be my guess.

antspants said:

Also, it would be Edge/Windows doing this as a result of detecting a game, not the game requesting Edge. That would be my guess.

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Thanks!

@idahosurge

Here's ten points just for filling out your computer specs.

antspants said:

I can’t imagine what harm it’s doing

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Edge sometimes causes my games to lag, even though I have GPU for it disabled.
Once I close Edge, games stop lagging, no other browser causes such a behavior.
For illustration: Edge with a new tab compared to Brave running youtube video.

Uninstalled Edge Game Assist and it stopped Edge and Edge Game Assist from running in the background when I launched Elite Dangerous, marking this thread as solved.

While I was at it I also uninstalled Game Bar and XBox.