Windows does not recognize Edge.

Windows does not recognize Edge.
When playing a video on sites like YouTube and clicking the sound icon in the taskbar, Windows displays Edge as an “unknown application.”


Resetting Edge settings or performing a repair install does not resolve the issue; the only solution is to delete the User Data folder:

%localappdata%\Microsoft\Edge\User Data

Click to expand...

This issue reoccurs after deleting the Edge profile several times and then signing in with a Microsoft Account.
Has anyone else experienced this problem?



Update-
When I tried to reproduce the issue just now, I realized that deleting the User Data folder no longer resolves it. That's strange — I’m pretty sure deleting that folder used to fix the problem not long ago.

I suspect the issue lies with the command line.
When I run Edge from
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\Edge\Application\msedge.exe"
no problem occurs.
However, when I run Edge with
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\Edge\Application\msedge.exe" --profile-directory="Profile 1"
the problem occurs.
This command line is automatically added to the taskbar shortcut.

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\Edge\Application\msedge.exe" --profile-directory=Default is the path on my taskbar icon.
Does Edge run correctly from the all apps list?? If it does, unpin the current shortcut from the taskbar, right click on Edge in all apps list and select pin to taskbar.

glasskuter said:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\Edge\Application\msedge.exe" --profile-directory=Default is the path on my taskbar icon.
Does Edge run correctly from the all apps list?? If it does, unpin the current shortcut from the taskbar, right click on Edge in all apps list and select pin to taskbar.

Click to expand...

Hi, Thanks for replying.

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\Edge\Application\msedge.exe" --profile-directory=Default is the path of the shortcut on my taskbar.

Click to expand...

Yes, this is a normal shortcut link, and I couldn’t figure out why this issue was happening on my PC.

When I re-add Edge to the taskbar, the shortcut initially just points to msedge.exe, but as soon as I launch Edge even once from that shortcut, the command line option gets automatically added.

Based on this(reddit.com) information, I tried deleting registry entries and clearing the Temp and %Temp% folders, and that resolved the issue.


For now, I’ve sent feedback to Edge and hope that Microsoft will fix the issue.