MSEdgeRedirect: Sending Windows Widgets, News and Search to Your Default Browser

What MSEdgeRedirect actually intercepts

Windows routes a set of system surfaces through Edge: the search box, the widgets panel, news and weather tiles, and any link that calls the microsoft-edge: URI. On a machine where Edge is not the default browser, those surfaces still open Edge, because they do not go through the default browser association at all. MSEdgeRedirect targets that gap. The README describes the approach plainly: the tool "filters and passes the command line arguments of Microsoft Edge processes into your default browser instead of hooking into the microsoft-edge: handler". That distinction matters more than it sounds. Hooking the protocol handler means registering yourself as the thing Windows calls for microsoft-edge:, which is what older tools of this kind did, and which breaks whenever Microsoft changes the registration. Reading the arguments that Edge was launched with means the interception point sits one layer further down, and the README argues this "should provide resiliency against future changes". The audience is narrow and specific: Windows 10 and 11 users who have already set a different default browser and are annoyed that widgets and search ignore that choice. The README also states there is "No Default App walkthrough or other steps, just set and forget", which is the pitch. It does not claim to change results inside other applications, and the FAQ says so explicitly.

Two modes: command line filtering and Image File Execution Options

The primary mechanism is the argument filter. Edge processes are observed at launch, their command line is parsed, and the URL is extracted and handed to the default browser. Because the tool works on arguments rather than on a protocol registration, it sees the same launch that Windows itself performs. The README notes that an "Image File Execution Options mode is available to operate similarly to the Old EdgeDeflector", and that "Additional modes are planned for future versions". IFEO is a Windows mechanism that lets a debugger be attached to a named executable; tools have long used it to substitute a launcher for a target binary. The README frames it as the compatibility path for people who want the older behaviour. The repository layout is consistent with a single-binary AutoIt program: MSEdgeRedirect.au3 is the main script, MSEdgeRedirect_Wrapper.au3 is a second entry point, and Includes/ and Assets/ hold supporting files. There is no service, no driver and no background daemon described in the README. That is a design trade-off worth naming: a user-mode process that watches launches is easier to remove and harder for the operating system to treat as an integrity violation, but it also means the tool has to be running for redirection to happen.

Installing MSEdgeRedirect and confirming it works

The README lists three package managers alongside the direct download. Chocolatey, Scoop and winget are all supported, and the README gives the exact commands for each. For Chocolatey, the command is a single line, and the package name is lowercase.

choco install msedgeredirect

Scoop needs the extras bucket added before the package is visible, which is two commands rather than one.

scoop bucket add extras
scoop install msedgeredirect

winget installs it directly from the Microsoft-maintained manifest repository.

winget install MSEdgeRedirect

The README also links a direct MSEdgeRedirect.exe download from the latest GitHub release, and a separate testing build from a nightly link. After installation, the README's own troubleshooting step doubles as the acceptance test: open the Run dialog with Windows + R and enter the microsoft-edge: URI for a site.

microsoft-edge:https://google.com

If that URL opens in your default browser rather than Edge, the redirection path is working. If it opens Edge, the README says to file a bug report. That is a useful property of this project: the failure state is visible in one command, with no log file to inspect. The README does not describe a settings UI walkthrough, and it does not document a command line flag for the tool itself, so the install section above is the whole of the documented setup.

Where MSEdgeRedirect stops working

The most important limitation is stated by the project itself. The README carries a warning that "MSEdgeRedirect is still BETA", with the note that "Changes are to be expected, and performance to be improved". A tool that sits between a system surface and a browser is exposed to any change Microsoft makes to how Edge is launched, and the release history shows the shape of that exposure: 0.7.5.2 and 0.7.5.3 both landed in December 2023 as hotfixes, and the 0.8.0.0 release in March 2025 was titled with a rebuttal to "reports of my project's discontinuation". The last push to the repository was on 2026-06-24, which is a real signal about how current the code is, though the README still labels the project BETA. The second limitation is scope. The FAQ is direct: "MSEdgeRedirect only redirects links that attempt to open in MS Edge. It will not affect results generated within other applications." If your problem is Bing results inside a third-party app, this tool does not address it. The third is platform. The system requirements table lists Windows 10 as the minimum and the latest Windows 11 build as recommended, with no other operating system mentioned anywhere in the README. If you are not on Windows, this project has nothing for you. Finally, the README does not document a rollback path beyond uninstalling, and it does not describe what happens to in-flight redirections when the tool is disabled.

Search engine substitution and the Edge removal question

Two features go beyond plain redirection. The first is search engine replacement: the FAQ states that "as of 0.5.0.0, you can select One of 8 available Search Engines, or set your own". That means the tool is not only moving the request to another browser, it can rewrite the destination for search traffic. The second is behaviour on machines where Edge has been removed. The README says MSEdgeRedirect is compatible with AveYo's Edge Removal script "as it retains a needed component", and it gives a specific recovery procedure if Edge was removed by some other method: reinstall Edge Stable, run AveYo's tool, then install MSEdgeRedirect, which "will be detected automatically". That is an unusually concrete dependency to state in a README, and it tells you the tool expects a particular residual Edge component to exist. The README also points elsewhere for people who want a different trade-off. It recommends AveYo's ChrEdgeFckOff for users "Not looking for Extra Features", and krlvm's BeautySearch for those "Looking to Disable Web Search Entirely", with a comparison chart in the project wiki. Recommending alternatives in your own README is a reasonable signal about what the author thinks the tool is and is not.

How MSEdgeRedirect differs from protocol-handler tools

The obvious alternative is the class of tools that register themselves as the handler for microsoft-edge:. The README names the historical example directly, describing the IFEO mode as operating "similarly to the Old EdgeDeflector". The difference in approach is where the interception happens. A protocol handler tool owns the URI scheme, so Windows calls it directly and the tool decides what to do; the trade-off is that the scheme registration is a known surface that Microsoft can change or reset, and a reset silently returns you to Edge. MSEdgeRedirect instead reads the arguments Edge was launched with and redirects from there, which the README argues "should provide resiliency against future changes" precisely because the URI handler is left alone. The cost of that choice is that Edge still has to be launched for the arguments to be observed, and the tool depends on the shape of those arguments staying stable. ChrEdgeFckOff is a different kind of answer again: it is a batch script rather than an installed program, so there is no persistent component to maintain, but also no search engine substitution or settings surface. BeautySearch targets web search specifically rather than the broader set of Edge-launched surfaces. None of these is strictly better; they sit at different points between minimal intervention and feature coverage.

Licence, maintenance and what an upgrade costs

MSEdgeRedirect is licensed under LGPL-3.0, and the README describes it as "free and open source software". LGPL is a copyleft licence with a linking exception aimed at libraries; applying it to a standalone AutoIt executable is an unusual fit, and anyone redistributing a modified build or bundling it into a larger product should read LICENSE rather than assume the terms are the same as MIT. This is a description of the licence text, not legal advice. On maintenance: the repository is not archived, and the last push was on 2026-06-24, so the code has seen activity within the last few months. Release cadence is uneven. 0.7.5.2 and 0.7.5.3 arrived nine days apart in December 2023, then 0.8.0.0 arrived in March 2025, roughly fifteen months later. For an upgrade, the practical cost is low for package manager users: choco upgrade, scoop update and winget upgrade all follow the same package names used at install. The README does not document a migration process between major versions, and it does not describe whether settings survive an upgrade, so a settings export before moving from 0.7.x to 0.8.x is not something the documentation can confirm either way. Uninstall is documented for all three package managers, plus a Cleanup Tool PowerShell script for corrupted installs, which the README links from the repository's Assets directory.

Editorial conclusion

MSEdgeRedirect suits Windows 10 and 11 users who want widget, news and search links to leave Edge without editing the microsoft-edge: handler themselves. It is the wrong tool if you need something outside Windows, if you want a supported Microsoft configuration path, or if you need documented rollback beyond the uninstall entries in the README. Verify two things first: that running microsoft-edge:https://google.com from the Windows + R dialog lands in your default browser, and that your Edge install is the one AveYo's Edge Removal expects if you have removed Edge at all. The README keeps the BETA warning and points at a comparison chart in the wiki rather than claiming feature parity with anything.

Frequently asked questions

Official sources

1. License: LGPL-3.0
2. Project website
3. rcmaehl/MSEdgeRedirect on GitHub
4. README
5. Releases