Microsoft Edge includes a Discover feature that draws a Bing icon in the toolbar. Depending on your browser version, it may appear as a purple star icon. The button sits in the top right corner where the menu button used to be. if you find no use for the Discover feature, here is how to disable it.
A click on the "Discover" button opens an extra panel on the right that interacts with AI-powered Bing. It allows you to collect extra information on the topic of the current tab, regarding of its type. If you are browsing a web site, it will show you everything Bing knows about it, including the stats, links, and its competitors/similar projects.
The initial version of the Bing Discover feature supports two different modes. The "Chat" option allows receiving some brief description or summary view from what you are currently reading. Another mode, "Compose", adds something like writing assistant to your browser. It can generate some text based on your terms by using open data on the Internet as a source. It can also create a "similar code" in a different programming language if you give it a code snippet.
However, not everyone needs such a feature in the browser. Some users prefer a cleaner UI without extra elements they aren't going to use. Additionally, Discover in Edge shows notifications that are enabled by default, so it can be annoying.
Here's how to disable the Bing button / Discover feature in the Microsoft Edge browser. The methods depend on the browser version you have. The native option to disable the Bing button is available starting in Edge 111.0.1661.54, release on March 24, 2023.
Disable Discover in the Edge browser
Note: This method applies to Edge 111.0.1661.54 and above.
- Click on the Edge menu button (Alt + F), and select Settings from the menu.
- In Settings, click Sidebar on the left.
- On the right, find the App specific settings section, and click on Discover.
- Finally on the next page, turn off the Show Discover option. This will disable the Bing button instantly.
Done! You can undo the change at any moment by enabling the option you just disabled.
Method 2: Modify the Edge desktop shortcut
Note: This method applies to versions released prior to Edge 111.0.1661.54.
- Launch the Edge browser and click on the menu button (Alt + F).
- Select Settings from the menu.
- On the left, click on the System and performance section.
- In the right pane, disable the Startup boost option.
- Right-click the shortcut you use to open Microsoft Edge, e.g. its desktop shortcut.
- On the Shortcut tab, click in the Target target box and add the
--disable-features=msUndersideButtonargument after msedge.exe.
- Click Apply and OK to save the changes. Now, close all Edge windows and launch it using the modified shortcut. The Discover feature is now disabled!
You are done. You will no longer have the Discover feature and its traces in the browser.
Every time you launch Edge using the modified shortcut, it will no longer annoy with the Bing Discover feature. However, if you have multiple profiles in Edge, when switching between them Edge may modify its command line arguments and bring the button back. Also, when you click on links in Store apps, they will also open Edge without the msUndersideButton feature disabled, so you will see the Discover option again.
Please keep in mind that the method is not officially supported and can stop working with any browser update.
Disable Bing Button along with Sidebar
Alternative to the above reviewed method, you can use a Group Policy that Microsoft provides to disable the sidebar. By disabling the sidebar, you will get rid of the Bing button, as it is integral part of it.
Note: This method applies to all versions of Microsoft Edge.
To disable the Bing button and sidebar in Microsoft Edge, do the following.
- Right-click the Start button with the Windows icon in the taskbar, select Run, and type regedit in the Run box to open the Registry editor.
- Navigate to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft key.
- If you don't have the Edge folder under Microsoft, right-click the latter and select New > Key. Name it Edge.
- Now, right-click the Edge folder and select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value from the menu.
- Name the new value HubsSidebarEnabled, and leave its value data as 0.
- Now, restart the Edge browser. The Bing button will now disappear, along with the Sidebar.
You are done.
To undo the change, you can remove the HubsSidebarEnabled value you have created from the Registry.
Finally, to save your time, you can download the following ready-to-use REG files in a ZIP archive.
Extract the archive contents to any folder of your choice, for example, right to the desktop.
Now, open the Disable the sidebar and the Bing button.reg file, confirm the User Account Control prompt, and allow the Registry editor to make the change. I.e. you need to click on the Yes button in both prompts.
After you opened the REG file, you only need to restart the Edge browser to make it read the new policy values, and you are good to go.
The other file included in the ZIP archive, Enable the sidebar and the Bing button.reg, restores the defaults.
That's it. Thanks to our reader "tistou" for the second method.
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You can disable it by adding this registry key too
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Edge]
“HubsSidebarEnabled”=dword:00000000
It will completely disable the sidebar.
Thank you for completely removing this piece of bloatware.
and it’s awesome
Great. It works.
I cann’t find the hkey.
You need to create it manually
thank you, i through I can’t disable it but anyway it’s very annoying blue button so I come to search the solution for this and found out.
Working for me, thanks a lot!
Edge is slowly trying to look like Internet Explorer with the introduction of these buttons. Lately they just released the “HD” button on the address bar when you have “image enhancement” disabled. Pretty annoying and getting on my nerves. Why can’t Microsoft make Edge simple like Chromium? And why do we need this kind of workarounds just to hide this button.
Any idea who you do this on the Mac version?
Does not work
Yay, thanks! I don’t use side bar and that blue suddenly B button is just, it shouldn’t be there. Don’t suddenly appear, please. Anyway, thanks again, it works!
Is Microsoft completely stupid?! Who the hell asked for this!?
This did not work for me although I did exactly as indicated (and Edge is not present in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft).
I have Edge Version 111.0.1661.41 (Official build) (64-bit) on Windows 10.
I only have the one profile
The button is extremely annoying
The sidebar itself doesn’t show unless I hover on the button but I don’t want the actual button there at all.
>and Edge is not present in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft
You must create it manually
I wrote a small script that adds both the Edge key and the DWORD with correct value, if not already existing.
Feel free to use it my fellow IT people:
———————————————————-
# Set the location to the registry
Set-Location -Path ‘HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft’
# Create a new Key if not existing
$regkey=’HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\edge’
if (Get-Item -Path $regkey -ErrorAction Ignore)
{ write-host ‘The registry key already exist’ }
else
{ New-Item -Name ‘Edge’ -Force }
# Create new items with values if not existing
$regkey=’HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Edge’
$regparam=’HubsSidebarEnabled’
if (Get-ItemProperty -Path $regkey -Name $regparam -ErrorAction Ignore)
{ write-host ‘The registry entry already exist’ }
else
{ New-ItemProperty -Path $regkey -Name $regparam -Value ”0” -PropertyType “DWORD” }
# Get out of the Registry
Pop-Location
———————————————————-
Thank you!!!
One can simple go private mode as well – it’ll make the button desapear instantly.
I using windows 10 and creating edge folder and dword32 file (HubsSidebarEnabled) in registry works for me, thanks mate!
Dear Woman and Man!
Click on Shurtcurt to Target–disable-features=msUndersideButton.
With kind greetings!
But that’s exactly what this post says.
Muito obrigado!
Thanks a lot for this!
Thank You for the information, arm the little guy so that he may fight back. I use Opera most of the time anyway, but I like to arm myself with knowledge to defend myself against corporate tyranny.
It works, thank you.
Seems to me they added something useless in this update. They need to get rid of it. I can’t get the button to go away and don’t know enough even with the pictures to risk messing up my registry. Thanks for nothing Microsoft! What was in your mind? I use norton, and can’t stand bing!
In case anyone else has a dumb moment like I did…
The registry key you need to add is
HubsSidebarEnabled
not
HubSidebarEnabled
For some reason until the fourth try I did not see that ‘hubs’ was plural.
Thank you so much for posting these solutions!
You are welcome!
It is indeed HubsSidebarEnabled.
Thank You.
Nothing else seemed to work besides the Registry Key.