SOLVED: How To Disable Edge Icon Tab in Internet Explorer

If you have Windows 10 1703 or newer your Internet Explorer will have a “Edge Tab” to the right of your “new tab” tab.  This means people will frequently launch the Edge Browser when they are really trying to open a new tab.  Microsoft calls this ‘assisting people to migrate to the new Edge Browser’.  I call it obnoxious and want to remove it so I can keep our corporate standard of a single browser, IE11, for at least another year.

To disable the Edge icon from Internet Explorer 11 you can:

1. GUI: Internet Explorer > Click the Cog in the top right corner (TOOLS) > INTERNET OPTIONS > ADVANCED >HIDE THE BUTTUN (…) THAT OPENS EDGE
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2. REGISTRY: HKEY_CURRENT_USER > SOFTWARE > POLICIES > MICROSOFT > INTERNET EXPLORER > MAIN > regdword “HideNewEdgeButton” = 1
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3. GPO: USER CONFIGURATION > POLICIES > ADMINISTRATIVE TEMPLATES > WINDOWS COMPONENTS > INTERNET EXPLORER > INTERNET SETTINGS > ADVANCED SETTINGS > BROWSING > HIDE THE BUTTON (next to the New Tab button) THAT OPENS MICROSOFT EDGE
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   To get the GPO to function you need to have the 1703 or newer ADMX templates which you can download directly from Microsoft HERE.