Tip: Install Another Web Browser without Using Microsoft Edge

We all know the joke: Most users only run Microsoft Edge once, to install the web browser they really want to use. But you don’t even need to use Edge once. You can install a web browser without going anywhere near Edge.

Here’s how.

Windows 11 includes a command line tool called the Windows Package Manager (winget.exe) that you can use to install, update, and uninstall apps from both the web—using the winget repository—and the Microsoft Store. I use winget to bulk install apps whenever I configure a new or recently-reset PC. And many of those apps, go figure, are web browsers.

To do this yourself, open Terminal. Then type the appropriate command line. For example, this will install Google Chrome, the most popular choice, from the winget repository:

winget install Google.Chrome -e


Any mainstream web browser—Chrome, Firefox, Brave, Vivaldi, Opera, even Arc browser—can be installed this way. Note that Store-based browsers (like Firefox in the example video) use an alphanumeric Id instead of a Name. But it’s the same process.