Multiple Microsoft Edges in Task Manager

Question

I am having the same experience as many others.  Many entries for Microsoft Edge in Task Manager.

How to I get rid of them?  Should I?

Also, frequently Edge will not start or takes an unbelievably long time to do so.

I have much less problem with Chrome.

Answer 1

Many entries for Microsoft Edge in Task Manager. How to I get rid of them?  Should I?

That rather depends on whether they're normal entries or abnormal ones ... In Edge, press Shift-Escape* to open the browser's own task manager, which will show you what each of those many msedge.exe processes is doing. You'll see that the program itself only uses one process, but in addition each Windows service that the browser's using runs in its own process - the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), network, audio and so on. Each tab runs in its own process, so that if one of them crashes for whatever reason, the remainder can still soldier on regardless. Each active extension will also run in its own process, so if you have a lot of them this might explain why you see a large number of processes in Task Manager. 

The slow start up could have any number of causes: synchronization if there are many new items to sync, scanning by third-party anti-malware programs, extensions of all types that take resources to initiate. Again, the browser task manager may give you clues. 

* The option to start the BTM is on the window control menu, which you can open by right-clicking on the title bar or by pressing Alt-Spacebar.