Forum Discussion
Which update impact might Edge Enterprise have if running a non updated 'MicrosoftEdgeUpdate.exe'?
KenChong (again & other insiders interested as well...)
In addition to correcting my last week reply (Sep 18 2021 07:05 AM) with main KB article I was really considering with Edge known update statuses, I can finally confirm I found a definitive answer also to my last past assumption about the (annoying) always indefinitely rolling icon seen while 'Checking for updates' remained displayed forever.
That was indeed another issue and only today I also definitely discovered it was related to running a 'partially only' updated 'MicrosoftEdgeUpdate.exe' (again by 'partially only' I mean to indeed have previous 'MicrosoftEdgeUpdate.exe' v1.3.147.37 still running one together with only its main supporting DLL 'msedgeupdate.dll' correctly updated to v1.3.151.27 as expected, but nevertheless and strangely enough :-s 😛 inside 1st main log file listed below reported version is v1.3.151.27).
So for everyone's sake here's how I found it out and then finally & definitely solved it (apologies in advance if it may seem long, but I'm already summarizing all at my best).
At first I had to spent quite some time checking contents of the 2 main log files updated regularly (C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\EdgeUpdate\Log\MicrosoftEdgeUpdate.log) and only during updates (C:\Windows\Temp\msedge_installer.log) and since 1st file still continued to be updated properly even while 'Checking for updates' status never changed and I indeed received Edge updates, I decided to only focus on it.
So this (early) morning I found which component ('MicrosoftEdgeUpdate.exe' /broker) normally logging inside it, instead stopped updating it properly (since 08/20) even if it was still running since then (& probably simply just stuck in memory).
After checking all handles it had open (& luckily not locking itself either), I renamed it then copied its updated v1.3.151.27 version in same execution path (C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\EdgeUpdate\MicrosoftEdgeUpdate.exe) and assigned same file ownership (SYSTEM) of old file, then manually forced closing all few handles it still had opened (those listed by handle64 SysInternals as File at 1st, then all remaining listed as Section) and finally forced closing it.
I was also quite surprised to see that it self-started running again for about 14minutes more, but this time it was indeed v1.3.151.27 updated version and at the end it also properly quitted from memory (as typically expectable and already done in the past).
At the end I started Edge (still v93.0.961.52) then opened Settings -> Help and feedback -> About Microsoft Edge and voilà 'Checking for updates' status changed almost immediately since it found a new update and started downloading it, so once it completed I pressed (expected) [ Restart ] button and so now I'm already on v94.0.992.31 😄 (but quite strangely enough new 'welcome tab' that self opened still looks empty).
Regards
Rob
SwimmeRM I can confirm your findings, that the copy of MicrosoftEdgeUpdate.exe is not the latest version (mine is 1.3.117.15) with the latest one resides in a folder, and the same is true for Google Update, so I will expect this is the default behavior. I have no problems updating both browsers so far, if you cannot update you may want to do a repair.
Process Explorer screenshot showing the MicrosoftEdgeUpdate.exe running.
Yes, Edge and Chrome are installed in "Program Files (x86)" while they are already 64-bit...
Regards,
Ken
KenChongagain
(this time after proper selection of Reply to you in this page and save method for this post ),
Ok, I think I made another repro and then found another known method that enables back those 2 msedge.exe background instances to run again.
This time it was enough to visualize 'Help and feedback' -> 'About Microsoft Edge' (so edge://settings/help) where rolling icon and 'Checking for updates' message is displayed to ensure that 1st 2 running instances of msedge.exe change color in SysInternals Process Explorer from brown background (typical for Jobs) to light gray background (typical for Own Processes) and then still remain running in background when closing all MS Edge windows.
Once again to revert back to having no msedge.exe background instances always running is :
A) I found this part to always be the fastest to use (because of the 2 automated Edge self Restarts) if the 2 background instances were mistakely enabled (in 1st step) or are left around anyway but they are obviously not needed (i.e. avoiding unneeded dumps when resuming laptop left suspended into memory was my need)
- always ensure that 'Open tabs from the previous session' is enabled properly,
- enable 'Continue running background extensions and apps when Microsoft Edge is closed' and contemporarily disable 'Use hardware acceleration when available',
- then choose [ Restart ] button that appears below 'Use hardware acceleration when available',
- then when Edge has restarted from same settings page disable 'Continue running background extensions and apps when Microsoft Edge is closed' and enable 'Use hardware acceleration when available',
- then choose [ Restart ] button that again appears below 'Use hardware acceleration when available', and voilà 😄
B) this part will work this way if the 2 background instances were mistakely enabled (in 1st step) but are obviously not needed (i.e. avoiding unneeded dumps when resuming laptop left suspended into memory)
- always ensure that 'Open tabs from the previous session' is enabled properly,
- enable both 'Continue running background extensions and apps when Microsoft Edge is closed' and 'Use hardware acceleration when available',
- then choose [ Restart ] button that appears below 'Use hardware acceleration when available',
- then when Edge has restarted from same settings page disable 'Continue running background extensions and apps when Microsoft Edge is closed' and leave 'Use hardware acceleration when available' still enabled,
- then close settings tab, check that 'Open tabs from the previous session' was enabled properly then close Edge again;
C) probably easier to accomplish if the 2 msedge.exe background running instances were just simply enabled by displaying 'Checking for updates' and 'Continue running background extensions and apps when Microsoft Edge is closed' was disabled while only 'Use hardware acceleration when available' was still enabled,
- always ensure that 'Open tabs from the previous session' is enabled properly,
- still leaving 'Continue running background extensions and apps when Microsoft Edge is closed' disabled also disable 'Use hardware acceleration when available',
- then choose [ Restart ] button that appears below 'Use hardware acceleration when available',
- but please note that at this point Edge will indeed close but will just not restart automatically (this is what happened to me few minutes ago :-(( also with the 2 msedge.exe instances still running),
- then manually restart Edge and enable 'Use hardware acceleration when available',
- then choose [ Restart ] button that appears below 'Use hardware acceleration when available',
Last final step common for both A & B & C)
- at this point with SysInternals Process Explorer it's easy to check that no msedge.exe instances remain still running 8-) (after this you can obviously manually restart Edge once again if needing to continue working with it or you simply just can't live without it... :-o)
Regards
Rob