If Microsoft Edge crashes due to a buggy website or a memory leak, or if your Windows PC suddenly reboots to install a system update, the browser has a built-in recovery mechanism. The next time you open Edge, it will immediately attempt to automatically restore every single tab you had open before the crash.
While this is helpful if you were in the middle of researching a topic, it can be a massive problem. If the crash was actually caused by a malicious script or a memory-hogging webpage in one of those tabs, automatically restoring the session will instantly crash the browser again, locking you in a permanent, inescapable loop.
If you prefer to start with a fresh, clean slate every time you launch the browser, you can disable the crash recovery feature.
How to Disable Automatic Tab Restore
You can turn off this behavior in the Edge startup settings.
- Open the Microsoft Edge browser. (If it is currently crash-looping, try disconnecting from the internet first so the tabs fail to load).
- Click the three horizontal dots (Settings and more) in the top-right corner.
- Select Settings from the drop-down menu.
- In the left-hand navigation sidebar, click on Start, home, and new tabs.
- Look for the section labeled “When Microsoft Edge starts.”
- You will see three options. Ensure that Open a new tab page is selected.
- Crucially, look below this section for a toggle switch (or checkbox in older versions) related to crash recovery, sometimes labeled as Restore tabs after a crash. (Note: Microsoft frequently moves this specific crash toggle into the `edge://flags` experimental menu).
Disabling via Edge Flags (If GUI toggle is missing)
- Type
edge://flagsinto the address bar and press Enter. - In the search box at the top, type
restore. - Look for a flag named Hide restore session popup or similar crash recovery toggles.
- Change the setting to Enabled.
- Restart the browser.
From now on, whether you close Edge gracefully or it is violently killed by the Task Manager, it will always launch to a safe, empty New Tab page.