If Microsoft Edge keeps popping up a little toolbar every time you select text, or an Immersive Reader icon shows up in the address bar on news sites and articles, you’re not imagining it — these are two separate built-in features that can feel like they’re constantly interrupting your browsing.
Table of Contents
This guide walks through exactly where each prompt comes from and how to turn off (or at least quiet down) the text-selection mini menu, the Immersive Reader/Reading mode icon, and the Read Aloud feature itself, including an advanced option for removing it completely.
Quick Answer
Open edge://settings/appearance and turn off “Show mini menu when selecting text” to stop the popup that appears when you highlight text. In the same Appearance settings, turn off the “Reading mode” toggle under Toolbar to stop the Immersive Reader icon from showing up in the address bar. Read Aloud itself (Ctrl+Shift+U or the right-click “Read aloud” option) can only be removed entirely through a registry policy, not a regular settings toggle.
Turn Off the Text-Selection Mini Menu
The small floating toolbar that appears whenever you highlight a word or sentence (offering Read aloud, search, translate, and similar options) is called the mini menu. The fastest way to kill it: select any text, click “Hide Menu” in the popup, then choose “Hide Menu Always” to disable it everywhere, or “Hide Menu for This Site” if you only want it gone on one site.
To control it from settings instead, type edge://settings/appearance into the address bar, scroll to the mini menu section, and switch off “Show mini menu when selecting text.” There’s also a “Disallowed sites” list on the same page if you want the menu to keep working everywhere except specific sites.
Hide the Immersive Reader / Reading Mode Icon
The Immersive Reader prompt is the icon that appears in the address bar on supported pages (usually articles and news stories), offering a distraction-free “reading mode” layout. It’s controlled by a toggle, not a popup you can dismiss for good from the page itself.
Go to Settings and more (the three dots) > Settings > Appearance > Toolbar, and turn off “Reading mode.” Once it’s off, the icon stops appearing in the address bar on supported pages. If you want it back for a specific article, you can still open it manually with the F9 shortcut or by right-clicking selected text and choosing “Open selection in Reading mode.”
Disable Read Aloud Completely (Advanced)
Read Aloud — the feature that reads page content out loud, started with Ctrl+Shift+U or the right-click “Read aloud” option — doesn’t have an on/off switch in the regular Edge settings menu. The only way to remove it entirely is through the same enterprise policy Microsoft gives IT administrators, applied via the Windows Registry, which also works on a personal, non-managed PC.
Open the Registry Editor (regedit), navigate to (or create) HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Edge, add a new DWORD (32-bit) value named ReadAloudEnabled, and set it to 0. Restart Edge. This removes the Read Aloud option from the address bar, the right-click menu, the “…” more menu, the PDF toolbar, and inside Immersive Reader. To bring it back later, delete the value or set it back to 1.
Because this key lives under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, it’s a machine-wide policy — it applies to every Windows account on that PC, not just the one you’re currently signed into, and disabling it removes Read Aloud for all users of that computer.
Editing the registry can affect other browser behavior if done incorrectly, so only make this change if the toolbar/mini-menu toggles above aren’t enough, and back up the registry key first.
Tips / Common Mistakes
Turning off “Reading mode” in Appearance settings only hides the icon — it doesn’t disable Read Aloud, since Read Aloud is also reachable from the right-click menu and the PDF toolbar independently.
If Read Aloud starts playing unexpectedly, pressing Ctrl+Shift+U again (or closing the tab) stops it immediately — you don’t need to change any settings just to silence a single page.
The registry fix is machine-wide, not per-user — if you share a PC with other Windows accounts, setting ReadAloudEnabled to 0 turns the feature off for everyone on that computer, not just your profile.
After toggling any Appearance setting, fully close and reopen Edge (not just the tab) if the change doesn’t seem to take effect right away.
Explore more: More Edge and browser how-to guides.
Microsoft Edge Read Aloud and Immersive Reader prompts FAQs
Why does a Read Aloud or Immersive Reader icon keep showing up on certain websites?
Edge automatically detects article-style pages (like news stories and blog posts) and shows the Reading mode icon in the address bar for them. Turning off “Reading mode” in Settings > Appearance > Toolbar stops this detection from showing the icon.
Can I turn off Read Aloud without using the registry?
Not completely. You can stop the mini menu popup and hide the address-bar icon through regular settings, but fully removing the Read Aloud option from the right-click menu and PDF toolbar currently requires the ReadAloudEnabled registry policy.
Does disabling Read Aloud through the registry affect other people who use the same computer?
Yes. The ReadAloudEnabled registry value is set under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, which is a machine-wide policy, so it disables Read Aloud for every Windows user account on that PC, not just the one that made the change.
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