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After I made an in-place upgrade of Windows 10, I decided to remove all subfolders whose name start with Edge from C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft. 1
This means I also deleted the EdgeWebView directory.

Then I changed my mind and wanted to reinstall the WebView2 Runtime,
so I went to the download section of the WebView2 home page.
In the leftmost part, I downloaded the Evergreen Bootstrapper.

But when I double-clicked it to reinstall WebView2, I got an error message in my local language. Translating into English, it says something like :

The installation failed. Microsoft Edge WebView2 Runtime has already been installed on this system.

This question is closely related to How to uninstall Microsoft Edge WebView2

References

1 Although there are differences between Windows 10 and Windows 11, there are also a lot of similarities. That's why I've chosen to also include the tag. Of course, this means that I welcome solutions also for Windows 11 – even if they haven't been tried for Windows 10 specifically.
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  • 1
    this question was useful, as I made a similar mistake of uninstalling it, then realized my mistake when hyperlinks (including things like mailto links, not just HTTP links) wouldn't open in the corresponding default programs. your question helped me determine which of those downloads I needed to reinstall. Fortunately it looks like the uninstallation was consistent enough that the installer didn't get stuck like it did for you, and links are working again.
    – Twisted Code
    Nov 26, 2023 at 13:57

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
4

How to reinstall Microsoft Edge WebView2 Runtime

Press WinKey+r, type regedit, and press Enter to open the registry editor.

Mark and copy (Ctrl+c)
HKLM\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\EdgeUpdate\Clients{F3017226-FE2A-4295-8BDF-00C3A9A7E4C5},
press Alt+d, paste (Ctrl+v), and press Enter. 1

Right-click the key {F3017226-FE2A-4295-8BDF-00C3A9A7E4C5} and choose Export.

Export the WebView2 registry key.

^ click to enlarge

Save the registry file to some place that you'll remember, such as :
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\EdgeWebView 2

Now delete the key and try running the bootstrap installer again. 3

The above solution should work.
But if you still have access to the EdgeWebView directory (in the Recycle Bin),
it might be even easier to restore it into C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft.
No other actions should be needed.

References

1 I found the key at WebView2 Evergreen installer no longer adds the registry key.

2 You can name it any way you like, as long as you remember what the file is about. I name it :
HKLM%SOFTWARE%WOW6432Node%Microsoft%EdgeUpdate%Clients%{F3017226-FE2A-4295-8BDF-00C3A9A7E4C5}.reg
which admittedly is very long, but has the advantage of telling exactly where the key is located in the registry.

3 This solution worked fine on Windows 10 version 22H2. I've not had the opportunity to try it on Windows 11.
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