Alongside all the features and improvements in the roadmap for the new version of Microsoft Edge based on the Chromium engine, Microsoft includes a compatibility mode using the Internet Explorer rendering engine to load old websites.
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The feature is known as “IE Mode,” and it has been designed for organizations to load internal sites without using a separate browser or having to redesign the site. The new approach loads the pages within Microsoft Edge like a regular website without using and managing multiple browsers.
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If you want to start using it, the version of Microsoft Edge available through the stable channel now includes the “Internet Explorer compatibilities” settings to quickly enable IE Mode and a separate option to open Edge when browsing an incomparable website with Internet Explorer. Alongside the settings, it also possible to use the Group Policy Editor to configure the compatibility mode.
In this guide, you will learn the steps to enable IE Mode to load legacy websites using the Internet Explorer rendering engine on Chromium Edge for Windows 10. (You can also watch this video tutorial to configure the feature.)
How to enable IE mode on Microsoft Edge
To enable IE mode on Edge, use these steps:
Open Microsoft Edge on Windows 10.
Click the Settings and More (ellipsis) button on the top-right corner.
Select the Settings option.
Click on Default browser.
Under the “Internet Explorer compatibility” section, turn on the “Allow sites to be reloaded in Internet Explorer mode” toggle switch.
Click the Restart button.
Once you complete the steps, when sites require Internet Explorer, you can use Microsoft Edge to reload the page using IE mode.
Open site with IE Mode on Edge
After the IE Mode is enabled, you need to reload a page with the compatibility mode manually.
To open an incompatible website with IE Mode on Edge, use these steps:
Open Microsoft Edge on Windows 10.
Click the Settings and More (ellipsis) button on the top-right corner.
Select the More tools submenu and choose the “Reload in Internet Explorer mode” option.
After you complete the steps, the website should reload in compatibility mode. If the feature is not enabled, then the option won’t be available in the menu.
If you want to exit IE Mode, you can use the same instructions, but on step No. 3, select the Exit Internet Explorer mode option.
Open Internet Explorer sites on Microsoft Edge
On Windows 10, Microsoft Edge also lets you configure the browser so that when someone is using Internet Explorer incompatible or all sites will load within Edge.
To let IE open websites with Edge, use these steps:
Open Microsoft Edge on Windows 10.
Click the Settings and More (ellipsis) button on the top-right corner.
Select the Settings option.
Click on Default browser.
Under the “Internet Explorer compatibility” section, use the “Let Internet Explorer open sites in Microsoft Edge” drop-down menu and select the option to handle browsing when using Internet Explorer, including:
- Never – IE will never switch to Edge to load the site.
- Incompatible sites only – IE will still load sites, but websites designed for a modern browser will load in Edge.
- Always – IE will always switch to Edge to load websites.
Once you complete the steps, when surfing the web in Internet Explorer, websites will open on Microsoft Edge, according to your configuration.
How to enable IE mode with Group Policy on Microsoft Edge
Alternatively, you can also enable IE Mode on Chromium Edge with Group Policy. However, you will need to download and install the policy template before you can configure the Group Policy settings.
Install Microsoft Edge policy template
To install the policy template to enable IE Mode on Edge, use these steps:
Open Microsoft Edge for business website.
Under the “Policy File” section, click the Download button.
Select the version of Microsoft Edge. (Usually, you want to use the latest stable version available.)
Select the build (latest version available).
Select the platform — for example, Windows 64-bit.
Click the Get policy files option.
Click the Accept & download button.
Double-click to open the MicrosoftEdgePolicyTemplates.zip file.
Click the Extract all button from the “Compressed Folder Tools” tab.
(Optional) Select the location to extract the files.
Check the Show extracted files when complete option.
Click the Extract button.
Browse the following path inside the (extracted) “MicrosoftEdgePolicyTemplates” folder:
Select the msedge.admx and msedgeupdate.admx files and click the Copy option from the “Home” tab.
Quick tip: You only need to copy the “msedgeupdate.admx” file if you want to control the update settings of Microsoft Edge.Browse to the following path:
Click the Paste button from the “Home” tab.
In the “admx” folder, inside the “MicrosoftEdgePolicyTemplates” folder, open the language folder that represents your language — for example, en-US.
Select the msedge.adml and msedgeupdate.adml files and click the Copy option from the “Home” tab.
Quick tip: You only need to copy the “msedgeupdate.adml” file if you also copy the file on step No.12.Browse to the following path that matches your language:
In the above command, make sure to change en-US for the folder that matches your language.
Click the Paste button from the “Home” tab.
Once you complete the steps, the new policies to enable or disable IE Mode on Edge Chromium will install in the Group Policy Editor.
Enable IE Mode on Microsoft Edge
To enable IE Mode on Chromium Edge with Group Policy, use these steps:
Open Start.
Search for gpedit and click the top result to open the Group Policy Editor.
Browse the following path:
Double-click the Configure Internet Explorer integration policy.
Select the Enabled option to enable IE Mode for Microsoft Edge.
Under the “Options” section, select the Internet Explorer mode from the dropdown menu.
Click the Apply button.
Click the OK button.
After you complete the steps, websites will render in compatibility mode, and you’ll notice a familiar IE icon on the left side of the address bar letting you know the website is using Internet Explorer.
These steps enable IE Mode for intranet websites. If you want to load external websites using Chromium Edge, you need to enable and set up the “Configure the Enterprise Mode Site List” policy, which includes the creation of an XML file with the list of domains that you want to load automatically with the Internet Explorer mode.
Update February 11, 2021: This guide has been revised with the steps to configure IE Mode on the Chromium version of Microsoft Edge using the new compatibility settings and updated the process to install the Group Policy templates.
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Right on schedule, Microsoft today launched its new Edge browser based on Google’s Chromium open source project. You can download Chromium Edge now for Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10, and macOS directly from microsoft.com/edge in more than 90 languages. This is Edge 79 stable, for those who like tracking version numbers. Edge 80 is slated to arrive in early February, and afterwards Microsoft will stick to a six-week cadence for stable releases, just like with Chrome.
Microsoft has yet to lay out which features will ship in Edge 80, Edge 81, and so on. When asked what to expect from the next few Edge releases, a spokesperson said developers and users should use the beta releases as an indication. If you want to peek at the pipeline, download one of the Edge Insider Channels: Beta (updated every six weeks), Dev (updated weekly), or Canary (updated daily). Insider builds can be installed side by side with Edge stable. Update: Microsoft has published a support article that lists features in the works and requests that are not currently on the roadmap.
It’s worth noting that the new Microsoft Edge, as Microsoft is calling it, has a fresh logo. For the first time in decades, Microsoft’s browser is not denoted with a blue “e” — the logo is a wave, presumably for “surfing” the web.
Today’s debut has been a long time coming. Back in December 2018, Microsoft embraced Chromium for Edge development on the desktop. In April 2019, Microsoft released the first Chromium Edge builds (daily Canary and weekly Dev channels), and the Chromium Edge Beta channel followed in August 2019. In November 2019, Microsoft launched the Chromium Edge release candidate and positioned Edge and Bing as “the browser and search engine for business.” Microsoft today shared that the Insider builds have gotten “millions” of downloads. Now we’ll see if the stable release can get traction.
Features and performance
Microsoft plans to ship more consumer Edge features later this year, but this launch is largely targeted at businesses. That means AAD support, Internet Explorer mode, and Microsoft Search in Bing integration. Business and education IT administrators can download offline packages and policies for Chromium Edge. Many businesses already use Chrome and at least one Microsoft browser (Internet Explorer and/or Edge) — Microsoft is hoping these features will get them to switch to using just Chromium Edge.
Business features aside, there’s also support for Chrome-based extensions, 4K streaming, Dolby audio, inking in PDF, and privacy tools. For the last one, it’s worth noting that tracking prevention is on by default and offers three levels of control, like Firefox’s tracking protection.
Chrome extension support is probably the most important feature for most users. By default, extensions that have been ported over to Edge can be downloaded from the Microsoft Store. Chromium Edge also has an option to “Allow extensions from other stores” to get Chrome extensions from the Chrome Web Store.
There are still a few features missing from Chromium Edge, most notably history sync and extension sync. Microsoft is working on these and some other inking functionality that it still wants to port from legacy Edge, as Microsoft is calling it.
Microsoft also claims that Chromium Edge is twice as fast as legacy Edge. Curiously, the team isn’t making any claims against other browsers — at least not yet. In fact, our own testing shows Chromium Edge has solid performance.
The bigger picture here is that by leaning on Chromium, Microsoft no longer has to worry about “fixing” its underlying browser engine EdgeHTML. The company can instead improve Chromium itself, which helps all browsers that use the codebase, not just Chromium Edge. Microsoft says over the past year it has made more than 1,900 contributions to Chromium across areas like accessibility, touch, speech, and digital inking.
On the flip side, Edge is now just another Chromium-based browser. That makes it all the harder to offer a differentiated experience. Having failed with EdgeHTML, Microsoft figures Chromium is worth a shot.
Installing the new Edge: Manual or Automatic
If you’re running Windows 10 and don’t install Edge manually, you’ll eventually get it in a future update. Microsoft plans to start rolling out the new Edge “in the coming weeks,” starting with a subset of Windows Insiders in the Release Preview ring. The process will ramp up to more users “over the next several months.” It will be made gradually available on Windows Update and offered to additional devices “as data and feedback indicate that users are having a good experience.” Microsoft currently has no plans to automatically upgrade Managed, Enterprise, Education, or Workstation Pro Edition devices (documentation). If you want to block automatic delivery of the new Edge to Home and Pro devices, you can do so either via policies or the Blocker Toolkit.
When you install the new Edge on Windows 10, it will replace legacy Edge. Any shortcuts you have on the desktop, taskbar, or Start Menu will be updated to new Edge. The executable for legacy Edge is technically hidden, but it will be removed eventually. Your favorites, passwords, form fill information, and basic settings will carry over from legacy Edge to new Edge automatically. If you have Chrome or Firefox installed, new Edge will ask if you want to import those settings from there. Web apps built on EdgeHTML and Edge preview channels will continue to work without interruption. Depending on how up-to-date your Windows 10 installation is, you may be asked to install additional updates. A future version of Windows 10 will skip all this and include new Edge by default.
When you install new Edge on Windows 7, Windows 8, and macOS, it will work just like installing any other browser. New Edge will not replace whatever you have as the default (whether that’s Internet Explorer, Safari, or a third-party browser). Yesterday, Microsoft ended support for Windows 7, so it’s notable the company is still releasing new Edge for the decade-old operating system. It shows just how big Windows 7 still is — about one in four computers run it.
On Android and iOS, new Edge will replace old Edge automatically. That said, not much is new on mobile — Edge already uses Blink/Chromium on Android and WebKit/WKWebView on iOS. But you can expect the new logo, similar user interface to the desktop versions, and tracking prevention on iOS (coming soon to Android). More desktop features will make their way to Android and iOS over time.
Lastly, Microsoft’s FastTrack and App Assure programs cover Chromium Edge. The former means Microsoft will help you deploy Edge to your organization at no extra charge with an eligible subscription to Microsoft 365, Azure, or Dynamics 365. The latter means if your sites work in Internet Explorer 8 and above, Chrome, or legacy Edge, then they’ll work on the new Edge. If not, Microsoft will help you fix them at no additional cost.
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