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.
Many times while browsing Internet, you may find some legacy websites which are not compatible with Chromium-based Microsoft Edge web browser. Most of the websites specially organization, university, etc are designed to be fully compatible with Internet Explorer web browser and only open in Internet Explorer or open broken/partially in other web browsers.
- Edge is the quickest browser for everyday websites and applications – but Chrome isn’t far behind, and its phenomenal graphical power makes it an excellent alternative for anyone who’s.
- Mar 01, 2021 Here, Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome went nearly neck to neck, while Firefox fell to last place. Overall, Chrome is the fastest browser of the four after averaging the two test scores together.
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.
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.
Chromium Edge Ie Tab
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.
-->Note
This article applies to Microsoft Edge Stable version 87 or later.
Overview
Many modern websites have designs that are incompatible with Internet Explorer. Whenever an Internet Explorer user visits an incompatible public site, they get a message that tells them the site is incompatible with their browser, and they need to manually switch to a different browser.
The need to manually switch to a different browser changes starting with Microsoft Edge Stable version 87.
When a user goes to a site that is incompatible with Internet Explorer, they will be automatically redirected to Microsoft Edge. This article describes the user experience for redirection and the group policies that are used to configure or disable automatic redirection.
Note
Microsoft maintains a list of all sites that are known to be incompatible with Internet Explorer. For more information, see Request updates to the incompatible sites list
Redirection experience
On redirection to Microsoft Edge, users are shown the one-time dialog in the next screenshot. This dialog explains why they're getting redirected and prompts for consent to copy their browsing data and preferences from Internet Explorer to Microsoft Edge. The following browsing data will be imported: Favorites, Passwords, Search engines, open tabs, History, settings, cookies, and the Home Page.
Even if they don't give their consent by checking 'Always bring over my browsing data and preferences from Internet Explorer', they can click Continue browsing to continue their session.
Finally, a website incompatibility banner, shown in the next screenshot, appears below the address bar for every redirection.
The website incompatibility banner:
Ie Edge Chrome Engine
- encourages the user to switch to Microsoft Edge
- offers to make Microsoft Edge as the default browser
- gives the user the option to explore Microsoft Edge
When a site is redirected from Internet Explorer to Microsoft Edge, the Internet Explorer tab that started loading the site is closed if it had no prior content. Otherwise, the active tab view goes to a Microsoft support page that explains why the site was redirected to Microsoft Edge.
Note
After a redirection users can go back to using Internet Explorer for sites that are not on the Internet Explorer incompatibility list.
Policies to configure redirection to Microsoft Edge
Note
These policies will be available as ADMX file updates by October 26, 2020 and will be available in Intune by November 9, 2020.
Three group policies must be configured to enable automatic redirection to Microsoft Edge. These policies are:
- RedirectSitesFromInternetExplorerPreventBHOInstall
- RedirectSitesFromInternetExplorerRedirectMode
- HideInternetExplorerRedirectUXForIncompatibleSitesEnabled
Policy: RedirectSitesFromInternetExplorerPreventBHOInstall
Redirection from Internet Explorer to Microsoft Edge requires an Internet Explorer Browser Helper Object (BHO) named 'IEtoEdge BHO'. The RedirectSitesFromInternetExplorerPreventBHOInstall policy controls whether or not this BHO is installed.
- If you enable this policy, the BHO required for redirection will not be installed and your users will continue to see incompatibility messages for certain websites on Internet Explorer. If the BHO is already installed, it will be uninstalled the next time the Microsoft Edge Stable channel is updated.
- If you disable or don't configure this policy, the BHO will be installed. This is the default behavior.
In addition to needing the BHO, there is a dependency on the RedirectSitesFromInternetExplorerRedirectMode, which needs to be set to 'Redirect sites based on the incompatible sites sitelist' or 'Not Configured'.
Policy: RedirectSitesFromInternetExplorerRedirectMode
This policy corresponds to the Microsoft Edge Default browser setting 'Let Internet Explorer open sites in Microsoft Edge'. You can access this setting by going to the edge://settings/defaultbrowser URL.
- If you don't configure this policy or set it to 'Sitelist', Internet Explorer will redirect incompatible sites to Microsoft Edge. This is the default behavior.
- To disable this policy, select Enabled AND then in the dropdown under Options: Redirect incompatible sites from Internet Explorer to Microsoft Edge, select Disable. In this state, incompatible sites aren't redirected to Microsoft Edge.
Note
If you're on a personal device that isn't managed by your organization, you'll see another setting named 'Allow sites to be loaded in Internet Explorer mode' under Internet Explorer compatibility.
If you're on a domain joined or Mobile Device Management (MDM) enrolled device, you won't see this option.
Instead, if you want to let your users load sites in Internet Explorer mode, you can do so by configuring the policy Allow Internet Explorer mode testing.
Policy: HideInternetExplorerRedirectUXForIncompatibleSitesEnabled
This policy configures the user experience for incompatible site redirection to Microsoft Edge.
If you enable this policy, users never see the one-time redirection dialog and the redirection banner. No browser data or user preferences are imported.
If you disable or don't configure this policy, the redirection dialog will be shown on the first redirection and the persistent redirection banner will be shown for sessions that start with a redirection.
Note
User browsing data will be imported every time a user encounters a new redirection. However, this only happens if the user consented to the import on the one-time redirection dialog.
Disable redirection to Microsoft Edge
If you want to disable redirection BEFORE updating to Microsoft Edge Stable version 87, use the following step:
- Set the RedirectSitesFromInternetExplorerPreventBHOInstall policy to Enabled.
If you want to disable redirection AFTER updating to Microsoft Edge Stable version 87, use the following steps:
- Set the RedirectSitesFromInternetExplorerRedirectMode policy to Enabled AND then in the dropdown under Options: Redirect incompatible sites from Internet Explorer to Microsoft Edge, select Disable. This setting will stop redirecting as soon as the policy takes effect.
- Set the RedirectSitesFromInternetExplorerPreventBHOInstall policy to Enabled. This will uninstall the BHO after the next Microsoft Edge update.
Edge Blocking Chrome Install
See also