With the death of Internet Explorer less than three months away, Microsoft says it has made two key enhancements to the Internet Explorer (IE) mode in Microsoft Edge designed to keep apps and workflows using the browser operational and share information between modern and legacy sites.
Internet Explorer will retire and go out of support for most Windows users on June 15, so organizations still using the legacy browser are urged to switch to other browsers, such as Microsoft Edge or Google Chrome.
For organizations that still require Internet Explorer for some workflows, they can continue to do so using IE Mode in Microsoft Edge. Based on feedback from customers about that option, Microsoft has released two enhancements to IE mode: IE COM object calls restored to their original functionality and shared bidirectional cookies between IE mode and Microsoft Edge.
For organizations with apps and workflows that call IE COM objects as essential pieces of functionality, IE mode largely works as expected, but some things broke when IE stand-alone mode was disabled. Microsoft says that fix jumped to the top of its list, and now IE COM objects are restored to its original functionality and will continue to work after the Internet Explorer desktop app is disabled and redirects users to Edge.
Microsoft says it also fixed an issue where cookies in IE mode historically passed session passed session information from sites using the modern engine to sites using the legacy engine, but not the other way around. Now, IE mode in Edge will allow uses to manually set cookies to share in both directions to create a better experience for users and support using a mix of modern and legacy sites.
Microsoft first announced the Internet Explorer retirement date in May 2021, and already stopped supporting apps for Internet Explorer in August, including Microsoft Teams.
The Internet Explorer 11 desktop application delivered via the semi-annual channel will go out of support for customers running Windows 11 and Windows 10 client SKUs and Windows 10 IoT, versions 20H2 and later.
However, websites that need Internet Explorer to open can still be accessed via Edge’s built-in Internet Explorer mode. Organizations still using Internet Explorer with a large set of legacy Internet Explorer-based websites and apps can also use Internet Explorer Mode in Edge.
Other versions that remain unaffected include Internet Explorer platform (MSHTML/Trident), including WebOC and the Internet Explorer desktop application on Windows 8.1, Windows 7 Extended Security Updates, Windows 10 Server SAC, Windows 10 IoT Long-Term Servicing Channel (LTSC), Windows 10 Sever LTSC and Windows 10 client LTSC.
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