This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.

Greetings Access Community, I had a great question from Klaus Oberdalhoff in the Denver User Group last month, as well as numerous questions from the community on IE11 and its impending retirement. I wanted post this to help clear the air on these concerns.


IE 11 to Edge.png


Here is a quick set of Q&A we have put together on many of the questions we have seen across our MVPs and community.


 


Q&A on IE 11 retirement


 


Q: Is it true according to Microsoft, the old internet browser and thus the web browser control will soon be disabled / disconnected?


A: No this is not the case. The Webview (trident) control is still being supported as part of Windows. The MSHTML (Trident) engine is the underlying platform for Internet Explorer 11. This is the same engine used by IE mode and it will continue to be supported (in other words, unaffected by this announcement). Both WebOC and the MSHTA app will continue to be supported as they rely on the MSHTML engine which is unaffected by this announcement. If you have a custom or third-party app that relies on the MSHTML platform, you can expect it to continue to work. For future app development, we recommend using WebView2.


 


We recommend you review this detailed Q&A on the IE 11 Desktop App Retirement


 


Q: Does that mean that the existing Access applications that use the IE11 (Trident) web browser control no longer work?


A: No this does not mean existing applications no longer work. Existing applications will continue to be able to run using the MSHTML engine that is still supported


 


Q: Does this mean Access applications will be stranded without a new web browser control in place for Access using Webview2 aka Anaheim?


A: No. The MSHTML (Trident) engine is still supported until 2029. Eventually we will have a new browser control in place that supports Webview2.


 


Q: How long do I have before I have to worry about updating my Access applications to support webview2


A: You have until 2029 before the MSHTML (Trident) engine no longer supported. But once we have a new forms control supporting the new Webview2 browser control for Access we recommend all developers move to that in line with Microsoft guidelines to ensure your experience compliance with modern web standards and security.


 


Q: When are you going to have a new Access browser control that supports Edge and Webview 2?


A: We are planning and specing this work now working with teams across Office Platforms to enable a totally new browser control with Webview 2 support. Our hope is to have this done by the end of the 2022 calendar year or beginning of 2023. When this work is completed custom or 3rd party apps will be able to use either the legacy or new control. Once we release, we will recommend all apps move to the Webview2 control to ensure the most up to date technology and security.


 


We would love to get your feedback on what you need here and use cases you see we need to address in our new forms control as we are refining the specs now for this work.


 


Please send your feedback with the name “New Browser Control Feature Request” in the description title at Microsoft Q&A using the office-access-dev tag


 

Brought to you by Dr. Ware, Microsoft Office 365 Silver Partner, Charleston SC.