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IE 11 Retirement: What Does This Mean for Microsoft Access Apps?

Michael_Aldridge's avatar
Michael_Aldridge
Icon for Microsoft rankMicrosoft
Mar 20, 2022

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.

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

 

Updated Mar 20, 2022
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access
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9 Comments

  • danielchent1's avatar
    danielchent1
    Copper Contributor
    May 09, 2023

    Hi

    we have an access 365 application currently using the legacy control

    we have tested the new edge control and we like it very much.

    in order to migrate we need functionality we believe is missing.

    most important one is access to the document object  - see sample code below.

    in the code below you see how we use the HTMLDocument to get values from it and use it to open forms.

    questions:

    1. how can we achieve this with the new edge control?

    2. how can we force the new control when click on a link if first page, to default navigate new link in the same page - the legacy control does that by default?

    3. we distribute the application with msaccess 365 runtime that is about one year old, do we need to distribute a new one and if yes what is the link to get it?

    Code sample:

    If em.tagName = "TABLE" Or em.tagName = "th" Then GoTo Exit_WebBrowser0_DblClick
    TdCellIndex = em.cellIndex
    VarValue = em.innerText
    Set tb = Doc.getElementById("NGTable1")
    For Each th In tb.getElementsByTagName("th")
    If th.cellIndex = TdCellIndex And th.ID <> "" Then
    strCol = th.ID
    Exit For
    End If
    Next th

     

    Thank you

  • David_Richardson's avatar
    David_Richardson
    Copper Contributor
    Apr 12, 2023

    Any updates on the WebView2 Control?  The Access Roadmap said it was supposed to come out in March.

     

  • isladogs's avatar
    isladogs
    MVP
    Mar 29, 2023

    MS have stated that the old IE browser control will still be available in Access until 2029

  • FrixkyKitty's avatar
    FrixkyKitty
    Copper Contributor
    Mar 29, 2023

    By alll appearances, Windows 11 has eliminated Internet Explorer.  I found a way to launch IE but it is tedious.

    1. Open Internet Properties to the Programs tab.
    3. Click "Learn more about toolbars and extensions" in the lower left corner.
    4. And finally: 

     

  • George_Hepworth's avatar
    George_Hepworth
    Silver Contributor
    Mar 27, 2022

    I'll certainly do that later. Right now off to spend the day with daughter and son-in-law....

  • George_Hepworth's avatar
    George_Hepworth
    Silver Contributor
    Mar 27, 2022

    In trying to trouble-shoot the PowerBI problem Colin mentions for that OP, I encountered the same thing in my own personal Access relational database applications. I use PowerBI reports in three of them; all now broken. I tried every fix I encountered in searching the internet and consulting with experts, including changing the browser emulation in the Registry to various levels, all to no avail. This is a potential show-stopper for anyone relying on embedding PowerBI reports in the Access web browser control. Fortunately, that's probably just a small niche, but each time such a niche gets impacted, it bites into the whole market in one way or another. 

    George

  • isladogs's avatar
    isladogs
    MVP
    Mar 27, 2022

    Although your article is resassuring to some extent, whilst we continue to wait for the Chromium Edge browser control, things are increasingly going wrong with the existing IE browser control. In the past week I have seen:

    1. a thread reporting issues with displaying a PowerBI report in a browser control - see Embed Power BI Reports into Access Forms | Access World Forums (access-programmers.co.uk). Possibly a bug that needs fixing?

    2. One of my own apps that opens a Google map for the current geolocation no longer works as the GoogleMaps JavaScript API reports that I'm using an outdated browser. Obviously that isn't something Microsoft can address directly as its a change made by Google

     

    It is extremely likely that other problems will surface in the coming months.

    The new browser control isn't just something that would be nice to have. It is a necessity 

    The current browser control is limping along and has many issues.

    For example, the maximum length of a URL is just 2083 characters which is inadequate for many web addresses such as loading maps with data layers