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How to configure, manage and enable IE Mode for MS Edge. The missing guide.

Posted by By Richard March 19, 2022 10 Min Read

Preface

Our organization has the following requirements.

  • oldweb1.richtechtv.com open in IE Mode within MS Edge.
  • oldweb2.richtechtv.com open in IE Mode and use IE8 for compatibility within MS Edge
  • modernweb.richtechtv.com force users to always open in MS Edge
  • modernweb.richtechtv.com/inf/legacy/admin open in IE Mode for a legacy page.
  • richardwalz.com/contact open in IE Mode for a legacy page.
  • The FAQ section contains information to get SilverLight to run in IE Mode.

Requirements

  • You have the latest MS Edge GPO ADMX Templates Installed
  • You have the latest Windows GPO ADMX Templates Installed

Within Group Policy you will need to make configuration changes to both MS Edge and Internet Explorer sections. Essentially Internet Explorer settings will be used for IE Mode.

Section 1: Configuration

  1. In MS Edge go to the following url edge://settings/defaultBrowser
  1. Set “Allow sites to be reloaded in Internet Explorer mode” to “Allow” then click restart.
  1. In MS Edge go to the following url edge://compat/sitelistmanager this is a hidden feature to build our site list. This is where the majority of our work will be done on. So I recommend favoriting this page. This site replaces the old “Enterprise Site List Manager” program.
  1. Click “Add Site” and we will add our first site. Do not include http:// or https:// otherwise the page will fail to load. Our site oldweb1.richtechtv.com needs to open in IE Mode within MS Edge. Then click “Add”
  1. If you need to make any changes you can click the (…) to “Edit Site”. All settings except the url can be modified. If the site is wrong, you can use the same option to “Delete Site” and re-add it.
  1. Here is the editing window.
  1. Now let’s add our site oldweb2.richtechtv.com as it needs to open in IE Mode configured for “IE8 Document Mode” compatibility within MS Edge.
  1. For this site, we want to force users to always run modernweb.richtechtv.com in MS Edge and never in Internet Explorer 11, we will choose to Open In “Microsoft Edge”. If a user loads this page in Internet Explorer 11 it will automatically open the site in Microsoft Edge instead.
  1. Another scenario is that you may have a web-app that runs in MS Edge but there is an old admin or a specific section that needs to run in IE Mode due to legacy functions such as VBscript, SilverLight and etc. This is also possible and can target that admin section as well by using modernweb.richtechtv.com/inf/legacy/admin and then enable IE mode like shown below.

Section 2: Deploy configuration to machines

  1. Open up MS Edge and go to edge://compat/enterprise . Check to see if there is a version number listed. This is very important. In order for your configuration to override and be used it must be higher than the version listed. If no version information is here then ignore. If you were using the old Enterprise Site Manager list you may have a version number like 66 so use 67. It is also possible some machines may have different version numbers. See the FAQ on how to reset version numbers.
  1. Open up MS Edge and go back to edge://compat/sitelistmanager
  2. Click “Export to XML” then type in a version number and a file name. I am going to use 67 then click “Export”.
  1. This file will be located in your downloads folder. It is highly recommend you upload this file to an Internet or Intranet location that is accessible to all the machines that need to access these sites. In my case I uploaded it to my own web server at the url of https://old.richtechtv.com/iemodesites.xml
  2. The xml content must be displayed like this when you access it. Otherwise it may not get downloaded properly.
  1. Open Group Policy and make the following changes.
  • Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Microsoft Edge > Set “Configure Internet Explorer integration” to “Enabled” and “Internet Explorer Mode“
  • Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Microsoft Edge > Set “Allow sites configured for Internet Explorer mode to open in Microsoft Edge” to “Enabled“
  • Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Microsoft Edge > Set “Configure the Enterprise Mode Site List” to “Enabled” and point to the url, it will look something like: “https://old.richtechtv.com/iemodesites.xml”
  • Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Internet Explorer > Set “Use the Enterprise Mode IE website list” to “Enabled” and point to the same url.
  1. In MS Edge go back to this page edge://compat/enterprise and click “Force Update” if everything works out the configuration should be loaded. This page will auto-update 65 seconds after restart of MS Edge as well and 4 hour intervals after that, though the version must be higher than the last to actually update.

Section 3: Testing

  1. If you go to your the site it should now load in MS Edge with IE Mode. As you can see the page www.RichardWalz.com/contact loads in IE Mode, but all the other pages will continue to run without IE Mode. Pretty niffy?!

Section 4: FAQ

  • How can you tell what compatibility or document mode you need?
    • Open the site in Internet Explorer 11, open Developer Tools (press F12) use the Emulation Mode module to test your site, verify reports, buttons and actions are working. If they do not you may need to switch the document mode type to IE10 or IE8 as examples then retest in real-time. Some sites may tell the browser that it needs document mode 9 so it is important to test in Developer Mode/Emulation first.
  • How can you tell if a website is running in IE Mode?
    • You will see an old “IE Icon” and if you click it, it will give you more information with some details.
  • Should we include http:// or https:// when we add the site?
    • No you should not. It is not supported and may break Microsoft’s formatting.
  • How can we reset IE Configuration Versions on machines that previously deployed via Config Manager
    • Remove the Config Manager job, then delete the following registry key.
    • HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MicrosoftEdge\Main\EnterpriseMode\
      • CurrentVersion=22
  • What methods of deployment are there?
    • Recommended: Group Policy with HTTPS URL: https://old.richtechtv.com/iemodesites.xml
    • Recommended: MS365 Hosted Config File.
    • Not Recommended: Group Policy with local network share file Local network file: \network\shares\sites.xml (depends upon environment / line of sight to file)
    • Not Recommended: Group Policy with local file: “file:///c:/user/docs/iemode/sites.xml”
  • Where can I find the diagnostics page and what sort of information is listed?
    • The page is located here edge://compat/iediagnostic
  • How can we force all websites to load in MS Edge instead of Internet Explorer?
    • Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Internet Explorer > Set “Send all sites not included in the Enterprise Mode Site List to Microsoft Edge” to “Enabled“.
  • We have some sites that need to load old scripts how can we do that?
    • Be cautious and ensure you lock the ability to load these older scripts to the specific sites and zones. It is best to have your development team migrate these over time. In Group Policy, go to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Internet Explorer > Internet Control Panel > Security Page > Intranet Zone and set the following to Enabled
      • Allow active scripting
      • Allow VBScript to run in Internet Explorer
  • Does SilverLight work in IE Mode? / What needs to be configured?
    • Yes it will run, however Silverlight no longer receives security updates. The last security update was released in October 2021.
    • You will also need to make sure the website is target within the zone. In this case we use Intranet as this is where the site resides.
    • In Group Policy, go to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Internet Explorer > Internet Control Panel > Security Page > Intranet Zone and set the following to Enabled
      • Run ActiveX control and plugins
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