How to enable IE mode in Edge browser (Version 83.0.478.61 and up) for a site

browsercompatibilityinternet explorermicrosoft-edge

Is there an easy way to enable IE mode on the new Edge (Chromium) browser.
Recent version have removed the flag for IE integration and this functionality seems to be pretty well hidden and obscured with 'special' flags and xml compatility lists.
The best 'guide' that I could find is this one: https://byteben.com/bb/enable-ie-mode-and-use-a-site-list-in-edge-chromium-with-microsoft-endpoint-manager/

But, even with the guide, I was unable to determine how to correctly set up the 'sites.xml' to work correctly. The microsoft documentation for IE mode seems to be a maze of links leading so some 'Enterprise Edge templates' which I could not figure out what they represent or even if they apply to me (I'm not in any 'enterprise').
Does anyone have a simple tutorial or step by step instructions on how to set up the IE mode in a non-active-directory environment?

Thanks.

Best Answer

In fact, the article that you referenced to, gave you all the hints that you need. Look at Verify IE Mode Configuration section. It shows the result of all the complicated settings is just a registry key. It makes sense since that is what Microsoft keeps messing over and over again.

So, here is what you need to do to enable IE mode.

  1. Turn on IE mode by the registry:

    • Open the registry: WindowsKey + R -> regedit -> enter
    • Access Edge's item: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Edge
    • Create if not exist following key-value:
       |------------------------------------| -----------| ------------------- |
   | name                               | type       | value               |
   |----------------------------------- | ---------- | ------------------- |
   |InternetExplorerIntegrationLevel    | REG_DWORD  | 1                   |
   |InternetExplorerIntegrationSiteList | REG_SZ     | C:\\ie_site_list.xml|

  2. Create a ie_site_list.xml with content similar to below:

    <site-list version="1">
  <created-by>
    <tool>EMIESiteListManager</tool>
    <version>10.0.14357.1004</version>
    <date-created>09/20/2020 19:16:42</date-created>
  </created-by>
  <site url="www.yoursite1.com">
    <compat-mode>Default</compat-mode>
    <open-in>IE11</open-in>
  </site>
  <site url="www.yoursite2.com">
    <compat-mode>Default</compat-mode>
    <open-in>IE11</open-in>
  </site>
</site-list>

    Keep repeating the followings block and change the url for all of your IE sites:

       <site url="www.yoursite2.com">
     <compat-mode>IE7Enterprise</compat-mode>
     <open-in>IE11</open-in>
   </site>

    You save this file to C:\\ie_site_list.xml. If you choose a different destination, remember to change the path in the registry, too.

    You could use “Enterprise Mode Site List Manager” to create and manage this config file. But since it just a text file, just something like notepad++ is enough.

  3. Confirm that Edge loaded this configuration:

    Go to edge://compat/enterprise, you should see the IE sites already there. If you haven't restart Edge, you may need to click on Force update button.

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