Enable Legacy Edge Mode in Microsoft Edge Chromium

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How to Enable Legacy Edge Mode in Microsoft Edge Chromium

As you may remember, Microsoft Edge Chromium, the latest web browser from Microsoft, has a special compatibility mode with Internet Explorer 11, called IE Mode. This mode is quite useful for enterprise customers, which usually have legacy web apps that require Internet Explorer. In addition to IE Mode, Edge receives Legacy Edge Mode.

Legacy Edge mode emulates the EdgeHTML engine, allowing to open certain web sites using it. While home users may find this addition useless, enterprise users may have some apps that require extra testing in the preinstalled classic Edge app, which is available in most of the Windows 10 versions out of the box. Tip: Check out how to Enable Classic Edge and Edge Chromium Running Side-by-Side.

Update: The official Microsoft's position on this change is as follows:

..we have no plans to add a "Legacy Edge Mode" to the new Microsoft Edge. The flags in these articles are just a feature used internally for testing.

As of this writing, the Legacy Edge Mode is hidden behind the IE mode feature. To access Legacy Edge mode, you need to have the latest Canary Edge installed with IE Mode enabled.

To Enable Legacy Edge Mode in Microsoft Edge Chromium,

  1. Update your Edge Chromium to the latest available version (see the list below).
  2. Type edge://flags/#edge-internet-explorer-integration into the address bar of Edge.
  3. Enable the flag Enable IE Integration by selecting IE Mode from the drop down list next to the flag's name.
  4. Restart the Edge browser when prompted.
  5. Right-click on Edge Can/Dev icon on the desktop and select Properties from the context menu.
  6. Modify the Target text box value by adding the --ie-mode-test option after msedge.exe.
  7. Now, launch Edge Chromium using the modified shortcut.
  8. Go to menu (Alt+F) > More tools.
  9. There, you'll find a couple of new commands, Open Sites in Internet Explorer mode, and Open sites in Edge mode.

Here are the screenshots.

Edge Mode tab in latest Canary

IE Mode tab in latest Canary

Microsoft recently released the first stable version of Microsoft Edge Chromium to the public. Surprisingly, Microsoft Edge is still supporting a number of aging Windows versions, including Windows 7, which has recently reached its end of support. Check out Windows Versions Supported by Microsoft Edge Chromium.

Interested users can download MSI installers for deployment and customization.

For pre-release versions, Microsoft is currently using three channels to deliver updates to Edge Insiders. The Canary channel receives updates daily (except Saturday and Sunday), the Dev channel is getting updates weekly, and the Beta channel is updated every 6 weeks. Microsoft is going to support Edge Chromium on Windows 7, 8.1 and 10, alongside macOS, Linux (coming in the future) and mobile apps on iOS and Android.

Actual Edge versions

The actual versions of Edge Chromium at the moment of this writing are as follows:

You will find many Edge tricks and features covered in the following post:

Hands-on with the new Chromium-based Microsoft Edge

Also, see the following updates.

Thanks to Techdows

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Author: Sergey Tkachenko

Sergey Tkachenko is a software developer who started Winaero back in 2011. On this blog, Sergey is writing about everything connected to Microsoft, Windows and popular software. Follow him on Telegram, Twitter, and YouTube.

4 thoughts on “Enable Legacy Edge Mode in Microsoft Edge Chromium”

  1. Speaking of settings, the address bar (url bar) does not give me search suggestions, despite having activated “show search suggestions and sites when typing”, in the privacy and services section; with any search engine including bing; Just suggest history and bookmarks.

    The search bar of the new tab seems to work fine, but for now, only with bing.

    Is it a bug, is it normal, isn’t it implemented? Is there any way to change it?

    Reply

    1. Gpedit.msc > computer configuration > administrative templates > microsoft edge
      ‘Configure Internet Explorer integration’ > Enabled.

      Reply

  3. Are you certain this is a compatibility mode for Legacy Edge and not just a “Turn Off” button for IE mode basically?
    It gives no compatibility indication, unlike IE mode.

    Reply

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