How to Enable and Use IE Mode in Microsoft Edge

Microsoft has already bid farewell to its old Internet Explorer in favor of the newer Edge browser. And while Edge comes with two different builds – the legacy and Chromium, it’s the latter that managed to take away all the limelight, and rightly so.

Based on the open-source Chromium engine, it offers you all the goodies that the Chrome browser has in store. However, a few old sites still cannot adapt to the new environment.

As a result, users can’t access some of the yesteryear sites on this newer Chromium browser. Apart from that, some enterprise and professional workspaces have internal and intranet sites on the old infrastructure.

Due to these reasons, users must keep both browsers on their PC. However, the latest addition to the Edge browser in IE Mode seems to have finally solved this problem.

Let’s check out what is this Internet Explorer Mode and how to use it —

What is IE Mode for Microsoft Edge?

The Internet Explorer Mode, IE Mode, is the new baked-in functionality inside the Edge browser that allows the older website to run inside the traditional IE infrastructure.

So if any website or intranet depends on Internet Explorer, you could consider enabling this mode inside the Edge Chromium build. It will re-create the same environment for IE-only compatible sites.

In simpler words, consider it as a new Internet Explorer window opened inside the Microsoft Edge browser.

Enable IE Mode in MS Edge

Now that you know the basics of this feature, that can help load the IE compatibility mode on the Edge browser. Here is how:

1. Launch the Microsoft Edge on your PC.
2. Click on the More menu icon at the top right.
3. Choose the Settings menu from the list.
4. Switch to the Default Browser section from the left menu pane.
5. Enable the Allow sites to be reloaded in Internet Explorer mode toggle.
   

You should now see a Restart button; hit on the button. Once the browser reloads, it will have enabled the IE Mode option.

Use IE Compatibility Mode

We have just enabled the IE compatibility mode option. This option will now be available under the More Tools menu. We must launch and reload the website or page in IE Mode. Here is how:

1. Launch the Microsoft Edge on Windows PC.
2. Click on the More menu icon at the top right.
3. Hover to expand the More Tools menu.
4. Select the Reload in Internet Explorer mode option.
   

The site will now open inside Internet Explorer. You could easily verify the same via the IE icon displayed at the left of the address bar and the notification bar appearing just below it.

Open All Sites in IE Mode

By default, only the sites incompatible with the latest Chromium build would open inside Internet Explorer; the rest would continue to use the latest Microsoft Edge.

However, if you wish to take a more aggressive route and force all the sites to use IE Mode, you can quickly force it.

1. Launch the Edge browser and go to the Default Browser section.
   You may use the below address for the same:

   edge://settings/defaultBrowser

2. Under the Internet Explorer compatibility section, see Let Internet Explorer open sites in the Microsoft Edge option.
   
3. Change the drop-down option from Incompatible sites only to Always.

Do keep in mind that in doing so, some newer sites might break and not function as expected. If that happens, then consider reverting it to its original recommended settings.

Exit Internet Explorer (IE) Mode

Loading the website on compatibility mode introduces the old technology stack under the hood; this may lead to hacking. If you no longer wish to use IE mode functionality, you should disable it. Here are the steps:

1. Launch the Microsoft Edge on your PC.
2. Click on the More menu icon at the top right.
3. Choose the Settings menu from the list.
4. Switch to the Default Browser section from the left menu pane.
5. Disable the toggle for Allow sites to be reloaded in Internet Explorer mode.
   
6. Hit the Restart button for the changes to occur.

It will completely disable the Internet Explorer compatibility mode option.

However, if you wish to temporarily load the site in normal mode instead of IE mode, you should consider hitting on the Leave button appearing below the address bar.

Bottom Line

So this was all from this guide on enabling the Internet Explorer Mode in Microsoft Edge. We have also listed its associated settings that will help you fine-tune this functionality as per your need.

Unfortunately, the Internet Explorer compatibility mode feature is only available on Microsoft Edge on Windows OS. We cannot take the benefit if you’re using Macintosh or Linux OS.

I recently came across a site that still uses the deprecated Flash Player (rather than HTML 5). As a result, none of the browsers could effectively load this page until I came across the IE Mode. The result was still relatively short of optimal usage, but I could carry out the required task easily.

Another perk of this feature is its ability to support intranet services that use the old infrastructure. With that said, what were the reasons for you to try out this IE mode?

FAQs

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