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Thread: Torn Between IE 11/Web Browser Control and Edge/WebView2 Control

  1. #1

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    Torn Between IE 11/Web Browser Control and Edge/WebView2 Control

    Hi I am having some difficulties deciding what I want to do and needing some persuading in the right direction.

    I realize that using the webbrowser control is old and busted in many ways so that is why I am hoping to transition to using the webview2 control instead.

    The thing is though, is that I would be abandoning many windows users by doing this and essentially forcing them to upgrade to the new Edge Browser..
    many users would not be able to even install it if they are on older versions of windows, so I had some concerns about this issue.

    I myself still have IE 11 installed and was holding out to install Edge because I figured that I could at least test with 11 as an older option
    and not fully leave all older windows version users left behind.

    Should I just go for the new hotness and use the new webview2 control or stick with webbrowser?
    I think I would rather try the newer control to be honest but like I said older version windows users would essentially be abandoned.

  2. #2
    Super Moderator jmcilhinney's Avatar
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    Re: Torn Between IE 11/Web Browser Control and Edge/WebView2 Control

    I would suggest using WebView2 as a first option but, if you think that you'll have users without Chromium-based Edge installed, have a WebBrowser option available as a backup. You can then warn those users that they may not get the full experience without Edge installed.

  3. #3

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    Re: Torn Between IE 11/Web Browser Control and Edge/WebView2 Control

    Thanks jmcilhinney, yeah but my issue, well one of the issues is that I would just like to have my program where everyone has the same experience as far as the rendering of web pages goes.
    I don't understand how the webbrowser control requires us or the users to have whatever version of IE installed, is that how it works? Why can't it just have render options in the control itself and we as developers can choose what version we want to render the browser..

    It's either have all users have different browsers installed and have different experiences with the browser using the webbrowser control or force them to upgrade their Microsoft Browser Version.
    I think the whole thing stinks personally.. they really need to address this in a new version of the webbrowser control with some rendering options.

    Not to mention, by default, the control is stuck in rendering mode for IE7 so you actually have to find some way to fix/address that first before anything else as IE7 is really old by today's web standards.

    I was thinking of maybe trying to use webview2 assuming that the user does not require to have edge browser installed. I don't think that it's required to be installed on the user machine but correct me if I am wrong.

    It says this on the Microsoft website:

    Prerequisites

    Ensure you installed the following list of pre-requisites before proceeding:

    WebView2 Runtime or any non-stable Microsoft Edge (Chromium) Canary channel installed on Windows 10, Windows 8.1, or Windows 7.
    Visual Studio 2017 or later.
    if you notice what it says, it says the WebView2 Runtime OR Edge (Chromium) so I am assuming from this that it is not required by the user if we have the runtime?
    Last edited by DreamWarrior77; Nov 23rd, 2020 at 11:02 PM.

  4. #4
    Super Moderator jmcilhinney's Avatar
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    Re: Torn Between IE 11/Web Browser Control and Edge/WebView2 Control

    https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/mic...s/distribution

    Seems like the Evergreen option would be the way to go. Especially now, when (I believe) WebView2 is still in preview for all languages but C++. Presumably the Evergreen option will use the preview version now and update to the stable version when it's available.

  5. #5

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    Re: Torn Between IE 11/Web Browser Control and Edge/WebView2 Control

    WebView2 Stable Version 1.0.664.37 is out now.. I am trying to install it but had some issues, I could not get it to show in the toolbox.
    I will report back after I try again and see if I can get it installed correctly.

    One question I had though is if I included the webview2 control in my project is the user required to have the edge browser installed?
    No right? Because on the requirements page it only says that the runtime is required..

  6. #6
    Super Moderator jmcilhinney's Avatar
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    Re: Torn Between IE 11/Web Browser Control and Edge/WebView2 Control

    Last I heard, the stable version of WebView2 was only available for C++ and the .NET version was not yet ready. Are you sure that that is no longer the case?

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