How will ending IE support affect WebBrowser class?

David Brooks 1 Reputation point
2022-05-14T00:17:05.133+00:00

Internet Explorer will go out of support on June 15 2022 (it's been a long ride). I believe the Windows Forms WebBrowser class still uses Trident, the IE rendering engine. Of course there are still apps out there using WebBrowser (I use one every day) with no or minimal maintenance energy. Assuming Trident will still work, does the EOL mean any negative implications for apps that use WebBrowser?

I think updating to WebView2 would be too much of a leap for many such apps.

Windows Forms
Windows Forms
A set of .NET Framework managed libraries for developing graphical user interfaces.
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  1. Ken Tucker 5,846 Reputation points
    2022-05-15T10:07:55.033+00:00

    The webbrowser control will continue to work after June 15, 2022. The biggest impact is there will not be any security updates anymore. I would recommend updating your app to use WebView2.

    https://github.com/MicrosoftEdge/WebView2Feedback/issues/474


  2. David Brooks 1 Reputation point
    2022-05-16T21:13:29.9+00:00

    I added an comment on the above answer (which assumes it's "my" app and that I have the bandwidth to update it). But I also found that "the WebBrowser control will continue to work after the IE Desktop Browser end of life in 2022, until about 2029." For some definition of "work", I guess.
    https://github.com/MicrosoftEdge/WebView2Feedback/issues/1371

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