IE Mode incorrect User Agent string on initial request to site beginning with Version 96.0.1054.29

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SteveMcKinney-6410 asked Nov 22, '21 CraigChatterton-0805 answered Dec 15, '21

IE Mode incorrect User Agent string on initial request to site beginning with Version 96.0.1054.29

We have a legacy web application that requires IE, and which our customers have been running successfully using IE Mode under Edge. Over the weekend we started receiving reports from customers who were previously able to run our application under IE Mode that they were now receiving a message from the application that their browser was not compatible. After some experimentation we found it was possible to get past the browser compatibility message and then log in by refreshing the page, but this needs to be done each time the application is opened. It appears that this new behavior began after customers were updated to version 96.0.1054.29 of Edge, released via the stable cannel on November 19th.

The application probes the user agent string to check for IE. Since the update to version 96.0.1054.29 of Edge, it appears that the user agent string provided on the initial request for the default page of the application is incorrect and is not the same as the user agent string provided on subsequent requests. Here's an example:

User Agent string for initial request:
Mozilla/5.0+(Windows+NT+10.0;+Win64;+x64)+AppleWebKit/537.36+(KHTML,+like+Gecko)+Chrome/96.0.4664.45+Safari/537.36+Edg/96.0.1054.29

User Agent string for subsequent requests:
Mozilla/5.0+(Windows+NT+10.0;+WOW64;+Trident/7.0;+rv:11.0)+like+Gecko

The result is that the application's browser compatibility check for IE fails initially, then succeeds after a page refresh.

The unfortunate customer experience is that, as of this weekend, they receive a message stating that their browser is not compatible with our application. They can work around this by refreshing a page refresh, but of course they won't know to do this without first calling support for assistance, and they have to remember to do it every time they open our application. Clearly this is undesirable.

ms-edge

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YuZhou-MSFT · Nov 23, 2021 at 09:00 AM

Hi @SteveMcKinney-6410

For better understanding the issue, I want to confirm something with you:

Do you mean the page doesn't load in IE mode at first, but load in IE mode after refreshing? Or the page load in IE mode at first but the user agent is wrong, and after refreshing the user agent becomes right? Please check if the IE mode "e" logo shows at the address bar. You can also provide screenshots of the issue.
Do you meet a similar issue like what in this doc about configuring neutral sites?
How do the customers configure IE mode policies?
If possible, could you please provide a minimal code sample or steps which can reproduce the issue? So that we can have a test and see how to help.

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SteveMcKinney-6410 YuZhou-MSFT · Nov 23, 2021 at 03:47 PM

Thanks for the response. In answer to your questions:

The page does load in IE mode at first (the IE mode 'e' logo is present in the address bar) but the user agent string seen at the server (as seen in the IIS log file) is incorrect, then is correct after a refresh. I will have captured and will attach some screenshots.
The section in the document you linked about configuring neutral sites does not seem to be relevant to the situation.
Customers install our web application on their own in-house servers, or on a cloud hosted server (we do not host). Larger customers with IT departments configure their own IE mode policies, for smaller customers our support staff assist with this.
We have an outward-facing demonstration website you could try hitting to see the problem. I'm hesitant to provide the url in a public forum; is there any way I can get it to your privately?

Allow me to emphasize again that our application was working fine until this weekend, with the latest stable channel IE update. I am not at this point aware of any user of our application that has received the update and is not experiencing the problem.

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SteveMcKinney-6410 YuZhou-MSFT · Nov 23, 2021 at 03:56 PM

Initial Request:

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2021-11-23-tsweb5-iemode-initial-request.jpg (117.3 KiB)

SteveMcKinney-6410 YuZhou-MSFT · Nov 23, 2021 at 03:58 PM

After Page Refresh:

151829-2021-11-23-tsweb5-ie-mode-after-page-refresh.jpg

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2021-11-23-tsweb5-ie-mode-after-page-refresh.jpg (98.1 KiB)

Answer 1 · 2021-11-24T08:04:49.727Z

YuZhou-MSFT answered Nov 24, '21 CraigChatterton-0805 published Nov 30, '21

Hi @SteveMcKinney-6410

Thanks for the detailed information and pointing out the issue.

I made a test by setting a sample site in IE Mode and I can reproduce the issue when I first load the site in Edge 96. After a refresh, IE Mode behaves normal.

I suggest that you can provide feedback about this issue to Edge team by pressing Alt+Shift+I in Edge. The Edge team will check the feedback and improve the products continuously. Thanks for your understanding.

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Regards,
Yu Zhou

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CraigChatterton-0805 · Nov 29, 2021 at 05:18 PM

Is there another way to report this issue other than pressing Alt+Shift+I in Edge? I ask because my organization (gov) has blocked that method of reporting to Microsoft.

As of 96.0.1054.34 this bug is still evident in Edge. It's affecting our application as well, causing problems. The nature of the problems do not allow us to "refresh" to fix it so we're at the mercy of this bug until it's fixed.

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YuZhou-MSFT CraigChatterton-0805 · Nov 30, 2021 at 08:12 AM

Hi @CraigChatterton-0805

Can you open the Windows Feedback Hub by pressing Windows key + F? If you can, you can also provide feedback there.
Besides, you can also post feedback of the issue in this community.

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CraigChatterton-0805 YuZhou-MSFT · Nov 30, 2021 at 03:15 PM

Windows Key + F is blocked too.

I went to the community and created this discussion. Thanks for the tip!

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Answer 2 · 2021-12-15T18:09:22.873Z

CraigChatterton-0805 answered Dec 15, '21

It looks like Edge v96.0.1054.53 has finally resolved this issue.

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