All Things Migration from Internet Explorer to Edge Chromium

Brandon Wilson & Tan Tran

Hi IT Pros,

We still get the questions about Internet Explorer migration to Edge Chromium once in a while, especially from Government Agency Customers, the questions usually related to the in-house legacy application’ compatibility and developer’s tools.

Today we discuss about all thing migration from IE to Edge, I have combined a check list of Edge’s features, how to run Edge in IE compatible mode and its limitations for your review. We also touch on the new Edge feature for developers, the Webview2 tool which will be available in the near future.

Migration from IE to Edge check list.

ActiveX control, Silverlight, Java

Objects (BHOs) like Silverlight or Java. However, if you’re running web apps that use ActiveX controls,

BHOs, or legacy document modes on Internet Explorer 11, you can configure them to

run in IE mode on the new Microsoft Edge

IE mode on Microsoft Edge makes it easy to use all of the sites your organization needs in a single

browser. It uses the integrated Chromium engine for modern sites, and it uses the Trident

MSHTML engine from Internet Explorer 11 (IE11) for legacy sites.

When a site loads in IE mode, the IE logo indicator displays on the left side of navigation bar. You can click the IE logo indicator to display additional information, as shown here:

Edge browser in IE mode, features and configuration:

Only those sites that you specifically configure (via policy) will use the IE mode:

Entering the site FQDN names in the Enterprise Mode Site List XML defined in one of these policies:

Microsoft Edge, “Configure the Enterprise Mode Site List”
Internet Explorer, “Use the Enterprise Mode IE website list”

The Microsoft Edge site list policy takes precedence over the Internet Explorer sitelist policy.

IE mode supports the following Internet Explorer functionality

All document modes and enterprise modes
ActiveX controls (such as Java or Silverlight)
Browser Helper Objects
Internet Explorer settings and Group Policies that affect the security zone settings and Protected Mode
The F12 developer tools for IE, when launch with IEChooser
Microsoft Edge extensions (Extensions that interact with the IE page content directly are not supported.)

IE mode doesn’t support the following Internet Explorer functionality – Internet Explorer toolbars.

Internet Explorer settings and Group Policies that affect the navigation menu (for example – search engines, and home pages). – IE11 or Microsoft Edge F12 developer tools with the exception of IEChooser.

Using GPO to enable Edge Enterprise mode (IE compatible mode)Computer configuration\Policies\Administrative template\Microsoft Edge Configure Internet Explorer integration Configure the Enterprise Mode Site List policy

Using GPO to enable IE Enterprise mode

Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Internet Explorer\Use the Enterprise Mode IE websitelist

More info:

If you know that your intranet sites are not going to work correctly with Microsoft Edge,you can configure Microsoft Edge GPO with setting named “set all intranet sites to open using IE11″to redirect intranet sites traffic to IE11 automatically as shown here:Computer configuration\Policies\Administrative template\Microsoft Edge

Edge could detect and automatically redirect traffic from IE to Edge if there isincompatible function.

Many modern websites have designs that are incompatible with Internet Explorer (IE). When an IE uservisits an incompatible public website, the user may get a message about incompatible browser.After the message, starting with version 84, IE will automatically redirects users to Microsoft Edge.

Redirection from Internet Explorer to Microsoft Edge requires an Internet Explorer Browser HelperObject (BHO) named “IEtoEdge BHO”.

The RedirectSitesFromInternetExplorerPreventBHOInstall policy controls whether or not this BHO is installed.

IE incompatible bannerIf IE detect a modern Web site and it is incompatible with:

A website incompatibility banner is displayed under the address bar for each redirection.
Users may continue to use IE for websites that are not on the IE compatibility list.
To Add or Remove Public site in compatible list : you could email your suggestion to ietoedge@microsoft.com
When a site is redirected from Internet Explorer to Microsoft Edge, the Internet Explorer tab that started loading the site is closed if it had no prior content. Otherwise, the active tab view goes to a Microsoft  support page that explains why the site was redirected to Microsoft Edge.

Microsoft Edge supported browser privacy with tracking prevention feature:

The tracking prevention feature in Microsoft Edge protects users from online tracking by restrictingthe ability of trackers to access browser-based storage as well as the network.

To configure, typing in the url address box: “edge://settings/privacy”
If any of the visited host names match with a host name on the Disconnect lists of Edge, Microsoft Edge proceeds with evaluating enforcement actions to prevent users from being tracked.
You could set 3 level of prevention as shown here:

To Unblock tracking prevention for Company’s Web Developer:

Microsoft is currently working on the Storage Access API in the Chromium codebase.

The Storage Access API gives site developers a way to request storage access from users directly, to quickly and intuitively unblock themselves.

Mitigation of “tracking prevention” for the companies belonged to the same Org or the Orgacquired by your Company:

Microsoft Edge exempts a site from tracking prevention when the site is making third-party requeststo other sites owned by the same parent organization (as defined in the Disconnect entities.json list)

Edge Security Best practice – Enabling SmartScreen to protect the system running Edge

Microsoft Defender SmartScreen is a service that Microsoft Edge uses to keep you safe while youbrowse the web. Microsoft Defender SmartScreen provides an early warning system, based onMicrosoft Security Intelligence about web sites ‘ reputation (Web site URL whitelist and Black list),against websites that might engage in phishing attacks or attempt to distribute malware through afocused attack.

SmartScreen is enable by default on Edge, you could prevent End User from acting to disable SmartScreen by using GPO. – Whenever there is a false positive blockage of legitimate Web URL, you should provide the information to the Defender SmartScreen Support Team to clear the blockage instead of disable the SmartScreen function
The following screenshot shown the report’s content:

More detail about how to report about smartsreen blocking a legitimate URL or an appropriatein-house Web application

Edge Security recommendation – Using Windows 10 Defender Application Guard (WDAG)

WDAG for Microsoft Edge is the strongest form of isolation today, users of Windows 10 Enterprise canrun the Microsoft Edge browser in a fully isolated hardware environment. Doing so provides thehighest level of protection against zero-day exploits, unpatched vulnerabilities, and web-basedmalware.
The WDAG use Hyper-V virtual container to provides a temporary environment for users toexperience the Internet. The ability to refresh the container when a user logs off means malware doesnot have a place to persist.

more detail at Making Microsoft Edge the most secure browser with Windows DefenderApplication Guard – Microsoft Security

Using Microsoft Edge DevTools to debug Office-Add-in:

When the Office add-in is running in Microsoft Edge, you can use the Microsoft Edge DevTools.

Run the add-in.
Run the Microsoft Edge DevTools.
In the tools, open the Local tab. Your add-in will be listed by its name.
Click the add-in name to open it in the tools.
Open the Debugger tab.
Choose the folder icon above the script (left) pane. From the list of available files shown in the dropdown list, select the JavaScript file that you want to debug.
To set a breakpoint, select the line. You will see a red dot to the left of the line and a corresponding line in the Call stack (bottom right) pane.
Execute functions in the add-in as needed to trigger the breakpoint.

About ClickOnce and DirectInvoke:

Currently, Edge Chromium doesn’t provide native support for ClickOnce or DirectInvoke.

ClickOnce and DirectInvoke are features available in IE and Microsoft Edge classic(version 45 and earlier) that support the use of a file handler to download files from a website.

ClickOnce requests are handled by the native file handler in Windows.

DirectInvoke requests are handled by a registered file handler specified by the website hostingthe file.

ClickOnce and DirectInvoke in Microsoft Edge | Microsoft Docs

Edge Group Policy list:

 Applies to Microsoft Edge version 77 or later (Edge Chromium).

NEW POLICIES
Name	Caption
BasicAuthOverHttpEnabled	Allow Basic authentication for HTTP
TargetBlankImpliesNoOpener	Do not set window.opener for links targeting _blank
WebWidgetAllowed	Allow the Web widget
WebWidgetIsEnabledOnStartup	Enable the Web widget at Windows startup

Available Browser policies

AVAILABLE POLICIES
Application Guard settings	Cast
Content settings	Default search provider
Extensions	HTTP authentication
Kiosk Mode settings	Native Messaging
Password manager and protection	Performance
Printing	Proxy server
Sleeping tabs settings	SmartScreen settings
Startup, home page and new tab page	Additional
IE redirection to Edge

To configure the group policy for a default file type and protocol associations configuration file:

Open the Group Policy editor and go to the Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\File Explorer.
Select Set a default associations configuration file.

Importing other Browser’s favorite items into Microsoft Edge:

Open Microsoft Edge and select Settings and more at the top corner of the window.

Select Favorites > Import.

Under Import from, select the browser from which you want to import your favorites or select Favorites or bookmarks HTML file.

More Edge features and documents:

Reference:

This article was originally published by Microsoft's ITOps Talk Blog. You can find the original article here.

Tags: Artificial Intelligence, Authentication, Best Practice, Group Policy, How To, Hyper-V, Networking, Storage, Threat Intelligence

Webview2	WebView2 is Microsoft’s new embedded web control (11-19-2020), built on top of Microsoft Edge (Chromium). The Microsoft Edge WebView2 control enables you to embed web technologies (HTML, CSS, and JavaScript) in your native applications Contact Webview2 team
Edge browser 46 tips	Microsoft Edge Tips
Deploy and Update Edge by SCCM	https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/mem/configmgr/apps/deploy-use/deploy-edge
All Edge Documents	Microsoft Edge documentation – Microsoft Edge Development \| Microsoft Docs

Migration from IE to Edge check list.

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