Enable Internet Explorer in Windows 11

Publish Date: April 4, 2022

Enable Internet Explorer in Windows 11

The all new Windows 11 has now been released globally and a lot of people have already updated their systems. I hope you’re enjoying the new experience in Windows 11. You might have already discovered that in latest version of Windows 10, Microsoft has disabled the Internet Explorer (IE). However, in Windows 10 you could go to the optional windows features and enable Internet Explorer optional feature. After enabling IE optional feature, you could use it; of course you will occasionally get nagged about switching to Edge but IE can still be used in Windows 10.

In Windows 11 unfortunately, Internet Explorer cannot be enabled anymore. Microsoft is now strictly pushing everyone to use their chromium-based Edge browser. Microsoft Edge works really great by the way, but there are still some folks out there who might miss old IE due to various reasons. One of the main reason is the support of some really old network devices like modems, routers, CCTV or some old business web apps that only work in Internet Explorer. If you do have such devices or web apps, I will show you a trick to enable Internet Explorer (IE) in Windows 11.

Use Internet Explorer in Windows 11

  • Create a new shortcut and type the following path under Location field:
    "C:\Program Files (x86)\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe" google.com -embedding
    Creating New Shortcut for Internet Explorer in Windows 11
    Creating New Shortcut for Internet Explorer in Windows 11

    You can replace google.com with anything; this will not open the exact URL but will open a Bing search page in IE.

  • When you run Internet Explorer using newly created shortcut, you will see the google.com (or whatever text you typed there) will open in Bing search in IE.

    Internet Explorer working on Windows 11
    Internet Explorer working on Windows 11

You can now open your business application in this Internet Explorer window. This trick is tested to work with Windows 11 Enterprise version 21H2 (Build 22000.795), which is the latest available public build. If it still doesn’t work, try the next option.

Enable Internet Explorer Mode in Edge

To enable IE mode, open Edge Settings, navigate to Default browser tab, and then select Allow dropdown under the option Allow sites to be reloaded in Internet Explorer mode. You will need to Relaunch your Edge browser and when it is relaunched, click on Add button and then add the URLs of all the legacy devices or web apps that you want to open in Internet Explorer mode. See the following screenshot for reference:

Enable IE mode in Edge in Windows 11
Enable IE mode in Edge in Windows 11

Once you do that, you can type the URL in Edge browser and notice that the webpage will open in IE compatibility mode.

Enabling IE compatibility mode in Edge

I hope you can now successfully run Internet Explorer in Windows 11. Many people criticize the idea of still using Internet Explorer but there are a lot of business applications that only work in Internet Explorer only. So, if you also have one of such web application, this trick will surely help you.



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