[Tip] Enable Hidden Secret IE Mode in Microsoft Edge Web Browser

Many times while browsing Internet, you may find some legacy websites which are not compatible with Chromium-based Microsoft Edge web browser. Most of the websites specially organization, university, etc are designed to be fully compatible with Internet Explorer web browser and only open in Internet Explorer or open broken/partially in other web browsers. When you encounter a website incompatible with Microsoft Edge browser, you may need to open it separately using Internet Explorer.

Launching Internet Explorer and then opening the specific website separately will waste your time and may also annoy you. Wouldn’t it be great if you could open incompatible websites using Internet Explorer’s rendering engine (Trident) directly right from Microsoft Edge browser?

Microsoft Edge comes with a hidden secret IE Mode (Internet Explorer Mode) feature which allows users to open websites using IE rendering engine inside Edge browser. So you can enjoy Internet Explorer’s rendering engine features right inside Microsoft Edge browser.

IE Mode helps users in opening incompatible websites properly in Microsoft Edge browser using IE rendering engine.

We told you about this feature in UPDATE 6 in our exclusive Microsoft Edge Canary Builds Updates topic when Microsoft Edge version 75.0 was under development and testing phase. Now the feature is fully functional and available in stable versions.

By default, IE Mode is deactivated and disabled in Microsoft Edge browser and interested users need to manually activate and enable it.

If you also want to turn on and enjoy IE Mode feature in Microsoft Edge web browser, following steps will help you:

STEP 1: Activate and Enable IE Mode in Microsoft Edge

First of all we’ll need to activate and enable IE Mode feature in Microsoft Edge using a hidden preference/flag.

1. Open Microsoft Edge web browser and type edge://flags/ in addressbar and press Enter. It’ll open the advanced configuration or experiments page.

2. Now type integration in the “Search flags” box.

It’ll directly go to following option:

3. To activate and enable IE Mode, select IE Mode for Enable IE Integration option from the drop-down box.

4. Microsoft Edge will ask you to restart the browser. Click on “Restart” button to restart Microsoft Edge.

You have successfully activated and enabled IE Mode feature in Microsoft Edge web browser.

Although IE Mode feature has been turned on but you’ll not be able to use it unless you follow the next step given below:

STEP 2: Launch Microsoft Edge with IE Mode Enabled

After activating and enabling IE Mode feature, you’ll need to launch Microsoft Edge using a special command-line parameter to be able to enjoy IE Mode feature.

1. Right-click on Microsoft Edge’s shortcut (present on desktop, start menu, taskbar, etc) and select Properties.

2. Now add following text at the end of the string present in Target text box:

Remember there must be a blank space between existing text string and the appended string.

3. Click on Apply button.

Now you are ready to use IE Mode feature in Microsoft Edge web browser.

STEP 3: Open Websites Using IE Mode in Microsoft Edge

Launch Microsoft Edge using the new shortcut. Microsoft Edge will show a warning message or notification below the toolbar mentioning “You’re using an unsupported command-line flag: –ie-mode-test. This poses stability and security risks.”.

You don’t need to worry about the warning message. You can safely ignore it.

Now click on Main Menu (3-dots menu) and select “More tools -> Open sites in Internet Explorer mode” option.

It’ll create a new tab using IE Mode feature. Every site opened in this new tab will be opened using Internet Explorer’s rendering engine. Microsoft Edge will show a notification message at the top mentioning “All sites in this tab will be opened in Internet Explorer mode.”.

Now you can open any desired website by typing its address or URL in the address bar. It’ll now open in IE Mode.

You’ll also notice IE Mode special logo or icon showing in the beginning of address bar. Clicking on the icon launches a fly-out showing information that the page has been opened in Internet Explorer mode.

Once you close the tab, you’ll exit from IE Mode.

PS: You can access IE Mode diagnostic information using edge://compat/iediagnostic page in Microsoft Edge.

Also Check:

[Tip] How to Enable Enterprise Mode in Internet Explorer 11 and Later?

[Tip] Enable Full Restricted Mode in Internet Explorer Web Browser