Add URL for more than 30 days under Internet Explorer mode pages under Edge Browser

Question

As we know new Edge versions are coming with IE mode option where we can add legacy application URL to make it run with IE Mode option. However, this option is available with 30 days limitation & after this expiry we again have to add that URL to continue.

Anyone knows option to modify this 30 days expire or is it possible by using any script / by configuring any policies for browser?

Thanks in advance.

Moonstruck

Answer 1

You should turn on Enterprise mode and manage the site list from a centralized location, that would solve your issue. That feature you are talking about is intended to be used temporary by the user for 30 days until you add that site to the centralized Site list.

Users can reload sites in IE mode. They can add these sites to their local site list to automatically render in IE mode for a period of 30 days, while the organization’s site list gets updated. When IE11 is disabled in your environment, your users are no longer solely dependent on the organization’s site list.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/internet-explorer/ie11-deploy-guide/turn-on-enterprise-mode-and-use-a-site-list

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/deployedge/edge-ie-mode-local-site-list#:~:text=Users%20can%20reload%20sites%20in%20IE%20mode.%20They,longer%20solely%20dependent%20on%20the%20organization%E2%80%99s%20site%20list.

Alkalize

That doesn't work very well when you have hundreds of users using home devices to access a site that requires IE mode. – Splayfoot

Answer 2

I've written a script that will set your Edge IE Mode pages to a "Date added" in 2099, which causes the expiry to also be in 2099. The script is maintained on GitHub:

IEModeExpiryFix

The script requires no modifications to set the expiry on URLs that are already in Edge's IE Mode list, but also provides an option to add entries to IE Mode pages.

The download includes VBScript and PowerShell versions of the script.

See the web page for further details.

Active

The script currently does not work if Edge profile sync is enabled. The script makes the change, but the sync process reverts the Preferences to the previous version. I'm currently looking for a solution. Any help would be greatly appreciated. – Active

I haven't been able to find a way to work with a signed-in Edge account. It only works with local Edge profiles. The script will now display an error message and then exit if Edge is signed-in. – Active

Hi it doesn't delete the entries, when I try to delete manually. Is there a script to delete these entries? – Colleen

That will happen if the URL has mixed case, lacks a trailing slash (for site or folder references), or includes a trailing slash for file references such as .html or .aspx. Please check your URLs for these issues. You can use the FindReplace feature to correct such entries. – Active

Note that when you manually add an IE Mode page via Edge, it corrects those issues automatically. The current version of the script forces lowercase, but does not fix slashes for you because that would require more complexity (e.g. a lookup table to know when a trailing slash is required). Hint: test your URLs manually in Edge first. – Active

@InfantPro'Aravind' I forgot to @ your name in my two replies above. Please let me know if my replies helped. – Active

It definitely helped :) Sorry for writing your code as "my code" in other post. :) I have already +1 on this answer. – Colleen

Script revised to now also update Edge Beta, Dev, and Canary profiles. – Active

Script revised to only force lowercase on the domain part of the URL. – Active

Script revised to add option to clear (remove) all IE Mode entries, automatic Preferences backup now created, and a more detailed startup message is displayed. – Active

Please, is there an equivalent registry setting? – Raynata

@Raynata No. If there was, the script would be pointless. As noted in other answers, there is a GPO to extend the expiry and, using Enterprise mode in an AD environment, you can have a centralized site list with no expiry. Otherwise the only other alternative is to run IE directly and avoid the expiry issue altogether. See LaunchIE. – Active

Answer 3

You can use this policy InternetExplorerIntegrationLocalSiteListExpirationDays to modify the days that a site remains on the local IE mode site list.

If you enable this policy, you must enter the number of days for which the sites are retained on the user's local site list in Microsoft Edge. The value can be from 0 to 90 days.

• GP name: Specify the number of days that a site remains on the local IE mode site list
• GP path: Administrative Templates/Microsoft Edge/

Gauldin

Just a quick query on this, InternetExplorerIntegrationLocalSiteListExpirationDays is limiting to add URL for 90 days only. Is there any way out to extend beyond this or keep it permanent until current Edge browser version exit on computer? – Moonstruck

If you want to keep it permanent, you can't set local site list in Edge browser, you need to configure IE mode policies according to this doc. After setting the policies, the sites in the Enterprise Mode IE website list will load in IE mode permanently. – Gauldin

Hello @YU Zhou, Do you have any idea about how to achieve this using vb macros - set WshShell=WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell") WshShell.run "msedge.exe" WshShell.sendkeys "edge://settings/defaultBrowser" WshShell.sendkeys "{ENTER}" I am able to launch browser with settings page but not sure how to click on add button? – Moonstruck

@YuZhou: "If you want to keep it permanent, you can't set local site list in Edge browser, you need to configure IE mode policies according to this doc." - thank you, very helpful. I just wonder ... why? Just why? :S – Ileac