First Published 9 Nov 2026	Last Updated 11 Nov 2026

Some time ago, Microsoft stated that the legacy, Internet Explorer-based Web Browser Control based on the Trident rendering engine would be deprecated at some unspecified future date.
The Access team also advised that developers should make plans to replace this with the Edge Browser Control well in advance of this event.

The Access team have now announced that the planned deprecation of this legacy Web Browser Control is targeted for May 18, 2027, with version 2705.
For Access LTSC 2024, the change is planned for May 11, 2027.



Implications for Access 365/2024 Users

This information was provided in a recent blog article by Courtney Owen: Deprecation of Legacy Web Browser Control

The blog article explains:
•   Why this change is taking place
      For security reasons, Microsoft retired the Internet Explorer 11 desktop application and ended its support on certain versions of Windows 10 on June 15, 2022.
      The deprecation of the legacy Web Browser Control follows on from that decision.

•   What effect this will have on your applications
      Once this deprecation takes place, legacy Web Browser Controls will no longer load or display web content.
      A new Access Option will be provided to automatically load them as Edge Browser Controls, but this will not be the default.

•   Who needs to take action
      All developers / users whose applications contain the legacy Web Browser Control.

•   How to convert an existing legacy Web Browser Control to the Edge Browser Control
      Inspect forms by opening in Design View and check for legacy Web Browser Controls, as distinct from Edge Browser Controls
      Make a backup of each affected form before making changes
      In Design View, right-click the legacy browser control(s), then select Change To | New browser control.


      Save and open the form in Form View to test it.

•   The need to review and test affected forms
      The object model used with the Edge Browser Control is different in several important ways and existing code will likely need modifying. See Use the Edge browser control on a form
      The Edge Browser Control does not expose the legacy control’s Object property or MSHTML object model.
      Code that directly accesses the HTML document or DOM through those interfaces will need rewriting. See EdgeBrowserControl object (Access)
      Use ExecuteJavascript to run JavaScript in the control and RetrieveJavascriptValue to retrieve the value of a JavaScript expression. Also review related event handlers.
      Review navigation and authentication processes for online content. Use Trusted Domains
      Paths to local files must be prefixed with https://msaccess.localhost

Each converted control should be thoroughly tested in the end users' Access environment before an updated database is deployed.
The official advice is to start preparing now to allow sufficient time to resolve any compatibility issues before deployment.



Older Access Versions

Older versions of Office that are already out of support won’t be affected by this change, but neither will they receive related compatibility or security fixes.

On those older versions, the existing legacy Web Browser Control may continue to work for some time on certain websites because it uses the Windows MSHTML/Trident platform.
However, there are no guarantees as to how long it will work or which individual websites will remain compatible.
There are already many examples of websites which do not work with the legacy browser control and it is likely that the number of websites that do work will continue to decline over time.

The practical guidance is therefore that existing applications may continue working, but they are untested and unsupported.
Customers who require reliable browser functionality should upgrade to a supported Access version and migrate to the Edge Browser Control.



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Colin Riddington	Mendip Data Systems	Last Updated 11 Nov 2026

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