At one point in time the New (Modern) Web Browser Control was scheduled for General Availability (GA) for October 2021. Then it was pushed back to September 2022. Then it was removed from the Roadmap altogether! Recently, it reappeared with a GA date of March 2023 and then a second entry appeared stating April 2023. I guess it got pushed back again, but the previous entry wasn’t removed.
Well, I finally have some good news! No really.
The Access Dev Team has finally released a preliminary version of the New (Modern) Web Browser Control which is now available to Beta and Insider users if they upgrade to build 16.0.16224.2000 or greater.
So this has not officially been released in the main production update channels, but is available for people who like to push the limits, test new features, …, but that’s exactly what the Dev Team is after. They are wanting feedback so they can address any potential issues prior to officially releasing it to the public. So if you do take it for a test drive, please submit your feedback, positive or negative, so hopefully everything can be ironed out before going GA! If you do report problems, be sure to include a means to follow-up with you (ie your e-mail address) and repo steps! As always, the best way to communicate feedback to the Access Dev Team is to use the Feedback command within Access itself (File => Feedback).
Do note that documentation is still not available (see below), but should be coming out shortly.
Official Announcement
Can I provide links to official sources on the matter?
NO.
That’s the sad reality. The Access Dev Team has not posted any information on the roadmap, nor on the Access Blog to remotely indicate that they have released a beta version of this long, long awaited feature. You’d think they’d be screaming this out loud, promoting their work … , but you’d be wrong.
MVPs were simply notified yesterday and that’s all the information I have available at this time. Hence, since they haven’t posted anything, anywhere, I decided to do so and try and get the word out.
Documentation!
Microsoft just published some documentation on the new control:
The General Support documents still have not been released though.
Page History
| Date | Summary of Changes |
|---|---|
| 2023-03-14 | Initial Release |
| 2023-03-16 | Added Documentation! section |
| 2023-05-23 | Added the box with link to my article about the new control and how to implement it |
Hi Daniel,
Thank you for sharing your thoughts on the matter. I was unable to determine how to make the new edge browser control work with local HTML file paths. I was attempting to upgrade your tinymce WYSIWYG code to version 6, but unfortunately we are unable to run non-hosted HTML files. Instead, it opens the actual web browser (popup) for any local files. Could you please test this and let me know if there is a simple solution to run an HTML file that is located on a location such as CurrentProject.Path, and not on localhost or the web?
I also encountered the same issue when attempting to open a simple HTML file with/without any javascript.
Thank you,
Mohsin
You need to use the Feedback button in Access to send your findings to the Access Dev Team.
I’m not surprised there are issues. And I’m not surprised things may not be obvious as we are working without documentation!
If you are not an office insider and want to try out the new edge browser control, follow these steps:
Right-click on your legacy web browser control (if not add one to your form in design view).
Choose “Change To” and then select the “new browser control”
Enjoy 🙂
Screenshot as a quick reference: https://abcwork.xyz/EdgeBrowserControl.png
Hi,
I have a release which is later, but the option “change to” remains disabled (grayed) to the legacy control.
(Microsoft® Access® for Microsoft 365 MSO (Version 2303 Build 16.0.16227.20202) 64-bit )
Any ideas why?
TIA
I’m afraid I can’t help. I wish I knew. All I can recommend is posting in a good forum, probably one of your best options is: https://www.access-programmers.co.uk/forums/.
Bonjour,
J’utilise le nouveau contrôle du navigateur Edge sur mes projets visual studio, vraiment tres intéressant. Les pages s’affichent très bien.
Thanks Daniel Pineault, also to the user plabrie for the trick, I didn’t know, it worked…