As Windows is evolving with every update, and now with the latest Windows 11, we have Microsoft edge as the default browser and Microsoft has officially planned to discontinue Internet Explorer on June 15, 2022.

This has put a lot of organizations clueless since most of them have relied on Internet Explorer. This is when Microsoft introduced Compatibility or IE mode inside the Microsoft Edge so that the organizations that relied on Internet Explorer don’t suffer.

Using the compatibility mode, users will be able to surf the internet and the websites of those organisations that are dependent to work on Internet explorer.

With the launch of the compatibility mode, users won’t need to access multiple browsers and they can simply use one single Edge browser for everything. This also gives the organizations some time to redesign their websites in the backend.

Enable Compatibility (IE) Mode in Edge

If you want to enable the compatibility mode on Edge you can follow through the tutorial below.

1. Open Microsoft Edge on your computer and then click on the Settings and more icon located on the top-right corner of the screen, you can also press Alt+F to launch the menu.
2. Now, you can select Settings from the list of options in the Edge menu.
3. You will see several tabs and options listed o the left window pane. You need to find and select the default browser.
4. Under the Internet Explorer compatibility, you need to click on the drop-down menu which is next to Allow sites to be reloaded in internet Explorer mode and then select Allow.
5. Next, you have to restart the browser for the changes to take effect. A restart button will appear at that place only, tap on the button and your browser will restart.
6. That’s it, the compatibility or IE mode is now enabled on your browser.

Open a Website in Compatibility Mode on Edge

After you have enabled the compatibility mode or the IE mode on the Edge from the settings you can now easily open a website in this mode.

To open a website in the Compatibility mode or the Internet Explorer mode on the Edge you can follow through the tutorial below.

1. Open Microsoft Edge on your computer and then open the website as you normally do.
2. After the webpage is loaded, right-click on the tab and then select Reload tab in Internet Explorer mode from the contextual menu.
3. Any website that opens in compatibility or the IE mode will have the internet Explorer icon displayed at the left navigation bar. Also, once you have opened the page, you can click on the Done button to hide the menu.

To exit the compatibility or the Internet Explorer mode for a particular website on Edge, you need to again right-click on the tab and then select Exit Tab from Internet Explorer mode.

Always Open a Website in Compatibility Mode

If you want your Microsoft Edge to always open a website in compatibility mode or IE mode, then you can do this by configuring a URL to open in compatibility mode for the next 30 days.

Below we have a quick and detailed guide on how you can set a website to always open in compatibility mode.

1. As soon as you open a website and switch to compatibility mode, a menu should pop up mentioning the same. You need to enable the toggle that says Open this page in Internet Explorer mode next time and then click on Done to save the changes.
2. To verify you can go to the settings of Edge and go to the default browser settings. Under the Internet Explorer mode pages section, you will be able to see the list of websites or URLs that have been configured to open in IE mode.
3. It will also mention the dates, as to when the website was added to the list and to which date it will automatically open in compatibility mode. (URLs are removed after 30 days of addition).

That’s all, you can now open and access websites compatible only with Internet Explorer on your default Microsoft Edge browser.

Since people are still trying to make a transition from Internet explorer to new browsers like Edge and chrome, the compatibility mode comes in handy for a lot of users.