How to Enable and Use Internet Explorer in Windows 11 (3 Ways)
In June 2022, Microsoft officially retired Internet Explorer and stopped supporting all operating systems except LTSC and some versions of Windows Server. Basically, for the average user, Internet Explorer is dead, and there’s no easy way to access it in Windows 11. However, Internet Explorer is still needed to access websites built on older frameworks, mostly by government and financial institutions. So, in this article, we have added three ways to enable and use Internet Explorer in Windows 11. You will be able to run Internet Explorer (IE 11) in Windows 11 as before. On that note, let’s get down to the steps.
Enable and use Internet Explorer in Windows 11 (2022)
In this tutorial, we have included three ways to use Internet Explorer in Windows 11. The first two methods allow full access to OG Internet Explorer, while the latter allows you to load websites in IE mode in Microsoft Edge. Based on your needs, you can switch to the desired method using the table below.
Note:: For security reasons, I would not recommend using Internet Explorer for all your web activity. Use it occasionally only to access old and incompatible websites.
Start Internet Explorer in Windows 11 with a control panel trick
Thanks Xenopanther On Twitter, we recently discovered a cool trick to run full Internet Explorer on Windows 11. You do not need to download Internet Explorer 11. Instead, with a few clicks, you can open Internet Explorer in Windows 11 without much difficulty. That said, keep in mind that this trick doesn’t work on some builds of Windows 11. We tested it ourselves on the latest Windows 11 Stable and Dev builds and it worked without issue.
If Internet Explorer opens Microsoft Edge on your computer, go to the next method for a specific solution. In this regard, let’s move on to the steps.
1. First, press the Windows key to open the Start menu and search for “Internet options“. Now open it from the search result.
2. Next, go to the “Programs” tab and click “Manage add-ons“.
3. In the next window, click “Learn more about toolbars and extensions» in the lower left corner.
4. And that’s it. Internet Explorer will open directly on your Windows 11 PC.
Create a VBS shortcut to open Internet Explorer in Windows 11
Sure, you can enable IE mode in the Microsoft Edge browser (as mentioned below) to load legacy web apps, but if you want to actually access Internet Explorer in its native interface, a simple VBS script lets you do that. I tested the script on my PC running Windows 11 Pro 22H2 latest stable build (22621.819, November 8, 2022) and it worked like a charm. So follow the steps below and you are good to go.
1. First, right click on Desktop or anywhere you like and select New -> Text Document.
2. After the text file is opened, copy and paste below code in Notepad file.
CreateObject("InternetExplorer.Application").Visible=true
3. After that click File -> Save As.
4. Here, click on the drop-down menu next to “Save as type” and change it to “All files (*.*)“.
5. After that, set a name for the shortcut .vbs extension at the end. For example, I named the file Internet Explorer.vbs . Now save the file to a preferred location like your desktop.
6. As you can see, the VBS file has been created on the The table.
7. Now, double click on the VBS file, and there you have it. Internet Explorer 11 will open on your Windows 11 PC and it works flawlessly without any issues. From now on, you only need to double-click the VBS file to use IE 11.
Enable IE mode in Edge to use Internet Explorer in Windows 11
If you are happy using Microsoft Edge on your Windows 11 PC and occasionally need to load certain web pages in Internet Explorer, then you can rely on IE mode in Edge. It’s a seamless and secure solution that works really well without leaving a modern web browser. Having said that, let’s move on to the steps.
1. Open Microsoft Edge from the Start menu on your Windows 11 PC.
2. Then click on the 3-dot menu in the upper right corner and open the “Settings“.
3. Here go to “Default browser» menu in the left panel.
4. Once you’re here, change “Allow Internet Explorer to open websites in Microsoft Edge” to “Always (recommended)“.
5. After that, from the drop-down menu, change “Allow websites to reload in Internet Explorer mode (IE mode)” to “Allow” and click “Resume“.
6. Now click on Add next to Internet Explorer Mode Pages and enter the full URL of the web page. Be sure to add https:// or http:// to the beginning of the URL.
7. Now, before and open that particular URL in Edge and it will load the webpage in IE mode on Windows 11.
8. If you want to quickly reload pages in IE mode, open the 3-dot menu again and right-click “Reload in Internet Explorer mode”. Here select “Show in toolbar» option.
9. This will increase a button for IE mode In the Edge toolbar. Now when you are on the web page, click the IE mode button and it will load the web page in the old frame. Press the button again and it will turn off IE mode.
Use Internet Explorer 11 on Windows 11 with ease
So you can enable Internet Explorer in Windows 11 and use it to access old websites. I usually use IE mode in Microsoft Edge, but I guess there are some old-school users out there who are more used to Internet Explorer’s UI. Anyway, it’s all from us. If you want to enable Hyper-V on Windows 11 Home, visit our tutorial linked here. And we have a special guide for you to enable and test Smart App Control in Windows 11. Finally, if you have any questions, let us know in the comments section below.
