Microsoft is bringing its WebView2 Edge runtime, which brings web components into apps on more Windows 10 consumer devices. WebView2, which is built on Microsoft’s Chromium-based Edge browser, is included in Windows 11 On Windows 10 devices, Microsoft has until now recommended that developers distribute and install the runtime with their apps.
WebView2 is a command for embedding web content in an application, for example in JavaScript and HTML. Edge serves as a rendering engine for displaying web content in apps. Microsoft says more than 400 million Windows 10 devices now have WebView2, thanks to developers distributing WebView2 apps. Microsoft now wants to go a step further by porting WebView2 to more Windows 10 devices, including those running the April 2018 Update, to reduce developer workload.
“Deploying the redistributable runtime allows developers to use WebView2 on devices that didn’t already have the runtime, but it comes with an increased development cost and has been a pain point for WebView2 developers,” says Limin Zhu, a Microsoft Edge manager.
No rollout to consumer devices
“Once we complete the rollout of the WebView2 runtime, which began today, developers will be able to more reliably rely on WebView2 being present on Windows 10 or later consumer devices, in addition to all Windows devices. 11, which will make deploying WebView2 applications much easier,” says Limin Zhu.
“With this rollout, we plan to cover consumer devices running Windows 10 April 2018 Update and later for Home and Professional editions. Managed devices are not included in the deployment,” it says.
According to him, the deployment of the WebView runtime will have “minimal disk space impact” on end-user devices.
No general public deployment for the moment
“The WebView2 runtime and the Microsoft Edge browser are ‘hard-linked’ together, meaning they only take up disk space of a single product when on the same version. This ensures that installing the WebView2 runtime has minimal impact on your device,” says Limin Zhu.
Microsoft says rollout of the runtime will happen in larger and larger waves as data and feedback is analyzed.
Note that a deployment on consumer fleets is not planned for the moment, Microsoft is currently limited to deployments on managed devices or those linked to a corporate domain.
Source: ZDNet.com
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