Microsoft announced that it is now rolling out WebView 2 Runtime, based on the version of Edge running Chromium, to users on Windows 10. Microsoft introduced WebView 2 a while ago, but it’s not included in Windows 10 itself, although it ships with Windows 11 .
Until now, if developers wanted to develop an application that uses WebView 2 to display web content, they would have to package WebView 2 Runtime with their applications. This could be a bootstrapper installer, which installs the runtime for the entire operating system and keeps it up to date, or a stable version, which was more appropriate to ensure compatibility with the features offered by the application. However, this was extra work for the developers.
When the rollout of the WebView 2 Runtime for Windows 10 is complete, developers no longer have to worry about packing it into their apps, and they can safely expect the Runtime to also be installed on computers with supported versions of Windows. The rollout targets the Windows 10 April 2018 Update (version 1803) or later, so this should cover the majority of Windows 10 devices. Microsoft says that startup should have “little impact” on available disk space on your device, so it shouldn’t be A source of concern.
It is worth noting that this offering is aimed only at consumer devices. This means Windows 10 Home and Pro editions, as long as they are not registered and managed by an organization (especially for Pro editions). Likewise, enterprise SKUs are not included, at least for now. Microsoft says it is evaluating future rollout plans, but for now, only consumers can take advantage of that.
Microsoft hasn’t said exactly how this rollout is done, nor how long we should expect it to take for the rollout to be complete. However, this is good news for developers who create web-based applications, as they will be able to target more versions of Windows at the same time as WebView 2. It should also improve the experience of consumers who use these applications.
Source: Microsoft