Selenium IE Driver: Run Tests in IE Mode in Edge

How to Set Up IEDriverServer

Download IEDriverServer from the selenium.dev downloads page, which lists version 4.14.0 for 32-bit and 64-bit Windows. Unzip IEDriverServer.exe into a folder on your PATH. If it is not on PATH, set the webdriver.ie.driver system property in Java or pass the path through the driver's Service object.

Required Windows Settings

The selenium.dev documentation lists these settings as required, and Microsoft's IE mode guide points back to the same list:

• Protected Mode - set the same value, on or off, for Internet, Local intranet, Trusted sites and Restricted sites under Tools, Internet Options, Security. A mismatch is the usual cause of NoSuchWindowException.
• Enhanced Protected Mode - disable it on IE 10 and later.
• Browser zoom - keep it at 100% so native mouse events land on the right coordinates.
• Display scaling - on Windows 10, set "Change the size of text, apps, and other items" to 100%.
• FEATURE_BFCACHE registry key - for IE 11 only, add a DWORD named iexplore.exe with value 0 under the key below, creating FEATURE_BFCACHE if it is missing.

32-bit vs 64-bit Driver

Use the 32-bit build, which the selenium.dev downloads page marks as recommended, even on 64-bit Windows. When this article was first written, the 64-bit driver typed into text fields very slowly on a 64-bit Windows machine, and switching to the 32-bit IEDriverServer brought sendKeys back to normal speed.

How to Run Selenium Tests in IE Mode

Each script below opens the Simple Form Demo on the Selenium Playground, types a message, and prints the field value and document.documentMode. A documentMode of 11 confirms the page is running in IE mode, not in Edge's Chromium engine. Run them on Windows with Microsoft Edge installed, after the settings above.

Python

Set attach_to_edge_chrome and edge_executable_path on IeOptions, then start webdriver.Ie with those options. If you run Python tests with pytest, the Selenium pytest tutorial shows how to move this into a fixture.

from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.common.by import By
from selenium.webdriver.support import expected_conditions as EC
from selenium.webdriver.support.ui import WebDriverWait

options = webdriver.IeOptions()
options.attach_to_edge_chrome = True
options.edge_executable_path = "C:/Program Files (x86)/Microsoft/Edge/Application/msedge.exe"

driver = webdriver.Ie(options=options)
try:
    driver.get("https://www.testmuai.com/selenium-playground/simple-form-demo/")
    field = WebDriverWait(driver, 20).until(
        EC.presence_of_element_located((By.ID, "user-message"))
    )
    field.send_keys("Typed in IE mode")
    print("input value =", field.get_property("value"))
    print("documentMode =", driver.execute_script("return document.documentMode"))
finally:
    driver.quit()

Java

In Java, attachToEdgeChrome() and withEdgeExecutablePath() are methods on InternetExplorerOptions.

import java.time.Duration;
import org.openqa.selenium.By;
import org.openqa.selenium.JavascriptExecutor;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebElement;
import org.openqa.selenium.ie.InternetExplorerDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.ie.InternetExplorerOptions;
import org.openqa.selenium.support.ui.ExpectedConditions;
import org.openqa.selenium.support.ui.WebDriverWait;

public class IeModeTest {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        InternetExplorerOptions options = new InternetExplorerOptions();
        options.attachToEdgeChrome();
        options.withEdgeExecutablePath("C:/Program Files (x86)/Microsoft/Edge/Application/msedge.exe");

        WebDriver driver = new InternetExplorerDriver(options);
        try {
            driver.get("https://www.testmuai.com/selenium-playground/simple-form-demo/");
            WebElement field = new WebDriverWait(driver, Duration.ofSeconds(20))
                .until(ExpectedConditions.presenceOfElementLocated(By.id("user-message")));
            field.sendKeys("Typed in IE mode");
            System.out.println("input value = " + field.getDomProperty("value"));
            System.out.println("documentMode = "
                + ((JavascriptExecutor) driver).executeScript("return document.documentMode"));
        } finally {
            driver.quit();
        }
    }
}

C#

In C#, AttachToEdgeChrome and EdgeExecutablePath are properties. Leave IntroduceInstabilityByIgnoringProtectedModeSettings off and fix the Protected Mode zones instead, since that flag hides the misconfiguration rather than removing it.

using System;
using OpenQA.Selenium;
using OpenQA.Selenium.IE;
using OpenQA.Selenium.Support.UI;

class IeModeTest
{
    static void Main()
    {
        var options = new InternetExplorerOptions
        {
            AttachToEdgeChrome = true,
            EdgeExecutablePath = "C:/Program Files (x86)/Microsoft/Edge/Application/msedge.exe"
        };

        using var driver = new InternetExplorerDriver(options);
        driver.Navigate().GoToUrl("https://www.testmuai.com/selenium-playground/simple-form-demo/");
        var wait = new WebDriverWait(driver, TimeSpan.FromSeconds(20));
        var field = wait.Until(d => d.FindElement(By.Id("user-message")));
        field.SendKeys("Typed in IE mode");
        Console.WriteLine("input value = " + field.GetDomProperty("value"));
        Console.WriteLine("documentMode = "
            + ((IJavaScriptExecutor)driver).ExecuteScript("return document.documentMode"));
    }
}

For PHP, the guide to opening IE and Edge in Selenium with PHP covers php-webdriver setup.