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Users benefit because clients behave the same way and features arrive faster. Microsoft benefits by writing a feature once for multiple clients. If WebView2 isn’t available, the features can’t work. New features like the Room Finder and Meeting Insights built for OWA use WebView2 as a rending engine, and the presence of the WebView2 runtime allows Outlook desktop to use the features without any changes (Figure 1). In a nutshell, Microsoft wants to be able to write software once and use it in multiple Outlook clients. WebView2 is a critical part of OWA Powered Experiences (OPX). Instead, it’s using the Office distribution channel as a convenient way to make sure that the WebView2 component is available on PCs. Edge isn’t installed and your choice of default browser remains intact. People became upset when they read the announcement and wondered if this was another cunning plan from Microsoft to force everyone to use Edge. Getting back to the point, installing the WebView2 runtime is like installing the Visual C++ 2008 redistributable, a much beloved inclusion in Windows updates. Edge is a nice browser, even if its sleeping tabs sometimes cause disruption for SharePoint, and I have nearly broken my Chrome habit to use Edge exclusively. Other devices can get the runtime by installing the Edge browser. Only Windows PCs are affected and only those which have Microsoft 365 apps for enterprise. Those in the current channel not using the preview should see the change in April, unless your Office 365 tenant is hosted in a sovereign cloud or GCC (including High and DoD) where this action won’t happen. I’m running version 2102 (Current channel -preview) and never noticed the arrival of WebView2. Microsoft published message center notification MC242585 ( Microsoft 365 roadmap item 70699) on March 3 to bring the news that devices running the Microsoft 365 apps for enterprise (aka Office click to run) will get the Edge WebView2 runtime along with version 2101 (or later).

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