The Internet Explorer Browser Control (often referred to as the WebBrowser ActiveX control or SHDocVw/MSHTML engine) is an embedded component that allows developers to render web pages directly inside desktop software. What is the Internet Explorer Controller?
For decades, Microsoft provided this control so that developers using frameworks like Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), WinForms, WPF, and Delphi could build a mini-browser right inside their applications. It relies on the ancient Trident (MSHTML) rendering engine—the core layout engine originally built for Internet Explorer.
If you have ever seen an interactive Google Map embedded inside a legacy Microsoft Access form or an automated script in Excel that scrapes a website via VBA, it was likely utilizing this exact controller. Is It Still Supported?
The support status depends entirely on how you interact with it: Microsoft Community Hub
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