Update webbrowser to use Edge as fallback instead of IE · Issue #102690 · python/cpython (original) (raw)

Feature or enhancement

webbrowser.py currently uses Internet Explorer as the fallback browser on Windows, if the user has no default browser, and no user-installed browsers are detected. I propose to update this code to use Microsoft Edge as the fallback instead.

Pitch

-IE is deprecated and no longer functional on most Windows installations today.
-Any Windows installation with current Python has had Microsoft Edge installed since release.
-It seems that certain enterprise policies will block the user from directly invoking IE (See this Github issue).
-While iexplore.exe currently redirects to Edge when executed, this PR makes the fallback behavior transparent.

Previous discussion

https://discuss.python.org/t/update-webbrowser-py-to-use-microsoft-edge-as-fallback-instead-of-ie/24791

Linked PRs