WebViev2 Runtime Update Policy on Evergreen Distribution

Question

WebViev2 Runtime Update Policy on Evergreen Distribution

Yosua Amadeus Susanto 1

I have a question regarding manual installation of WebView2 runtime update when we’re using Evergreen distribution.
At the beginning we installed the runtime using the offline installation of the Evergreen mode.
We would like to prevent automatic update of the runtime, and only allow manual update.

I’ve read the information on this and this link.
Based on my understanding, WebView2 runtime update will first look in the Runtime channel, but there is no channel-specific update policy for it. Will the update policy follow any specific channel? Or should we prevent the update by setting the “Update policy override default” to “Updates disabled”? If we set the default policy to disabled, I think we can still have auto-update for the main Edge browser by setting the “Update policy override” for the Stable channel.

Later on, when we would like to manually update the runtime, can we do it by running the new version of the offline installer?

Please let me know if my understanding is correct. Thank you.

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Answer 1

Anonymous

Hi @Yosua Amadeus Susanto

From the doc, the Update and UpdateDefault policies only say they can handle Microsoft Edge updates in the description. From my understanding, they're only applied to Edge browser.

From this doc, it says WebView2-specific policies are coming soon. So, I think there's no specific group policy to disable WebView2 automatic update now. I think the best way to prevent automatic update of WebView2 is to install a fixed version of WebView2 Runtime.

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Regards,
Yu Zhou

Yosua Amadeus Susanto 1 Reputation point

2021-04-15T07:50:35.033+00:00

Hi Yu Zhou,

Thanks for your answer. I agree that the doc on Update and UpdateDefault policies seem to only talk about Edge browser.
However, from this doc, regarding "Microsoft Edge - Update policies", the description seems to indicate that the policy also applies to WebView2 runtime and it is available now.

If my understanding is incorrect, will the Update policy specific to the WebView2 runtime come at a later date?
If so, do you have the approximate timeframe for its release?
Anonymous

2021-04-16T03:07:00.06+00:00

Hi @Yosua Amadeus Susanto

This doc says Unless a policy, such as Update, is channel-specific, it applies to both the browser and WebView2 Runtime, so we can infer that Update policy is an exception. It's channel-specific and only applies to Edge browser. But it doesn't say if there're other exceptions and we need to make judgments based on the detailed descriptions of the policies.

The doc says WebView2-specific policies will come soon, but I don't know the timeline for its release. You can check the page of group policies for WebView2 frequently to see if there're any updates.

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WebViev2 Runtime Update Policy on Evergreen Distribution

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