Works in VBA (Excel, Access, Word, Outlook, PowerPoint, Visio, Project), VB6, VB.NET, C#, C++, Delphi, Python, PowerShell, AutoIt — and any COM host.
LiteView2 is a Chromium WebView2 ActiveX control that replaces the legacy IE WebBrowser control in VBA. Your forms, business logic, and data layer stay in VBA unchanged. Only the browser-interaction code path migrates — from MSHTML object model calls to LiteView2's 270+ WebView2-style API methods. For most apps, that is hours to days of focused work on one code path, not months on the whole application.
30-day commercial trial · No telemetry · Same APIs in trial and production · Works in 32-bit and 64-bit
"The biggest impact is there will not be any security updates anymore." — Microsoft Q&A (question 849067), on the legacy WebBrowser control after Internet Explorer end-of-support
"The classic WebBrowser control in Access is based on the legacy Internet Explorer (IE) engine, which Microsoft has deprecated and disabled." — devhut.net, Access WebBrowser article
"existing WebBrowser Control uses have to be completely redesigned to run in the new EdgeBrowser" — devhut.net, Microsoft Access: Modern Web Browser article
Internet Explorer reached end-of-support on June 15, 2022. The legacy WebBrowser control is built on the IE engine (MSHTML). After that date, it received no further security updates. It continues to function on most Windows versions but renders pages using an engine that is years behind modern HTML, CSS, and JavaScript standards — and accumulates unpatched security vulnerabilities over time.
The control also has documented issues in 64-bit Office environments and fails silently on sites that require modern TLS versions or ES6+ JavaScript. For developers shipping internal tools and dashboards, this is an increasing problem as the web pages their controls load grow more modern.
LiteView2 is not a drop-in replacement with identical APIs. WebView2 (Chromium) and MSHTML (Internet Explorer) are fundamentally different browser engines with different object models. Here is the honest scope breakdown:
The call patterns are different but the scope is narrow. Here is the same operation in the legacy MSHTML model vs LiteView2:
' Navigate
WebBrowser1.Navigate "https://example.com"
' Read DOM element
Dim doc As Object
Set doc = WebBrowser1.Document
Dim val As String
val = doc.getElementById("user-email").value
' Run JavaScript
WebBrowser1.Document.parentWindow _
.execScript "myFunction()", "JavaScript"
' No JSON engine — parse manually' Navigate
m_lv.Navigate "https://example.com"
' Read DOM element (no Document object needed)
Dim val As String
val = m_lv.GetElementValueById("user-email")
' Run JavaScript
m_lv.ExecuteScript "myFunction()"
' Built-in JSON engine
Dim j As Object
Set j = CreateObject("LiteView2.Json")
Debug.Print j.GetValue(response, "$.user.name")LiteView2 supports two deployment paths so you can match your environment:
regsvr32 LiteView2_x64.ocx once per machine (admin required). Drop the control on any form from the Toolbox. VBA events fire automatically.
Microsoft's Edge Browser Control is documented as available "in Access desktop databases" only. It is not available in Excel, Word, Outlook, PowerPoint, VB6, or any other host. LiteView2 works in all of those. See the full feature comparison.
Rewriting an Access app with tens of thousands of lines of VBA in .NET WinForms is a 6–18 month project. Electron means redistributing a 200MB runtime per install. LiteView2 keeps your entire app in VBA — only the browser-interaction code path migrates from the MSHTML object model to WebView2-style APIs. For most existing apps, that is hours to days of focused work on one code path, not months on the whole application.
CefSharp is an excellent .NET binding — it has no VBA or ActiveX story. Community OCX wrappers are valuable but typically labeled beta by their own authors and ship without commercial support. LiteView2 is commercially supported software: releases are signed, bug reports are triaged, and licensing is unambiguous for enterprise deployment.
The WebBrowser control is based on the Internet Explorer engine. Microsoft stated on their Q&A platform that "The biggest impact is there will not be any security updates anymore" following IE end-of-support on June 15, 2022. The control continues to load on supported Windows versions but receives no security updates.
Modern HTML5 pages work better with LiteView2 than with the legacy IE engine — LiteView2 uses Chromium (the same engine as Google Chrome) which supports current HTML, CSS, and JavaScript standards. Pages that relied on IE-only behaviours (ActiveX plugin objects, conditional comments, VBScript in the page) will need updating, but those are already broken in modern browsers.
Yes. LiteView2 ships both LiteView2_x86.ocx (for 32-bit Office) and LiteView2_x64.ocx (for 64-bit Office). In Reg-Free Mode the bootstrap module auto-selects the correct file using the #If Win64 Then conditional. Both files are included in the trial download.
WebView2 Runtime is pre-installed on Windows 10 (version 1809+) and Windows 11 via Windows Update, and is included with Microsoft 365. On older systems without the runtime, LiteView2 displays a one-time prompt to install it. The runtime install takes under 30 seconds and does not require admin rights on most configurations.
Yes. The 30-day trial includes all 270+ methods, all 59 events, the JSON engine, both registered and reg-free modes, and commercial use. No feature is locked during the trial. Download the trial and follow the 5-minute quickstart.
Your forms, business logic, and data layer stay in VBA. Only the browser-interaction code path migrates. Free 30-day trial, full functionality.
Download free 30-day trialSee also: LiteView2 vs Edge Browser Control · WebView2 ActiveX for VBA · Deploy without admin rights · Reg-Free Mode deep dive