Evergreen Webview2 ((better)) -
To wrap up: is Microsoft’s strategic solution for hosting web content in native apps. It combines the best of both worlds: the rich capabilities of Chromium with the deployment simplicity of automatic updates.
In software development, "evergreen" means the software automatically updates itself in the background without user intervention. You don't download version 2.0; you just wake up one day and you are on version 2.0.
The Bootstrapper is a small installer that downloads the Evergreen Runtime matching the device's architecture and installs it locally. Because it's lightweight (typically only a few megabytes), it can be bundled directly within your application installer or fetched on-demand. evergreen webview2
: Because multiple apps share a single copy of the runtime, it reduces disk space requirements. On eligible systems, the runtime and Microsoft Edge binaries are hard-linked for better performance and a smaller memory footprint.
: While the runtime updates automatically, a running application will keep using the version it started with. To apply updates without a full app restart, you can use the NewBrowserVersionAvailable event to notify users or refresh your web environment Forward Compatibility : Test your application against Edge preview channels To wrap up: is Microsoft’s strategic solution for
Use the Edge Canary or Dev channels to test your app against upcoming versions of the engine. This ensures that a future update won't break your UI.
Multiple apps share a single Evergreen WebView2 Runtime installation rather than each bundling a 300MB+ browser engine. You don't download version 2
However, if your app supports older Windows environments or stripped-down enterprise deployment images, your installer should verify its presence. You can bundle the —a tiny 2MB executable provided by Microsoft—with your installer. If the installer detects the runtime is missing, the bootstrapper downloads and configures the latest shared components silently. Step 2: Code Initialization (C# Example)
: Since the runtime is shared across all applications using the Evergreen mode, it saves significant disk space compared to the "Fixed Version" mode, which requires a dedicated copy for every app Microsoft Learn Hard-linking
Choosing the Evergreen distribution model provides several critical advantages for product teams and enterprise administrators: 1. Reduced Application Footprint
