What is WebView2 for Windows 10 users, and how does it differ from Electron?

In June 2022, Microsoft announced that they would provide the WebView2 runtime for all Windows 10 devices running updates from at least April 2018. The primary reason is to make the benefits of web content development technology easily accessible to Windows 10 users. Currently, the WebView2 technology helps power many web applications, including Microsoft Office.

In this article, Buffcom.net will examine WebView2, compare it to Electron, and explore the impact of WebView2 on web-based applications.

What is WebView2?

WebView2 is a control feature that allows users to include web technologies such as HTML and JavaScript in their content applications. This Microsoft Edge Runtime feature currently operates by default on the Windows 10 operating system.

The connection to Microsoft Edge ensures that the runtime takes up a limited amount of disk space in a product if they have the same version. This ensures that the WebView installation has the least possible impact on your PC.

How does WebView2 differ from competitors like Electron?

There are several differences between WebView2 and its competitor, Electron JS, particularly in how they render web content. At first glance, their rendering models look quite similar. However, there are several key differences.

1. Build foundation

Both technologies rely on Chromium. However, WebView2 is more limited in operation than Microsoft Edge. Electron allows developers to create cross-platform applications that run on desktops while hosting them as web applications. This technology works as an interface between the application and the desktop.

On the other hand, WebView is a technology that works as part of an application to display web content.

Building based on Chromium or Edge also affects the type of platform the technology can run on. Electron works well on Mac, Linux, and Windows, while the only platform for WebView2 is Windows.

2. Application programming interface (API)

Electron has APIs for almost every application need, such as accessing the file system and notifications. However, WebView2 does not provide APIs for its desktop applications.

However, when it comes to language, Electron and WebView support using JavaScript, CSS, and HTML when building applications.

3. Rendering process

There is a slight difference in how these technologies display their applications. The Electron process model is divided into the main process and the rendering process.

The main process operates in the Node.js environment and acts as the entry point for individual applications. It is then divided into different rendering processes to display the application content.