eWriter - Is it necessary to deliver the “WebView2Loader.dll” file?

[ThomasSch]

Hello,

We currently deliver our documentation in the following formats:
- eWriter
- HTLM5

With the eWriter format, we also deliver the files “WebView2Loader.dll” and "eViewer.exe" I believe this was recommended. I don't currently have any detailed information.

Question:
Is it necessary or recommended to deliver the “WebView2Loader.dll” file in eWriter format?

Best regards

[Alexander Halser]

Hi Thomas,
it's not mandatory, but recommended. “WebView2Loader.dll” is the loader DLL required for Microsoft Edge Webview2. The DLL must be in the same folder as the executable viewer in order to be recognized. When found, the eViewer attempts to use Microsoft Edge (aka Webview2) as the display engine, which implements a modern HTML engine based on Chromium. If this fails or if the “WebView2Loader.dll” is not present, it uses Internet Explorer as display engine. This is a safe fallback, as MSIE is present on older Windows versions. On most Win10 and Win11 installation, however, the Microsoft Edge engine should work. Open the About box to find out which engine is being used by an instance of eViewer.

[Tim Green]

Hi Thomas,

I would absolutely recommend including the DLL with your eViewer.exe deployment. If you don't, eWriter will be displayed using Windows' old WebView version 1, which is effectively Internet Explorer, and you really don't want to be using that any more. Note that this also works if you are still delivering EXE eWriter files, which are deprecated but still sometimes used. You just need to put the DLL in the same folder as the EXE eWriter file. If you include the DLL you will get Edge WebView2 on all current versions of Windows 10 and 11. It will only use the old WebView on very old and obsolete versions of Windows.

Note that if you are deploying eViewer.exe from the developer package (recommended) you can use either the 32-bit or 64-bit version, and then you must always include the matching version of the DLL from the same folder. With EXE eWriter you must always use the 32-bit DLL, because the embedded viewer is always the 32-bit version.

[ThomasSch]

Thank you Alexander and Tim

[ThomasSch]

Hello Alexander, hello Tim,

Thank you again for your detailed response. You have been providing premium support for many years.

I have now come across something strange. The latest update for eViewer 5.5 from 26 January 2026 contains the file ‘WebView2Loader.dll’ from 7 August 2023. I used the "eWriter Viewer Setup (32/64 Bit)".

In our backups, I found a newer version dated 24 February 2025. I think, that this file was inculded in eViewer 5.4 (I'm not sure for 100%, but I think so).

The WebView2 SDK from January 2026 can also be found on the internet.

Best regards, Thomas

[BertholdL]

Good morning,

This is a good question, I am interested in the answer as well.

In our company, we use the WebView2Loader.dll for other purposes apart from eWriter as well, and we usually use the newest version. So I am wondering whether our DLL would be good for the ewriter file as well, or could there be compatibility problems due do different DLL versions?

Best regards
Berthold

[Tim Green]

Since the loader DLL needs to be in the same folder as the eWriter file (.exe or .ewriter) you have to include it anyway, so it doesn't really matter which one you use, so long as it's 32 or 64 bit to match the eViewer version you're using. Give the newer one a try -- if it works for you, you're good to go.