Operating Systems

Browser Support

Important Browser Notes

Assistive Technologies

Important Assistive Technologies notes

Microsoft Client Side End-User Technologies Support

Microsoft Client Side Developer Technologies Support

Operating Systems

Important Operating Systems Notes

1.  Mainstream support for Microsoft Vista ended on April 10, 2012, and extended support ended on April 11, 2017, which was before the release date of Pega 7.4.  Therefore, Microsoft Vista has been removed from the chart. 

Browser Support

Browser support varies for different versions of Pega Platform™.

Important Browser Notes

1. The performance of Pega software (like any other browser-based software) is dependent upon the browser that it is running on. For the Pega Infinity version 8.x software, among the browsers we support (listed in the previous sections), Google Chrome performs the best, both in its rendering performance and its interactivity, as well as being superior in memory management and garbage collection. Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge, and Safari (on Mac) are also closely comparable in performance to Chrome.

Microsoft Internet Explorer 11 performs the worst among all the supported browsers. Other browsers have innovated heavily over the last few years, while Internet Explorer 11 is purely in maintenance mode. It uses an old and proprietary rendering engine, runs as a single process on the operating system, and has suboptimal memory management. We do continue to support Internet Explorer 11, because many of our customers have standardized on IE11 due to other legacy software that only works on Internet Explorer 11 and prior versions of Internet Explorer.

For Pega Infinity, we recommend that our customers move away from Internet Explorer 11 in favor of using Chrome, Firefox, or Edge Chromium to get the best performance from their Pega applications.  Beginning in the Pega Platform 8.6 release, Internet Explorer will no longer be supported.

As of June 15, 2022, Microsoft has ended support for Internet Explorer 11.  To ease the transition away from IE11, Microsoft has added a mode in Edge Chromium called "IE mode."  This mode allows application developers to run the old Internet Explorer 11 JavaScript engine (MSHTML Trident engine) inside Chromium-based Edge.  Pega supports Edge Chromium IE Mode for Pega Platform versions earlier than 8.6.  For details, see Preparing to use Internet Explorer mode in Edge Chromium after Internet Explorer 11 EOL.

2.  Microsoft is ending support for the Edge browser in March 2021.  Therefore, Pega is ending support for the Edge browser in the Pega Platform 8.6 release.  NOTE:  This refers to the Edge browser, not the Edge Chromium browser, which continues to be supported.

3.  The Cosmos React UI has a number of features, such as Landing Pages in Portals, which are based on the React Javascript library.   Some of the functionality in the React library does not have any support in the Microsoft Internet Explorer 11 browser; therefore, Pega components rendered with React do not work in Internet Explorer 11.  If you try to use Internet Explorer 11 with the Cosmos React UI, a message will display stating that this feature is not supported and recommending that you use a supported browser.

4. Pega Platform is certified on the latest version of these supported browsers at the time a given version of Pega Platform is released. Reasonable efforts are made to test previous versions of the browsers. If you have an issue with Pega Platform guardrail-compliant UI in a particular version of a supported browser type, contact Pega Support, and we will make commercially-reasonable efforts to resolve the issue.

5.  In addition to being supported on version 8.5 and higher, Microsoft Edge Chromium has been tested on the following older versions of Pega Platform:

• version 8.4:  8.4.3 and beyond
• version 8.3:  8.3.4 and beyond
• version 8.2:  8.2.7 and beyond
• version 8.1:  8.1.8 and beyond

6. Beginning in Pega 7.3, ActiveX controls are deprecated (see the Microsoft Client Side Technologies Support section of this article). You should migrate to HTML5-based solutions for increased performance, better security, and reduced compatibility issues.

Limited support will be provided for issues with ActiveX, although several compatibility issues cannot be addressed.

7. Version 91.0 of the Google Chrome browser causes Pega tabs to render incorrectly for 7.x versions of Pega Platform. This issue has been observed more frequently in configurations that involve the Tab group layout.  For more details and a workaround, see Troubleshooting tab rendering issues after updating to Google Chrome 91 .

8. Version 52.0 of the Mozilla Firefox browser blocks Silverlight (an NPAPI plugin) by default. For a limited time, Mozilla is offering a 64-bit Extend Support Release (ESR) of Firefox 52.0 that will support Silverlight through early 2018. For more information, see https://blog.mozilla.org/futurereleases/2015/10/08/npapi-plugins-in-firefox/.

9. Version 42.0 of the Google Chrome browser blocks Silverlight (an NPAPI plugin) by default. For details on which Pega tools are affected by Silverlight, see Client-side technologies. For details on re-enabling Silverlight, see https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3058254.

Chrome version 45.0 or later fully removes Silverlight support – instead, use IE, Firefox or Safari. For more information, see http://www.chromium.org/developers/npapi-deprecation.

10. Microsoft Edge will not support Silverlight. For details, see https://blogs.windows.com/msedgedev/2015/07/02/moving-to-html5-premium-media/.

11. The System Management Application (SMA) will only work with Microsoft Internet Explorer. No other browser is supported.

12. Because Pega Platform version 8.5.6 introduced changes incompatible with Internet Explorer 11 and Edge Chromium in “IE mode”, version 8.5.6 is not supported on those browsers. Versions 8.5.1 to 8.5.5 continue to be supported.

Assistive Technologies

Assistive technology are those technologies that enable and promote inclusion and participation, especially of persons with a disability, aging populations, and people with non-communicable diseases.

Pega generally supports the most current version and one version back for assistive technologies, in combination with the Pega supported browsers and operating systems. The table below shows assistive technologies tested for Pega Platform as part of product development lifecycle. However, all assistive technologies can be used with any Pega version, even if they are not listed below;  any issues found will be addressed in subsequent patches or upgrades.  

Exceptions:  Pega will not support an assistive technology if:
1. An assistive technology vendor states that they are not compatible with or do not support a particular browser or browser version.
2. A browser vendor states they are not compatible with or do not support a particular assistive technology.

Important Assistive Technology Notes

1.  Dragon web extensions are not supported on Edge Chromium.

2.  You can still use an unsupported combination (listed as “no” in the chart).  If you have an issue with an unsupported combination, contact Pega Support and report it.  If the issue can be replicated in any of the supported combinations, we will address it.  However, if the issue cannot be replicated in our supported combinations, then we will recommend that you switch to a supported combination to avoid the problem.

Microsoft Client Side End-User Technologies Support

Pega does not ship any of the client-side technology components listed below, and we are actively working to deprecate the functionality that uses them.  If ActiveX, Silverlight, or Flash is required for a feature, you must download and install that component from Microsoft.

ActiveX Support

As of May 2017, all ActiveX controls in Pega Platform are marked as "deprecated." A deprecated control will continue to "work" (assuming no other changes are introduced on the customer's Windows desktop), but they should not be used, and technical support for issues related to these controls will be limited.

Compatibility risks

While Pega 7.3 ActiveX controls will still run in IE11, you might experience compatibility issues between these ActiveX controls and the newest software on your desktop, such as Windows 10 or Microsoft Office 365. If your Pega application relies on ActiveX, you might want to avoid upgrading to Windows 10 or Office 365.

Security risks

ActiveX controls contain significant security vulnerabilities and are no longer supported in the Microsoft Edge browser on Windows 10. Pega strongly recommends that customers migrate ActiveX-based functionality towards HTML5-based, cross-browser solutions.

Silverlight Support

Microsoft has committed to supporting Silverlight 5 through October 2021. There are several optional runtime features that leverage Microsoft Silverlight technology (NPAPI plugins) and these will continue to be supported.

For details on which Pega tools are affected by Silverlight, see Client-side technologies.

NOTES: The following browsers no longer support Microsoft Silverlight technology:

• Google Chrome (version 45 and later)
• Mozilla Firefox (version 52 and later)
• Microsoft Edge

Flash Support

Flash player is a plugin that you must download from Microsoft and install in your browser - the Pega Platform application does not install the Flash player automatically inside the end user browser. 

Adobe is planning to end-of-life Flash, and will stop updating and distributing the Flash Player at the end of 2020. For more information about this change, and Pega's plans, see  Adobe Flash Player Deprecation End of Year 2020. 

Microsoft Client Side Developer Technologies Support

Microsoft Office Support for Developers in Pega Platform

Starting with Pega 7.1.8, Designer Studio integration points with Microsoft Office have been steadily replaced with simple import/export paradigms that do not require ActiveX or Silverlight. Specific areas of Designer Studio might behave differently based on your exact version of Pega.

We recommend updating to the latest version of Pega Platform for an ActiveX-free development experience. This allows developers to generally use any version of Office that can read and write .docx, .xlsx, and .csv files.

Note on Office 365: There are two different types of Office 365 that are available:

• Click-to-install
• Click-to-run

Click-to-install is the traditional “InstallShield wizard” installation that most users are familiar with – they click on an installation file, and Office is installed on their local desktop. Click-to-install is supported by Pega Platform applications.

Click-to-run is a new Microsoft virtualization technology that helps users run multiple (usually older) versions of Office on the same computer.Click-to-run is not supported by Pega Platform applications.

Microsoft Visio

Starting with Pega 7.1, Microsoft Visio will no longer be used for flow editing. For customers upgrading older versions of PRPC who have flows created in Visio, the first time those flows are edited, they will automatically be upgraded to use Process Modeler, and will save as Process Modeler flows.

Visio is still required for Entity Relationship Diagrams. In versions of Pega Platform earlier than Pega 7.1.8, Visio is required to generate and also view ERDs.

In Pega 7.1.8 and later, documentation generation is being done on the server, which creates .vdx files. This type of file can be viewed by a Visio Viewer, and does not require a full Visio installation (although that will work). Any version of Visio Viewer that supports the .vdx file format can be used.