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I really wish Microsoft gave HTTP/2 support to IE 11 on windows 8/8.1. Any insight as to why they decided not to support it on IE 11 for windows < 8.1 would be

I really wish Microsoft gave HTTP/2 support to IE 11 on windows 8/8.1. Any insight as to why they decided not to support it on IE 11 for windows < 8.1 would be appreciated. Many of our users are stuck with windows 8/8.1, or even 7 for many more years unfortunately. Some of them won't even have another browser as an option(enterprise...).

mattmanser 11y ago
They're not even updating IIS 8.5 to support HTTP/2 as far as anyone can tell, you'll have to update to windows server 2016 to get it.
- snuxoll 11y ago
  "Updating" IIS to support HTTP/2 means updating http.sys, something they are not keen on doing without a major OS upgrade.
  - prdonahue 11y ago
    Nor do they like updating schannel.dll (the underling SSL/TLS stack) unless there's an extremely serious vulnerability in it. And even then, they bungle it more often than not (http://www.infoworld.com/article/2848574/operating-systems/microsoft-botches-kb-2992611-schannel-patch-tls-alert-code-40-slow-sql-server-block-iis-sites.html http://www.infoworld.com/article/2848574/operating-systems/m...). The reason SChannel matters is that the protocol used to negotiate which "next generation" protocol is to be used for the HTTP connection (not session, minor point) is something called Application-Layer Protocol Negotiation. ALPN is a TLS extension sent as part of the ClientHello but wasn't added to SChannel until Windows 8.1/2012 R2 Server. (There was a predecessor to ALPN called NPN that Adam Langley authored/implemented for Chrome but Microsoft never implemented it.)
prdonahue 11y ago
See my point below about ALPN. You need to advertise support for HTTP/2 in the TLS ClientHello and this logic is contained (on a Microsoft platform) in schannel.dll. Microsoft first added ALPN to SChannel in 8.1 and RARELY updates this library outside of OS releases, so that's (at least one reason) why you won't see on Windows 8/2012 Server.

mattmanser 11y ago

They're not even updating IIS 8.5 to support HTTP/2 as far as anyone can tell, you'll have to update to windows server 2016 to get it.

snuxoll 11y ago
"Updating" IIS to support HTTP/2 means updating http.sys, something they are not keen on doing without a major OS upgrade.
- prdonahue 11y ago
  Nor do they like updating schannel.dll (the underling SSL/TLS stack) unless there's an extremely serious vulnerability in it. And even then, they bungle it more often than not (http://www.infoworld.com/article/2848574/operating-systems/microsoft-botches-kb-2992611-schannel-patch-tls-alert-code-40-slow-sql-server-block-iis-sites.html http://www.infoworld.com/article/2848574/operating-systems/m...). The reason SChannel matters is that the protocol used to negotiate which "next generation" protocol is to be used for the HTTP connection (not session, minor point) is something called Application-Layer Protocol Negotiation. ALPN is a TLS extension sent as part of the ClientHello but wasn't added to SChannel until Windows 8.1/2012 R2 Server. (There was a predecessor to ALPN called NPN that Adam Langley authored/implemented for Chrome but Microsoft never implemented it.)

prdonahue 11y ago

See my point below about ALPN. You need to advertise support for HTTP/2 in the TLS ClientHello and this logic is contained (on a Microsoft platform) in schannel.dll. Microsoft first added ALPN to SChannel in 8.1 and RARELY updates this library outside of OS releases, so that's (at least one reason) why you won't see on Windows 8/2012 Server.