diff --git a/docs/breaking-changes.md b/docs/breaking-changes.md
index a5e841c928abe..f9445dcdcb934 100644
--- a/docs/breaking-changes.md
+++ b/docs/breaking-changes.md
@@ -45,6 +45,16 @@ However, you should consider further restricting the information returned to
 the renderer; for instance, displaying a source selector to the user and only
 returning the selected source.
 
+### Deprecated: `nativeWindowOpen`
+
+Prior to Electron 15, `window.open` was by default shimmed to use
+`BrowserWindowProxy`. This meant that `window.open('about:blank')` did not work
+to open synchronously scriptable child windows, among other incompatibilities.
+Since Electron 15, `nativeWindowOpen` has been enabled by default.
+
+See the documentation for [window.open in Electron](api/window-open.md)
+for more details.
+
 ## Planned Breaking API Changes (16.0)
 
 ### Behavior Changed: `crashReporter` implementation switched to Crashpad on Linux
diff --git a/lib/browser/api/web-contents.ts b/lib/browser/api/web-contents.ts
index 6c82d9c431efd..20acc8c9c0ac8 100644
--- a/lib/browser/api/web-contents.ts
+++ b/lib/browser/api/web-contents.ts
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-import { app, ipcMain, session, webFrameMain } from 'electron/main';
+import { app, ipcMain, session, deprecate, webFrameMain } from 'electron/main';
 import type { BrowserWindowConstructorOptions, LoadURLOptions } from 'electron/main';
 
 import * as url from 'url';
@@ -734,6 +734,11 @@ WebContents.prototype._init = function () {
         }
       });
     });
+
+    const prefs = this.getLastWebPreferences() || {};
+    if (prefs.nativeWindowOpen === false) {
+      deprecate.log('Deprecation Warning: Disabling nativeWindowOpen is deprecated. The nativeWindowOpen option will be removed in Electron 18.');
+    }
   }
 
   this.on('login', (event, ...args) => {