Internet-Explorer on Anything About IT

ToolTip: IEDigest

Mon, 04 Jul 2016 19:49:26 +0000

IEDigest is collecting all relevant Internet Explorer settings and generates a well formated HTML report. In addition to this there is an XML output as well which can be taken for comparing reports coming from different environments. This is helpfull for troubleshooting purposes when having working and non-working machines.

IEDigest can also be executd in commandline mode.

IEDigest can be downloaded from the Microsoft download center here. Although not fully up to date, documentation can be downloaded from here

The “This website needs Internet Explorer” Message

Tue, 15 Sep 2015 21:45:51 +0000

As you probably know by know, Microsoft Edge is now the default Browser on Windows 10, but IE11 can still be used. While using the Microsoft Edge browser I’ve noticed that now and then when opening a website, the following message is displayed.

So where does this message come from, and how does Microsoft Edge know that the page works best in Internet Explorer? For Enterprise users Microsoft has extended the functiionality of the Enterprise Mode Site list manager.

PowerShell Script to Retrieve Internet Explorer Telemetry Data

Sat, 29 Nov 2014 15:27:40 +0000

During the past days I have been busy deploying the Internet Explorer Site Discovery Toolkit to our Internet Explorer 11 test clients. I will write about the deployment of the Toolkit in a separate post. Today I would like to share with you a PowerShell script I put together that allows you to retrieve the collected Internet Explorer Telemetry data from local or remote computers.

Internet Explorer Telemetry data is stored into the following WMI Classes

PowerShell Script to retrieve content from Internet Explorer ActiveX blocking log

Wed, 13 Aug 2014 23:12:50 +0000

In preparation of the Internet Explorer out of date ActiveX control blocking activities I wrote the below script that retrieves the content of the log stored under LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\AuditMode\VersionAuditLog.csv

You can download the script from here

function Get-ActiveXControlLog
{
<#
.Synopsis
 Get-ActiveXControlLog
.DESCRIPTION
 Get-ActiveXControlLog retrieves the content of the Internet Explorer ActiveX control log stored locally. 
.EXAMPLE
 Get-ActiveXControlLog
 Shows all entries in the log file
.EXAMPLE
 Get-ActiveXControlLog -Show Allowed
 Shows only entries with status "Allowed"
.LINKS
 http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/ie/dn798785.aspx
.NOTES
 version 1.0 by Alex Verboon
#>
 [CmdletBinding()]
 Param
 (
 [Parameter(Mandatory=$false,
 Position=0)]
 [ValidateSet("All","Allowed","Blocked")] 
 $Show="All"
 )

 Begin
 {
 # the default location of the log file
 $VersionAuditLog = [Environment]::GetFolderPath('LocalApplicationData') + "\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\AuditMode\VersionAuditLog.csv"
 # check if the log file is present
 If (Test-Path $VersionAuditLog)
 {
 Write-output "ActiveX out of date blocking control log found"
 }
 Else
 {
 Write-Verbose "ActiveX out of date blocking control log not found"
 # let's check if the logging policy is enabled at all
 $lm = (Get-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Ext" -Name "AuditModeEnabled" -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue).AuditModeEnabled 
 $cu = (Get-ItemProperty -Path "HKCU:Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Ext" -Name "AuditModeEnabled" -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue).AuditModeEnabled
 
 If ($lm -le 0)
 {
 write-output "ActiveX control logging policy is not enabled at the computer level"
 }
 Else
 {
 Write-Output "Active control logging policy is enabled at the computer level, but there's no log: $VersionAuditLog"
 }

 If ($cu -le 0)
 {
 write-output "ActiveX control logging policy is not enabled at the User level"
 }
 Else
 {
 Write-Output "Active control logging policy is enabled at the user level, but there's no log: $VersionAuditLog"
 }
 Throw 
 }
 }
 Process
 {

 # Get the content of the log file
 $axlog = Import-csv -Delimiter "," -Path $VersionAuditLog -Header URL, Path, ProductVersion, FileVersion, Action, Reason, EPMCompat
 $axlogdata = @()
 ForEach ($entry in $axlog)
 {
 $object = New-Object -TypeName PSObject
 $object | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name URL -Value $entry.URL
 $object | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name Path -Value $entry.Path
 $object | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name ProductVersion -Value $entry.ProductVersion
 $object | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name FileVersion -Value $entry.FileVersion
 $object | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name Result -Value $entry.Action
 $object | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name Reason -Value $entry.Reason 
 $object | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name EPMCompatible -Value $entry.EPMCompat
 $axlogdata += $object
 }
 }
 End
 {
 If ($Show -eq "All")
 {
 $axlogdata
 }
 Else
 {
 $axlogdata | Where-Object {$_.Result -eq "$Show"}
 }
 }
}

How to build a site Windows 8.1 tile for your blog

Sun, 20 Oct 2013 10:51:24 +0000

With just a few clicks and pasting 3 lines of code you can create a Windows 8.1 live tile for your blog. Here’s what you need to do.

Navigate to http://www.buildmypinnedsite.com/en and fill in the requested information.

Copy the code.

Next copy the code into your website. I added the code to the header.php of my WordPress site. If you use another blogging platform, just add to the other meta tags of your website.

The Internet Explorer Compatibility List

Mon, 26 Dec 2011 22:47:18 +0000

In today’s blog post I’d like to share some basic information I gathered today about the Internet Explorer Compatibility list option that is available within the Compatibility View Settings in Internet Explorer 8 and 9. By default this setting is enabled and causes websites that are listed within the Compatibility list to render properly in newer versions of Internet Explorer.

When you have the Include updated website lists from Microsoft option enabled, you should have a file called IECompatData.xml stored under %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\IECompatData\

Update for Google Toolbar available (fixes issues with Internet Explorer 8 and 9

Sat, 19 Nov 2011 14:54:53 +0000

If you’re using the Google Toolbar and Internet Explorer 8/9 you might have experienced bad browser performance (I did). There is an update from Google that seems to solve these issues. It did for me so far. The Microsoft KB can be found here but since that article only refers to the Google site, you can get the update directly from here

Migrating to Internet Explorer 8

Thu, 29 Apr 2010 21:12:44 +0000

Companies that are in the process of planning a Windows 7 migration, will be required to pay some attention to Internet Explorer 8 and web site compatibility. Chris Johnson aka “The App Compat Guy” put together two video’s about how to migrate from Internet Explorer 6 to 8. The videos talk about the potential challenges , testing methods, workarounds and solutions to support companies with a smooth migration. Thrive Live! Migrating from IE6 to IE8 (Part 1 of 2) and Thrive Live! Migrating from IE6 to IE8 (Part 2 of 2)

Tip: Download more than 2 files at once (Internet Explorer)

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 16:19:19 +0000

I had thought that by now this is something everybody knows, but unfortunately that is not the case, so that is why I post this one today.

By default, Windows Internet Explorer 7 and earlier versions limit the number of files that you can download at one time to two. Windows Internet Explorer 8 limits the number of files that you can download at one time to six. More details here

Changing Internet Explorer Security Settings on Windows Server 2008

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 14:55:28 +0000

While I was preparing my home lab for some Group Policy tests i wanted to perform I got an error when generating a report in the Group Policy Management Console which is running on a Windows Server 2008 with Internet Explorer 8.

The error was: “An error occurred in the script in this page”

A search on the web indicated that this had to do with the Internet Explorer Security Settings, but when I opened the Internet Explorer Security settings I noticed that I could not change them since all buttons were grayed out.

Updated Plans for Windows7 in Europe

Sun, 02 Aug 2009 13:51:45 +0000

Although we have seen many creative ways on how to get a browser on Windows 7 E, it looks like the plans for Windows7 E have changed. Read the entire article here

IE 8 Beta 2 released

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 07:00:11 +0000

Earlier as planned, Microsoft has released Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2. A final release date has not been communicated yet. http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/beta/