Ask MetaFilter posts tagged with internetexplorer

How do I make IE open files exactly like they open on my desktop?

alrightokay — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 11:58:55 -0800

How do I make IE open files as instructed? The way I view one type of file has been hijacked by another program. I have two portals that I must use IE to access for a client - portal A and portal B.

From portal A I download .tif files and view them in MS Office Document Imaging. This is my preferred program for this action.

From portal B I download and view .fni files and view them with IDM Viewer. The IDM viewer is my only option.

However, the IDM Viewer that I downloaded to view the .fni files has now hijacked the way I view .tif files on portal A. Even though I've changed the file associations in XP, the IDM Viewer keeps popping up to open .tif files on portal A. I only want the IDM Viewer to work on portal B.

The only way I can stop the hijack is to remove the IDM viewer but I still need it to view files from Portal B. Anyone out there have trouble w/ IE like this? Is it trouble w/ IE? Maybe the viewer is just awful...

Need help watching doggie daycare webcam

HotToddy — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 11:31:52 -0800

I want to take advantage of the webcam at doggie daycare; unfortunately, the instructions are for Internet Explorer and I'm on a Mac. Is there a way to make this work in Safari or Firefox? Details inside. I'm sorry, I'm clueless at this kind of thing, so please be gentle. Here are the instructions:

Open Internet Explorer
From the Tools menu, select Internet Options
Select the Security Tab, then highlight the Internet icon
Click on the Custom Level . . . button, which will open the Security Setting dialogue box
Scroll down to Download unsigned ActiveX controls and choose Prompt
Scroll down one more to Initialize and script ActiveX controls not makred as safe and choose Prompt
Select OK, Select OK again Go to pawstoplaylive.com

There's more, but those are the basic instructions. Thanks for your help!

IE javascript bug is kicking my ass

Paragon — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 16:06:40 -0800

Javascript/CSS and IE6/7: content called from a javascript file (a modified form of fontSizer) into an otherwise blank div appears and disappears intermittently in IE6/7. Help a newbie! I know enough Javascript to just squeak by, but this bug is bugging the hell out of me. The content written from a .js file (images and text) appears every time in Firefox but only sometimes in IE6/7. Sometimes a page reload will reveal it, sometimes returning to the page from another page on the site will reveal it.

My first guess was the peekaboo bug, but none of the fixes work and if I disable the pages' css the content still appears/disappears the same way.

The pages in question are still in development (i.e. not live), so MeFi Mail me for a URL.

Any ideas or suggestions on how to debug this are gratefully welcomed!

You won't steal my heart by stealing my focus

subbes — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 07:03:02 -0800

IE7 keeps stealing focus, even after I use TweakUI. I have to use IE for a work application. The app spawns a new popup window for each task I work on. Because I multitask and the network can be slow, I have multiple task windows open at once, usually at least one loading in the background while I work on the other.

Every time IE finishes loading a task window, that window pops to the front and steals focus.

I have used TweakUI to "prevent applications from stealing focus" but IE seems not to listen. Help me stop this annoying behavior and keep sane!

(Windows XP professional, SP2, IE 7.0.5730.11)

How do I take a paged-down screenshot in Internet Explorer using Vista for free without watermarks?

adi — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 12:34:57 -0800

How do I take a paged-down screenshot in Internet Explorer using Vista for free without watermarks? I tried using IE Screenshot Pro, but the trial puts a big watermark on everything. I need the screenshot to page down and stitch it all together.

The page does not render correctly in FireFox, so no extension for the fox will work for me -- had to be IE.

Can this site be saved?

pammo — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 12:38:32 -0800

Webdeveloper Mefites, I come hat in hand. I enjoy design and created a site for my medical practice in iWeb. Now I realize it stinks in Explorer. Is there an easy way to remedy the situation? If not, what's a reasonable amount to pay someone to save me from myself? Please help. I'm feeling like a total dolt. I put a lot of work into my creation. I thought I'd checked things out in Explorer as I went along but this morning I had another look, and it's not pretty.

Here's what I've done so far: I did a bit of searching, and soon realized I may be out of my league in trying to translate CSS to something IE understands.

I posted this as a job on MetaFi Jobs but haven't had a bite.

So . . . can I clean up this mess myself? Or (more likely) do I need help? And if so, what's a fair price?

CSS help is needed

joelf — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 12:25:30 -0800

Can I make this work in IE the same as it does in Firefox? Here is the example i need some CSS help with. This works properly in Firefox, but needs some help in IE. Any suggestions?

Get this Microsoft out of my iTunes!

M.C. Lo-Carb! — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 15:22:36 -0800

I disabled Explorer with a fake proxy server address, and now I can't connect to the iTunes store. I don't want to go back to Explorer from Firefox, but I needs some new tunes! My laptop is a 2002 vintage bottom-shelf Toshiba running XP.

Much like this guy, who did not succeed in getting his question answered, I have an annoying popup adware problem that opens explorer, even though I haven't actually used it to search the Web for years.

So since you can't excise Explorer, I just disabled it. But apparently iTunes uses those settings to connect to the iTunes store. Is there a way I could make iTunes connect using Firefox's options, rather than Explorer's?

BTW, regarding the obvious solution, I have tried everything I could think of to get rid of the popup adware thing, and came to the conclusion long ago that it's just a permanent eccentricity of my computer.

Death by a thousand windows

mammary16 — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 22:33:45 -0800

I have a very specific problem with the online system at my work. I have a contracting job that requires me to log on to my work's online system (through Internet Explorer) and listen to audio clips. I work from home.

The system was first developed for essays, but 2 years ago it was adapted to play audio. It is clearly inefficient with system resources. But I thought I'd ask about this problem, since it does really cut into my efficiency.

Many of my colleagues (maybe 5%) have the same problem I do:

When going between audio clips, a small Internet Explorer window appears in the bottom right of the screen. It usually just flashes and goes away. Sometimes, however, it stays permanently - so much so that I can't even close it (not by using task manager; not by right-clicking and choosing "close").

These windows really cripple my computer. Usually after I get two of these, the audio will just not load on my computer. Additionally, I can't open up other programs - or if I can, they open up very limited. Windows notepad, for example, will sometimes open, but the menus at the top will not load.

The system uses Java - although it doesn't work very well in versions of java past 1.50-11. Additionally, the system requires use of the *.ogg patch.

I've developed a weird solution that helps. My solution has been to open up about 25 internet explorer windows and log on to the system with one of them. Whenever I get a freeze (one of those little windows freezes) I close one of the IE windows and it seems to free up system resources for a while. This allows me to work much longer, because without those other windows, I reach a point - within a half hour - where I have no memory left to load any of the audio.

When I run out of IE windows (and this often means I'll have about 8 frozen little windows that refuse to close) I restart my computer. I usually have to do this about once every 8 hour shift.

Question: Is there anything I can do on my end to avoid this problem? As I said, some of my colleagues do not have this problem. I have Windows XP, running on a Lenovo Thinkpad T60. This problem has been with me since the beginning (2 years ago) and my computer has undergone many changes. I have a great deal of free hard drive space, and generally keep very few programs running (I've got a very clean computer). I've tried different upgrades of IE and many different versions of java, and of course my company has tried a variety of things. The general policy with tech support is not to be concerned about this.

That said, my company isn't Metafilter. Maybe you ragtag group of misfits have an idea.

I'm being ignored by internet explorer...

edjusted — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 12:50:11 -0800

I have a web site using Wordpress and I'm trying to figure out a css problem with IE. The first thing I'm doing is creating a seperate IE stylesheet. I've followed all the instructions found in the Wordpress forums but can't seem to get IE to pick up the new stylesheet. (I've already asked this question there but haven't gotten back anything that worked.) Here's what I've added to my header.php *below* the call to the regular style.css: Here's my code:  I know that IE is picking up the if-then, because I added a random text string in there and IE showed it. The way I'm testing whether or not IE is getting the style-ie.css sheet is by changing the color of the menu bar from orange (non-IE) to white (IE). I've also tried hardcoding the path to the other css sheet and that didn't help. I'm at my wits end. What am I doing wrong?

Keeping Firefox (or Internet Explorer) "always on top".

bamassippi — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 12:08:15 -0800

Keeping Firefox (or Internet Explorer) "always on top". So, I like to watch Hulu.com videos while I work, but I've yet to find way (or free extension) to allow me to keep a Firefox or Internet Explorer window always-on-top while I work.

Any suggestions?

How the hell to get IE to print properly?

gman — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 11:00:01 -0800

When using IE 6 or 7 and printing a page from the same website using two different computers, but the same printer, one prints at half a page length and one prints the desired full page. The print preview for each matches the way each prints. I can't figure this out for the life of me. Anyone?

Little Boxes, Little Boxes

santojulieta — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 08:52:05 -0800

How can I get Japanese characters to show up on webpages, rather than those less-than-helpful little boxes? To go with last week's question about learning languages, I'd like to be able to to look at Japanese websites and actually see a kana or two. Instead I get silly little boxes. Can someone let me know the easy way to install the Language Pack (or fonts)? I'm running XP and IE7 (for shame, I know.)

My Documents files in Internet Explorer favorites

bluishorange — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 22:24:48 -0800

How do I keep the contents of the My Documents folder from showing up in Internet Explorer favorites? Most of my coworkers use Internet Explorer 7 on Windows XP, and today one of them told me that when she clicks on Favorites in IE, every file from her My Documents folder is displayed there. At first I thought she'd accidentally copied and pasted a bunch of shortcuts somehow. But then I had her make a new Word doc and save it to My Documents as Fake.doc, and sure enough, it showed up in the IE favorites right away.

I looked through her IE settings, but I didn't find anything related to My Documents. Then I opened the My Documents folder and checked the settings in Folder Options just in case, but I didn't see anything there, either. Is this some kind of Internet Explorer/Windows Explorer conflation?

I suppose I could have her remove Fake.doc from her IE favorites and see if the document itself is deleted from My Documents. But even if the document isn't deleted and she's safe to remove all those documents from her favorites, I'd still like to know how it happened.

(I'm not really a tech support person; I've just been labeled as The Girl Down The Hall Who Knows About Computers.)

How do I open certain sites in IETab?

Rabulah — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 07:36:27 -0800

I use Firefox. I want to be able to open certain sites in IETab/Internet Explorer automatically. I can do this quite easily if they are bookmarked, but I want to be able to do it every time I come across a link to the site. Example 1] I'm browsing the web, and I come across a link to foo.com. Normally, when I click the link to foo.com, it will open in a normal Firefox tab. I want to be able to just click the link to foo.com, and have it open in IETab/Internet Explorer automatically, without having to right click and choose "Open in IETab", or copy the URL from the address bar and paste it into Internet Explorer.

Example 2] I do a Foo.com search from the Firefox search bar. I want the search tab to open in IETab/Internet Explorer automatically.

I have been using IE View Lite, which will load the site in IE after half a second, but Firefox still starts to load foo.com before IE View Lite takes over, which I don't want. I want Firefox to never load foo.com AT ALL.

How can I get this functionality? Example 2 is the more pressing problem, if that makes any difference.

Firefox freezes when downloading, help!

yellowbinder — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 11:51:02 -0800

I download a lot of images from the net. Using Firefox, the browser freezes while the file downloads. IE does not. I hate using IE. How do I make Firefox allow me to surf around while downloading? I should add this is only the case when I use right click, "save as," and not when I click a prompted download. I think it happens for all files downloaded this way, not just images.

Only IE doesn't work

punishinglemur — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 15:27:52 -0800

Internet works everywhere but IE. On a friend's computer, the Internet works everywhere but Internet Explorer. All other programs, from Firefox to SpyBot's updater, work fine. I tried uninstalling IE7, and the IE6 copy it reverted back to worked fine. But after I reinstalled IE7, it stopped working again. What could be causing this?

Web printing with "continued on next page"?

cadge — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 13:09:55 -0800

Printing from the web: How to add "Continued on next page" footer on HTML printouts? IE print templates seem like a solution, but I can't figure out how to get them to work. My app is IE 6.0 only. The problem:

My company's web app has a feature that dynamically creates a page specifically for printout. The content can span 1-2 pages.

I need to add a "Continued on next page" blurb on page 1 if the printed content spans more than 1 page.

Can this be done?

What I've tried:

We use ScriptX to customize much of our web app's printing. However, it doesn't let you figure out how many pages will be in a print job.

Internet Explorer print templates seem like they might do the trick You can plug them into ScriptX. But I can't seem to get them to work, and the tiny amount of documentation I have found all points back to the same one or two articles.

The tech details:

* Development platform: ASP 3.0/Jscript to generate XML content; XSL and CSS to style it for printout
* Browser: Only Internet Explorer 6.0 is supported. Javascript is enabled.

Massive thanks if anyone has any insight!

quirks mode

whoojemaflip — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 06:25:40 -0800

AJAX filter: I'm trying to repopulate the contents of a SELECT element, sounds simple but the damndest thing keeps happening. Every time I update this SELECT element in IE7, it shrinks by about 10px, until it finally disappears from the page entirely! I've tried loads of different ways of doing this pretty simple operation and so far nothing has worked in IE7. (It goes without saying that firefox works perfectly every time).

When I use innerHTML or the prototype update() function, IE just displays an empty dropdown. When I manipulated the data into a series of DOM inserts, IE seemed happy enough although every time I update it shrinks the width of the select element by about 10px. Looking in the IE DOM, the styles associated with the element haven't changed: width:100%. DOCTYPE is xhtml strict, in case that makes a difference.

Anyone out there got enough kung-fu to keep me sane this arfternoon?

IE printing issue

mr_crash_davis — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 09:55:57 -0800

Why won't Internet Explorer print images from a web site? The site is http://marriott.com/property/mapandnearbyairports/default.mi?marshaCode=gnvcy.

I had a user who was on the road and trying to print out the map. I got her to print a map of the area from Google Maps (worked fine), which solves the problem but not my curiosity.

At my machine, "Print Preview" shows only some text at the top and bottom but omits all images on the page, which is also how it prints. Firefox prints it correctly. The remote user confirmed the same IE behavior on her machine.

So what's on that page that keeps IE from printing the page correctly?

What more does IE need to draw this CSS like Firefox?

cowbellemoo — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 02:47:09 -0800

CSSFilter: Why won't my border divs fill in IE 7 as they do in Firefox? Why won't my bordered area stretch in IE either? I've got a few compatability issues with the site I'm designing for my WoW guild (cheesiness intentional!):

http://home.comcast.net/~cowbellemoo/PerfectEulogy/test.html

In Firefox (2.0) and Safari, the borders and content area fill and stretch as desired, but not in IE 7. I can see the little start of the content area borders, but they don't behave the way I expected in IE. Also, in IE the content area seems to have a fixed width even though Firefox interprets my CSS correctly and stretches to the 90% edge on the right side.

As you may be able to sus from the code, the main content area (the black box) should start at the (10% + 230px) line......it will stretch like everything else, but skip the scroll menu area. I've done this by assigning 'left' and 'left-margin' attributes. This seems to work fine. But the right value (it should stretch to fill the rest of the page and stop 10% from the right edge) seems to be a little trickier. Using only the 'right-margin' attribute leaves a gap where text wraps in Firefox. What would be making the width fixed in IE where Firefox stretches that content area? The borders I'm at a total loss about...seems like it would be a simple fix though.

Any ideas?

IE7 question

543DoublePlay — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 04:10:13 -0800

Can you install IE7 AND IE6 on the same machine? Not under separate login accounts but for one login. I am working on a website for someone and for reasons that I think are CSS connected, pages are appearing differently in IE6 on his machine than they do in IE7 on mine. Can you install both versions under one login on a Win XP so I can just swap from one to the other to test how it looks?

IE gives me Opera

cheerleaders_to_your_funeral — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 11:00:13 -0800

When I type in a URL in Internet Explorer (6), the website opens in Opera. I have really no idea why it does this, or when it started to do it. (It hasn't always been like this.)

Usually not being able to use IE wouldn't be a problem, rather a blessing, but I need to see how things look in IE for some web work I'm doing.

Firefox will not load a single site on my computer, but Interner Explorer 7 will work just fine.

cheero — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 05:22:39 -0800

I have an issue with Firefox as of late. Firefox will not load a single site on my computer, but Interner Explorer 7 will work just fine. I have a portable Firefox on my flash drive which loads just fine, but it does not make sense any the Firefox that is installed on my machine does not work. I have an issue with Firefox as of late. Firefox will not load a single site on my computer, but Interner Explorer 7 will work just fine. I have a portable Firefox on my flash drive which loads just fine, but it does not make sense any the Firefox that is installed on my machine does not work.

I have scanned my system numerous times with Ewido, Ad-Aware, NOD32, AVG and Windows Defender, all of them showed no threats. Does anyone have any idea what it could be or maybe what tech forums I should go to and ask for more help?

Thank you in advance!

Why can't I view this website?

mule — Sun, 10 Sep 2006 16:16:21 -0800

Why can't I view/load this website? For some reason which totally confuses me, I am unable to access this url from my home network.

I can go to the site succesfully at work and from a relatives PC, but whenever I try to connect at home I get a timeout error. I've tried connecting on both PC and Mac using Safari, Firefox and IE.

There is nothing in any firewalls/browser preferences that should be preventing acces to this site, both on the computers and on the ADSL router.

I'm at a total loss. Can anyone offer any helpful hints?