a couple of IE questions in the guts

[Stephanie Stowe]

I have an app which is running a mix of ASP, ASP.NET, VBScript client side,
JScript client-side and ActiveX controls downloaded to the client (of
course). I am attempting to troubleshoot a truely weird problem at a client
site. A couple of things would help me a ton:

1. I can see the ActiveX controls in c:\windows\Downloaded Program Files. Is
there a place in the IE UI where one can look at the ActiveX controls that
IE knows about? Is there any other location at which IE could be finding
these controls? I need to make sure that the version IE is finding is the
version I want it to be.

2. Our app opens windows without any toolbars. So I have no menu from whcih
I can select View Source. I beleive that there are keyboard shortcuts to
enable menus in a window. Am I mistaken? Is there any way to show a menu or
a short cut key to view source? The error I am experiencing is client-side.
And I have a lovely line number, which bears no relationship to the source
code available on the server, of course.

3. Is there a way to dump all the IE settings (Tools, Options), patricularly
the advanced settings to a file for reading? I would like to compare
machine(s) that are working to ones that are not. Since I have no specific
idea about what settings might be at issue, I cannot ask the customer to
check this setting or that setting. I would also like to minimize the work
for the customer.

All the customers are running IE 6.

Thanks much!

Stephanie

 

[Robert Aldwinckle]

I have an app which is running a mix of ASP, ASP.NET, VBScript client side,
JScript client-side and ActiveX controls downloaded to the client (of
course). I am attempting to troubleshoot a truely weird problem at a client
site. A couple of things would help me a ton:

1. I can see the ActiveX controls in c:\windows\Downloaded Program Files. Is
there a place in the IE UI where one can look at the ActiveX controls that
IE knows about?

Which OS? XPsp2 has a new Tools menu item called Manage Add-ons
which could complement this task. Otherwise SpybotSD in advanced
mode can show similar information (e.g. BHO + ActiveX extensions)

Is there any other location at which IE could be finding
these controls? I need to make sure that the version IE is finding is the
version I want it to be.

2. Our app opens windows without any toolbars. So I have no menu from whcih
I can select View Source. I beleive that there are keyboard shortcuts to
enable menus in a window. Am I mistaken? Is there any way to show a menu or
a short cut key to view source?

Depends why the app has no toolbars. Fullscreen? Alt-V,c works.
Also right-click, View Source shows the source of the frame or entire
page if frames are not involved.

The error I am experiencing is client-side.
And I have a lovely line number, which bears no relationship to the source
code available on the server, of course.

Use a script debugger?

3. Is there a way to dump all the IE settings (Tools, Options), patricularly
the advanced settings to a file for reading?

I have seen several requests for this and it wouldn't be hard to do
so I imagine that somebody will have done it.

For a Q&D solution I would just monitor the opening of that dialog
with RegMon. With an appropriate input filter the output from that
could be fairly compact. Then the only difficulty you would have
comparing two separate traces would be stripping off all the timestamp
and other extraneous varying trace details. In fact, if it turns out that
all the registry values are in one particular branch it would be even easier
to export that branch on each machine and use a difference program
against two samples (e.g. FC or windiff).


HTH

Robert Aldwinckle
---

 

[Stephanie Stowe]

Which OS? XPsp2 has a new Tools menu item called Manage Add-ons
which could complement this task. Otherwise SpybotSD in advanced
mode can show similar information (e.g. BHO + ActiveX extensions)

Ah. perfect.

Depends why the app has no toolbars. Fullscreen? Alt-V,c works.
Also right-click, View Source shows the source of the frame or entire
page if frames are not involved.


window.ShowModalDialog(...)


Use a script debugger?

Can 't. Or at least I think I can't. The error is only happening on a couple
of a machines on a client site. I am only able to remote control to the
servers. I put in a bunch of window.alerts and nailed it down with him
anyway. It was painful, but it was low tech and it worked.

I have seen several requests for this and it wouldn't be hard to do
so I imagine that somebody will have done it.

For a Q&D solution I would just monitor the opening of that dialog
with RegMon.

Whew. I don't know what RegMon is. But I know where to look!