Software | 5 Comments

How to fix JavaScript in Internet Explorer

My Windows installation at home had very broken Internet Explorer 6:

• it was crashing all the time;
• rendered pages in a way I can only call delusional;
• JavaScript was not working.

Exceptionally suitable for testing this blog. However when I actually needed JS working – problem was not easily fixable.

JavaScript is gone

At first I assumed that problem with scripts is coming from security settings. All setting turned out to be fine. JS was simply gone. Browser was aware of it theoretical existence but completely blind when encountered actual scripts in pages.

To make things even more weird IE was not even seeing content <noscript></noscript> tag which is made exactly for case when JS support is not available or disabled.

Upgrading Internet Explorer

If something is broken in unobvious way reinstalling might be easy answer.

• I could not get IE6 to reinstall – it was claiming I have later version of IE5 (ehm, 5?) installed already;
• IE7 installed just fine.

Except JavaScript was still broken. It even made matter worse – initial in-browser settings page of IE7 is script-heavy. Browser was starting with blank page and couldn’t save home page or sessions.

Reinstalling JavaScript

Turns out scripting support in Windows instead of being part of browser is part of Windows Script. It comes bundled as part of OS but for versions prior to Windows XP Service Pack 3 it is also available as separate download.

Downloading and installing perfectly fixed my problem. Now I need to find properly broken Internet Explorer for my testing elsewhere. :)