WebBrowser Control IE8 Compatibility Mode On/Off Switch

Question

I am having a IE8 compatibility issue while using the WebBrowser control to navigate to a website. The strange thing is sometimes the website works, but more than likely it

Answer 1

I know the registry entry answer has been posted, so I thought I'd offer an alternative.

Do you own the site and have permissions for the server it runs on? If so, you can set the X-UA-Compatible header to be sent for every page on the site/server. See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc288325(VS.85).aspx#Servers for information plus links for Apache/IIS7.

Answer 2

You can force rendering mode for embedded WebBrowser inside your application using "Internet Feature Controls" in IE registry keys:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE or HKEY_CURRENT_USER
   SOFTWARE
      Microsoft
         Internet Explorer
            Main
               FeatureControl
                  FEATURE_BROWSER_EMULATION
                     YouApp.exe = (DWORD) 00000000 (see value below)

• Value 9999 (0x270F)
  Windows Internet Explorer 9. Webpages are displayed in IE9 Standards mode, regardless of the !DOCTYPE directive.

• Value 9000 (0x2328)
  Internet Explorer 9. Webpages containing standards-based !DOCTYPE directives are displayed in IE9 mode.

• Value 8888 (0x22B8)
  Webpages are displayed in IE8 Standards mode, regardless of the !DOCTYPE directive.

• 8000 (0x1F40)
  Webpages containing standards-based !DOCTYPE directives are displayed in IE8 mode.

• 7000 (0x1B58)
  Webpages containing standards-based !DOCTYPE directives are displayed in IE7 Standards mode.

+1 if you find value to always run WebBrowser at currently installed version.

Source: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee330730%28VS.85%29.aspx#browser_emulation

Answer 3

Would this post on IEBlog about WebBrowser rendering modes and IE8 help? Seems like you have to set the rendering mode specific to your application using a key in the registry.