Fix Internet Explorer Runtime Errors

By Martin Brinkmann on October 2, 2012 - TAGS: None

When I was working in tech support for a large bank I sometimes had to deal with users who received runtime error messages in Microsoft's Internet Explorer. The error messages were always the same: A runtime error has occured. Do you wish to debug? This was followed by the line the error occurred in and the error type. A click on yes opened another window that you enabled you to debug the issue.

We used to fix the issue for users by disabling script debugging in Internet Explorer. To do that, users had to open the Internet Options. Internet Explorer 9 users can do that with a click on the settings button and the selection of Internet Options from the context menu. It is alternatively possible to open the options from the Control Panel.

A click on advanced opens configuration options. Internet Explorer 9 offers two script debugging related settings:

• disable script debugging (Internet Explorer)
• disable script debugging (Other)

You can furthermore make sure the "display a notification about every script error" setting is not enabled to block script related error messages from being displayed in the web browser.

Microsoft has released a Fix It tool to disable script debugging in Internet Explorer. The core benefit here is that you can make the modifications with a few simply clicks  instead of having to make the changes manually. While that may not be much of an incentive for tech-savvy users, it may help users who want the issue to go away without having to dive into the Internet Explorer configuration settings.

Not all web sites may display correctly after making the changes to the browser. While it may fix some issues that you are experiencing, it may very well be an issue of the web page itself. The best option in this case is to switch browsers to see if the page renders fine in another browser, or try Internet Explorer on another computer to see if the issue occurs on that computer as well. The Fix It page lists additional solutions to resolve the issue.(via Techdows)

Enjoyed the article?: Then sign-up for our free newsletter or RSS feed to kick off your day with the latest technology news and tips, or share the article with your friends and contacts on Facebook, Twitter or Google+ using the icons below.