Alternatives to F12 Developer tools in Internet Explorer 10 Metro?

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Solution 1

The rendering/ JS Engine in IE10 Desktop and IE10 should be identical. Does your app use any Add-ins (for things like cut and paste support?) As far as I am aware taking IE10 Desktop and switching off plugin support should be the same as running your app in "non desktop IE10"

As for debugging, you can't get tools to run in IE10 desktop mode. I often use fiddler to inspect the traffic, but you will need to enable loopback on the machine to get this running for Metro IE.

You could add firebug lite to get basic dev tools.

Solution 2

Here's microsoft's recommendation for debugging pages as if they're being run in Metro IE:

F12 developer tools is only accessible while browsing a website in Internet Explorer for the desktop. If you're browsing in the Internet Explorer in the Windows UI, you can debug the website by switching to the desktop view (from Page tools, select View on the desktop) and opening F12 tools from there. To emulate Internet Explorer in the Windows UI on the desktop:

  • Enable ActiveX Filtering (from the Tools menu, select ActiveX Filtering)
  • Enter Full Screen mode (F11)
  • Enable Enhanced Protected Mode (listed under Security on the Advanced tab in Internet Options)

Found at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ie/hh771832%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

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jsalonen
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jsalonen

Updated on July 25, 2022

Comments

  • jsalonen
    jsalonen almost 2 years

    I'm testing our JavaScript-heavy web application on Windows 8. For what it seems, IE10 on desktop works just fine. However, the Metro UI version for IE10 seems to break our application.

    My question is this: is there a way to debug web applications on IE10 Metro?

    For what I know, F12 developer tools are not available.

  • LocalPCGuy
    LocalPCGuy almost 11 years
    Despite Microsoft's claims, the browsers are not the same, and we have found things that render incorrectly in the "non-desktop" IE10 that render fine in the "desktop" version (even when following the steps Brian Mortenson listed in his answer).
  • Martin Beeby
    Martin Beeby almost 11 years
    That maybe because the desktop version has been accidentally switched into compat mode. That's the most common issue I come across.
  • LocalPCGuy
    LocalPCGuy almost 11 years
    Definitely not in compat mode. One of my pet peeves are sites that rely on that and I know what to look for to check that. Our standards based code runs fine, but there are third party tools that are being required (not my call) that have issues. Maybe security restrictions (although the tools are basically just JavaScript + .Net Controls, no ActiveX or anything MS has said doesn't work). It's definitely irritating that there is no way to debug the issues.
  • LocalPCGuy
    LocalPCGuy almost 11 years
    I tried this for the problems we are having, and it doesn't emulate it close enough to replicate the bugs we have encountered, unfortunately. Glad to have this tip for my general toolbox, but it doesn't make IE Desktop into a replica of IE Metro.
  • Judah Gabriel Himango
    Judah Gabriel Himango over 10 years
    Also hitting issues here with HTML5 audio. In desktop IE10, songs play fine, events fire. In metro IE10, audio plays but some events don't fire, thus breaking our app.
  • Julian Mann
    Julian Mann over 9 years
    Me too. I tried the recommendations above. I'm using angularJS to show some elements based on a number in an input field. The elements never show up in metro mode. It works fine in desktop mode.