Alternatives to F12 Developer tools in Internet Explorer 10 Metro?

Question

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.

Answer 1

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

Answer 2

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.