VS Express 2013 for Web - Browser is security restricted or JavaScript is disabled

Question

I initially installed the Microsoft Visual Studio Express 2013 for Web on my desktop. My desktop runs Windows 8.1 with internet explorer 11. It ran fine until the license expired after the first 30 days. I tried to sign in to renew the license, however after clicking the 'sign in' button I get an error dialog. The dialog states 'Browser is security restricted or javaScript is disabled. I have no other option but to close and exit Visual Studio.

I went to the online forums for Microsoft. There were discussions and suggestions on how to fix the error. I tried lowering the settings for the security tab in internet explorer. I have validated the option for scripting is enabled. I have also added https://*.visualstudio.com to the trusted sites tab. Other users on the forum have tried the same suggestions and have not succeeded in signing into the visual studio application.

Answer 1

I had exactly the same problem, here is what I did:

a) Go in IE, click on settings wheel then Internet Options and Security tab.

b) Click on Custom level button (make sure you select Internet zone).

c) In Security Settings window, under Scripting I set Enabled for Active scripting.

After that Sign In should work. Even though Chrome is default browser, it seems that VS uses IE for sign in process.

Hope this helps!

Answer 2

There is another issue people are running into that is a bug with the login dialog. The login dialog is using a Web Browser control to login the user. By default it loads up "about:blank" as the URI. It then proceeds to try to execute some JavaScript (just ";") to verify it has permissions to do so. On some machines this is problematic because "about:blank" has been mapped to zone 0, or the Local Machine zone. When the JavaScript is executed MSHTML will check the zone of the URI and then the policy for executing scripts. By default the Local Machine zone is locked down, and all script executions result in a Query policy. What this means is if you're running in immersion mode (aka in Internet Explorer) you will get a message box asking if you want to execute the script. However, the Web Browser control used by VS 2013's "Sign In" dialog doesn't run MSHTML code in immersion mode, so the Query policy effectively equates to a Disallow policy. The bug here is someone in VS assumed "about:blank" resolves to the Internet zone, and when it resolves to the Local Computer zone you get this behavior.

The workaround is to remove "about:blank" zone mapping. Point regedit to this key:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\ZoneMap\Domains]

Remove the "blank" key.

Alternatively you can change the Local Machine Lockdown policy for executing scripts. The reg key for that is:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\Lockdown_Zones\0]

Set the "1400" DWORD value to 0.