Web browser control emulation issue (FEATURE_BROWSER_EMULATION)

Question

Using VS2013 I created a very simple web browser Control application that navigates to http://demos.dojotoolkit.org/demos/calendar/demo.html

When no FEATURE_BROWSER_EMULATION is set for this application in the registry the site functions correctly, When adding the application to this registry key (under HKLM) it is working till IE9 emulation but fails with IE10 and IE11 values (i have IE11 on my machine).

example:

FEATURE_BROWSER_EMULATION

myApp=9999 - works

myApp=10001 - doesn't work

doesn't work = month date picker is not working Any suggestion what can be the problem?

Thanks, Guy

Answer 1

Below is my WebBrowser playground application (in C#) which works well with your URL (http://demos.dojotoolkit.org/demos/calendar/demo.html).

Disabling FEATURE_NINPUT_LEGACY_MODE is what made the difference, I believe. There is a couple of other settings I enabled, as well. It also shows how to use HKEY_CURRENT_USER instead of HKLM, so the app doesn't require admin rights.

using Microsoft.Win32;
using System;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Threading;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using System.Windows.Forms;

namespace WebBrowserApp
{
    public partial class MainForm : Form
    {
        const int POLL_DELAY = 250;
        WebBrowser _webBrowser;

        // set WebBrowser features, more info: http://stackoverflow.com/a/18333982/1768303
        static void SetWebBrowserFeatures()
        {
            // don't change the registry if running in-proc inside Visual Studio
            if (LicenseManager.UsageMode != LicenseUsageMode.Runtime)
                return;

            var appName = System.IO.Path.GetFileName(System.Diagnostics.Process.GetCurrentProcess().MainModule.FileName);

            var featureControlRegKey = @"HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\FeatureControl\";

            Registry.SetValue(featureControlRegKey + "FEATURE_BROWSER_EMULATION",
                appName, GetBrowserEmulationMode(), RegistryValueKind.DWord);

            // enable the features which are "On" for the full Internet Explorer browser

            Registry.SetValue(featureControlRegKey + "FEATURE_ENABLE_CLIPCHILDREN_OPTIMIZATION",
                appName, 1, RegistryValueKind.DWord);

            Registry.SetValue(featureControlRegKey + "FEATURE_AJAX_CONNECTIONEVENTS",
                appName, 1, RegistryValueKind.DWord);

            Registry.SetValue(featureControlRegKey + "FEATURE_GPU_RENDERING",
                appName, 1, RegistryValueKind.DWord);

            Registry.SetValue(featureControlRegKey + "FEATURE_WEBOC_DOCUMENT_ZOOM",
                appName, 1, RegistryValueKind.DWord);

            Registry.SetValue(featureControlRegKey + "FEATURE_NINPUT_LEGACYMODE",
                appName, 0, RegistryValueKind.DWord);
        }

        static UInt32 GetBrowserEmulationMode()
        {
            int browserVersion = 0;
            using (var ieKey = Registry.LocalMachine.OpenSubKey(@"SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer",
                RegistryKeyPermissionCheck.ReadSubTree,
                System.Security.AccessControl.RegistryRights.QueryValues))
            {
                var version = ieKey.GetValue("svcVersion");
                if (null == version)
                {
                    version = ieKey.GetValue("Version");
                    if (null == version)
                        throw new ApplicationException("Microsoft Internet Explorer is required!");
                }
                int.TryParse(version.ToString().Split('.')[0], out browserVersion);
            }

            if (browserVersion < 7)
            {
                throw new ApplicationException("Unsupported version of Microsoft Internet Explorer!");
            }

            UInt32 mode = 11000; // Internet Explorer 11. Webpages containing standards-based !DOCTYPE directives are displayed in IE11 Standards mode. 

            switch (browserVersion)
            {
                case 7:
                    mode = 7000; // Webpages containing standards-based !DOCTYPE directives are displayed in IE7 Standards mode. 
                    break;
                case 8:
                    mode = 8000; // Webpages containing standards-based !DOCTYPE directives are displayed in IE8 mode. 
                    break;
                case 9:
                    mode = 9000; // Internet Explorer 9. Webpages containing standards-based !DOCTYPE directives are displayed in IE9 mode.                    
                    break;
                case 10:
                    mode = 10000; // Internet Explorer 10.
                    break;
            }

            return mode;
        }

        // static constructor, runs first
        static MainForm()
        {
            SetWebBrowserFeatures();
        }

        public MainForm()
        {
            InitializeComponent();

            _webBrowser = new WebBrowser() { Dock = DockStyle.Fill };
            this.Controls.Add(_webBrowser);

            this.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(800, 600);
            this.Load += MainForm_Load;
        }

        // start the task
        async void MainForm_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            try
            {
                dynamic document = await LoadDynamicPage("http://demos.dojotoolkit.org/demos/calendar/demo.html",
                    CancellationToken.None);

                MessageBox.Show(new { document.documentMode, document.compatMode }.ToString());
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                MessageBox.Show(ex.Message);
            }
        }

        // navigate and download 
        async Task<object> LoadDynamicPage(string url, CancellationToken token)
        {
            // navigate and await DocumentCompleted
            var tcs = new TaskCompletionSource<bool>();
            WebBrowserDocumentCompletedEventHandler handler = (s, arg) =>
                tcs.TrySetResult(true);

            using (token.Register(() => tcs.TrySetCanceled(), useSynchronizationContext: false))
            {
                this._webBrowser.DocumentCompleted += handler;
                try
                {
                    this._webBrowser.Navigate(url);
                    await tcs.Task; // wait for DocumentCompleted
                }
                finally
                {
                    this._webBrowser.DocumentCompleted -= handler;
                }
            }

            // get the root element
            var documentElement = this._webBrowser.Document.GetElementsByTagName("html")[0];

            // poll the current HTML for changes asynchronosly
            var html = documentElement.OuterHtml;
            while (true)
            {
                // wait asynchronously, this will throw if cancellation requested
                await Task.Delay(POLL_DELAY, token);

                // continue polling if the WebBrowser is still busy
                if (this._webBrowser.IsBusy)
                    continue;

                var htmlNow = documentElement.OuterHtml;
                if (html == htmlNow)
                    break; // no changes detected, end the poll loop

                html = htmlNow;
            }

            // consider the page fully rendered 
            token.ThrowIfCancellationRequested();

            return this._webBrowser.Document.DomDocument;
        }
    }
}