Why isn't my IE8 Developer Tools working?

Question

It used to work and now when I press F12 nothing happens...the window does NOT appear. I've uninstalled any other toolbars I've installed and tried resetting by security settings in IE...nothing.

I'm using Windows 7 beta

Answer 1

Maybe someone disabled them?
Here's how you do that.

Basically: Check the following registry key:

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\IEDevTools

In the worst case you can remove the whole key. This wil revert the settings back to default.

Answer 2

In my case, the developer tools were disabled by Group Policy.

1. Open the Local Group Policy Editor. Press Win+R to open the Run window, and type gpedit.msc in the search line and press Enter
2. In the left pane click on to expand Computer Configuration, Administrative Templates, Windows Components, Internet Explorer, and select Toolbars
   1. If you can't find the appropriate policy, you might need to add it. Right click on Administrative Templates.
   2. Select Add/Remove Templates...
   3. Select Add...
   4. I went for broke and selected a whole bunch of templates to be sure I got the one I needed.
3. In the right pane double-click Turn off Developer Tools
4. Select Disabled to disable the disablement.
5. Close the Group Policy editor.
6. You might have to close IE or restart your computer to apply the setting.

Answer 3

The problem was most likely caused by the WindowsPos value.

If it happens again the two solutions are:

1) Right click on the thumbnail/title for the dev toolbar in the task bar and then select "Move" then press an arrow. Now if you move your mouse you should see the window follow your cursor around, left clicking will "detach" it from your cursor.

2) Delete the value WindowPos, don't set it to 0 as that will cause the issue to happen again, just delete the entry.