Drop-down or expanding text cause problems in Windows Server 2003

[EileenPalsson]

At the risk of providing redundant information, here's a problem we had, and how we solved it, in case it saves somebody some sleuthing time:

Our developers implemented a program (EXE) that is installed on Windows Server 2003 with my team's CHM file. During the course of testing, we discovered that help topics that contain drop-down or expanding text within drop-down hotspots caused problems if Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration is activited.

Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration is activated by default on Windows Server 2003, and it can (I'm told) also be activated on other operating systems.

What happens is that a message is displayed. The dialog is called "Internet Explorer", and the error message says:

quote:

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Content within this application coming from the Web site listed below is being blocked by Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration. about:security_hh.exe. ... If you trust this Web site, you can lower security settings for the site by adding it to the Trusted sites zone.... [Add] [Close]

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It is a serious-looking error message with a big "not allowed" symbol.

(The same problem would probably occur if we inserted drop-down or expanding text within drop-down text. I haven't tested it.)

To solve this and prevent end users from having to fiddle with security settings, our developers changed the installation program so that it makes our program a "trusted site".

Regards,
Eileen

[Peter Grainge]

Thanks but it begs the question, if the help is server based, why isn't it webhelp rather than CHMs which have security restrictions when run on servers.

[EileenPalsson]

There were various reasons for this, for example:
1. In this particular case, the target audience is the system administrator who is actually working on the server. No one else should be accessing it.
2. We wanted a single CHM file that is easy to zip up and distribute when we update it.
/Eileen