W2K SP2, IE 5.5 SP1 Can't View Source When Viewing Web HTML Files

[BudB]

Using W2K SP2 with IE5.5 SP1 I can't get the View, Source function in IE5.5 to work. In W98 on my dual boot machine clicking View and then Source displays the source of the web page being viewed. In W2K using the same IE it does absolutely nothing. Nada. Just as if I didn't click anything. Anybody else have this problem or have any ideas? (By the way, Two IE5.5's are loaded in different partitions one for W98 and one for W2K.) Everything else on this machine is rock stable. It also doesn't work if I right click on an html web page and select View Source.

 

[jaywallen]

This could happen for a number of reasons.

I have heard that a full Temporary Internet Files cache can cause this symptom, though I have not seen it actually happen. The answer, if this is the case, would be to empty the cache and try again.

I have seen the following:

You can't view source from within IE if notepad.exe has been uninstalled or has been otherwise removed from the system or from the path. Solution is to restore it to its rightful place.

You can't view source from within IE if the directory specified in the TMP variable is corrupted or contains corrupted data OR if the directory specified in the TMP variable doesn't exist. Solution is to delete / re-create the directory. I have also seen cases where someone had removed the TMP variable in the Environment specification. That will do the trick, too.

IE is hard-coded to copy the html page from the TIF to the directory specified in the TMP variable, then open it using Notepad.exe.

Hope this helps.

Regards,
Jim

 

[BudB]

I tried a couple of the possibilities you mentioned. Nothing still works. With W2K it's impossible to delete Notepad since It's one of those protected system files. This machine has 80GB of disk storage and 256MB memory, fairly loaded. The thing that gets me is W98 works. One thing I do notice is that the TEMP and TMP directories are the same. Both environment variables point to the same directory. Is this usual and has anyone else had this problem?

 

[jaywallen]

<< With W2K it's impossible to delete Notepad since It's one of those protected system files. >>



Well, not actually. There are a lot of people who turn off the Windows File Protection feature. (Not me. I had enough of DLL Hell with NT 4.0!)

It is normal for the TEMP and TMP variables to point to the same directory. That happens by default.

At this point I'm wondering if it might be worth trying the Internet Explorer &quot;repair&quot; feature.

I have seen and fixed this issue on a number of machines for other people. I am, unfortunately, not aware of any causes for the symptom other than the ones I already listed. If I get a bit of time free I'll see if I can find anything else that might explain it.

In the meantime, I'll keep my fingers crossed!

Regards,
Jim

 

[Ladi]

Another possible issue -- cookies folder permissions.

~Ladi

 

[jaywallen]

Thanks for posting that, Ladi! Another little addition to my compendium of esoterica!

 

[BudB]

Thanks for the link Ladi but I am using a FAT32 partitioning and I have administrator rights for everything. When I check the registry key

HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-527237240-854245398-1060284298-1000\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.TMP\OpenWithList

I see the following:

(Default) REG_SZ (value not set)
a REG_SZ NOTEPAD.EXE
MRUList REG_SZ a

This appears normal but if anybody has anything different I would appreciate knowing since this seems to control what files in TMP are opened with.

Another clue, I put another text file listing program, replacing Notepad.exe in the above key and low and behold it listed NOTEPAD.EXE as the source I was supposedly viewing! (obviously in hex). In other words maybe notepad is trying to show the source of itself someway and can't. Odd.

Bump. Can anyone please check these registry settings for me?

 

[BudB]

Again, could anybody please see if these registry setting agree with your W2K systems. Any clue I could get might help me fix this problem. Thanks.

 

[jaywallen]

I just looked at 5 different W2K machines (Pro, Advanced Server) and didn't find a .tmp key in that location on any of them. HTML source is viewable via the browser feature on all of them. Sounds like .tmp files became associated with notepad.exe. Did you ever double-click on a .tmp file, get presented with the Open With dialog, and fail uncheck the &quot;Always open with&quot; item before clicking on the OK button?

Could you export the entry (so that you could import it again later if need be) and just delete it / reboot to see what happens?

Or you could use the assoc command from a CMD prompt to dissociate the extension from notepad.exe. You'd type &quot;assoc .tmp=&quot; (no quotes) and hit the Enter key at a CMD prompt. It's normal for .tmp to show no association.

Regards,
Jim

 

[BudB]

Many thanks Jim for even thinking about this problem. .tmp files are associated with Notepad.File. When this association is removed with assoc nothing different happens. I can also change the .tmp association with Folder Options but somewhat to my surprise the &quot;always use this program to open...&quot; is grayed out but checked. I even changed the association to Wordpad with the same results. Nothing changes, still can't view source. Since you don't have this registry key as I described on any of your machines I'm tempted to remove it entirely but will do this as a last resort only. If you don't have it I can't imagine where it came from.

Addendum: Bit the bullet and removed the registry key, nothing changed. Ugh!

Thanks again,
Bud

 

[jaywallen]

Hi, Bud.

Sheesh! No easy answers, huh? I'm beginning to think there's an interfering installation involved. Have you installed, then uninstalled any html editors lately? Has an installation of any kind failed?

Just grasping at straws since we've exhausted the only causes I've seen. I will keep thinking about it in hopes of coming up with something.

Regards,
Jim

 

[jaywallen]

Bud,

I thought about this a wee bit and realized that we haven't communicated about some basic configuration details that might possibly help us sort this out. (It's possible you've already been over these items, but I thought I'd ask about them anyway.)

If you look at this registry key

\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.htm\OpenWithList\

what keys do you see listed there? I have arach.exe, FRONTPG.EXE, notepad.exe, and wordview.exe. I would expect your list be be slightly different. I use Arachnophilia as my main HTML editor. I use FrontPage 2000 as an aid in helping a couple of people work on their FrontPage-developed Web sites, Notepad is there by default, and Wordview is the freebie Microsoft Word document viewer which sticks itself into the registry at this location, and others, rather gratuitously. I just can't stand to actually install Word

Anyway, I'd be interested in knowing what you find there, and also I'd like to know if there is anything other than a &quot;(default)&quot; Value Name of the REG_SZ type with (value not set) in any of the sub-keys.

Another thing I'd like to ask is if you have edited the registry manually, and if so, with which registry editor (regedit.exe or regedt32.exe).

Finally, I'd like you to look in your Tools|Internet Options dialog's Programs tab and tell me what is listed in the HTML editor dropdown. (This is NOT a determinant of what IE uses when you choose to View Source, but I'd like to know if the dropdown reflects properly the registry entries for this item). After you do this, I'd like you to try to EDIT (not View Source) an online HTML document with notepad.exe just to see if this functionality is present. If you've installed an HTML editor, then notepad.exe will probably have been supplanted as the default HTML editor. But you should still be able to set notepad.exe as the default if the aforementioned dropdown has it in its list. Then you'll be able to find &quot;Edit with Notepad&quot; in the Internet Explorer File menu. (Or it will be activated automatically if you are using the IE toolbar and click on its Edit button.) Alternatively, you can use the Edit button's dropdown to choose notepad (if it's present in the list) without changing the default editor.

If I'm just covering previously covered territory, forgive me. Just wondered what was up on your system in these respects.

Regards,
Jim

 

[BudB]

Jim,

Just got back into work after a long night of updating some other systems here at work and saw your latest message. I can't say how much I appreciate the effort you've put into this, even if we never solve it until XP (if that does it).

Concerning the \HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.htm\OpenWithList\ it contains only FRONTPAGE.EXE and notepad.exe in that order. The only values shown for either are default. Now I'm kind of curious why Wordview isn't there? Maybe W2K on a clean install doesn't think Wordview is necessary or is this entry set if you use Wordview to ever edit an htm file or upgrade a W9x previous install. I sure would like to have some Microsoft program notes to see how and under what conditions they set registry keys or do the programs themselves set most keys whey you install them.

I used Regedit to remove the key I talked about earlier. I'm still not sure when to use regedit32 and regedit and for what reasons, but am used to regedit.

When changing the html editor In IE5 from FRONTPAGE to notepad the right click Edit command will use the one I select so all works as advertised there.

In fooling around with this problem in the last few days I was wondering what a MRUList key was. Finally figured that each program that can be used to open any file extension is given a letter a, b, etc. The order of preference for opening a file of a given extension in any particular instance is the MRUList. Example MRUList Key acedb would try programs displayed above it in that order to display, open etc. the file. When notepad was the only file used for .tmp files and there was an &quot;a&quot; as part of the key now I know why.

With this info did a registry search on notepad to see if I could find any out of order selections for htm, txt, tmp etc. I did notice that when I used assoc, as you suggested, it added wordpad to the files that could be used to open .tmp but gave it a &quot;b&quot; rating with notepad an &quot;a&quot; rating. Nothing solved the View Source problem but interesting and learned something. There are no instances of &quot;View Source&quot; or any iterations of it that I could find in the registry.

That's all for now but I'm going to keep trying until I or somebody else comes up with the solution.

Thanks again Jim,

BudB

 

[jaywallen]

<< Just got back into work after a long night of updating some other systems here at work and saw your latest message. I can't say how much I appreciate the effort you've put into this, even if we never solve it until XP (if that does it). >>



You're very welcome. Trying to figure stuff like this out is kind of a hobby for me. You're doing a public service by keeping me out of my wife's hair and off the streets.



<< Concerning the \HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.htm\OpenWithList\ it contains only FRONTPAGE.EXE and notepad.exe in that order. The only values shown for either are default. Now I'm kind of curious why Wordview isn't there? Maybe W2K on a clean install doesn't think Wordview is necessary or is this entry set if you use Wordview to ever edit an htm file or upgrade a W9x previous install. I sure would like to have some Microsoft program notes to see how and under what conditions they set registry keys or do the programs themselves set most keys whey you install them. >>



Have you installed the Wordview utility? It isn't installed by Office. It's for cheapskates like me who need to be able to read Word docs but who won't buy Word. Anyway, Wordview doesn't ask your permission to place this setting in your registry. It just does it. And it doesn't make a lot of sense becase... (drum roll please) ...you can't edit ANYTHING with Wordview, html or otherwise! It's just a viewing utility!!! Go figure! It is freely downloadable from MS.



<< I used Regedit to remove the key I talked about earlier. I'm still not sure when to use regedit32 and regedit and for what reasons, but am used to regedit. >>



Regedt32.exe is the registry editor of preference in NT 4 and W2K. That's because it's the registry editor which knows how to deal with security settings, among other things. It has an excellent value name / key creation wizard which steps you through the creation of registry items so that you can't wind up creating a corrupted or invalid (other than out-of-range) item. However, its search functions only work within the particular hive you are examining at the moment. So Microsoft left the old Regedit.exe on these systems so that people could use it for that. When I need to go hunting for &quot;Easter eggs&quot;, I use regedit.exe. But when I need to actually do anything other than simply delete an item from the registry, I always use Regedt32.exe.



<< When changing the html editor In IE5 from FRONTPAGE to notepad the right click Edit command will use the one I select so all works as advertised there. >>



Cool. So you can at least view the source by this means, right?



<< In fooling around with this problem in the last few days I was wondering what a MRUList key was. Finally figured that each program that can be used to open any file extension is given a letter a, b, etc. The order of preference for opening a file of a given extension in any particular instance is the MRUList. Example MRUList Key acedb would try programs displayed above it in that order to display, open etc. the file. When notepad was the only file used for .tmp files and there was an &quot;a&quot; as part of the key now I know why. >>



MRU = Most Recently Used. There's a lot of info about it in the MSKB if you care to burn up a day looking for it.



<< With this info did a registry search on notepad to see if I could find any out of order selections for htm, txt, tmp etc. I did notice that when I used assoc, as you suggested, it added wordpad to the files that could be used to open .tmp but gave it a &quot;b&quot; rating with notepad an &quot;a&quot; rating. Nothing solved the View Source problem but interesting and learned something. There are no instances of &quot;View Source&quot; or any iterations of it that I could find in the registry. >>



You know how, if you double-click on a really big text file in Win9X, you'll get a rude error message about the file being too big for Notepad? In W2K the OS will substitute the next application in line (Wordpad in this case) and go ahead and open the file without troubling the user. I still don't understand why your system has ANYTHING associated with the &quot;.tmp&quot; extension. Normally that extension has no association.



<< That's all for now but I'm going to keep trying until I or somebody else comes up with the solution. >>



I'm rooting for you, Bud, but I'm not sure I know where to go from here. I'll continue to ponder it, and I hope you'll post back with anything you turn up. I'm interested, and I'm sure the info will be of benefit to others, too.

Regards,
Jim

 

[BudB]

Jim,

<<Cool. So you can at least view the source by this means, right?>>

Well not really. What I meant is that if I right click on an htm file and select open it will use the editor of choice. Example, I click on a local htm file and select open it will use notepad if that was my editor of choice.

On thinking about it I tried to display the source from some web pages and I NEVER see any xxxx.tmp file in the designated TMP directory. It's as IE5 isn't copying anything into the directory so nothing matches the %1% it should be passing to notepad and thus it simply exits.

This tells me we've been looking in the wrong place and should see what might make IE5 do that. Of course maybe .tmp files are erased somehow after you try to view them but I don't think so.

Thanks again,

Bud

 

[jaywallen]

Bud,

I haven't done any research on this, but I'll explain how I think this works. I don't know whether or not a .tmp file is created in the TMP variable directory. It might have any extension -- or none. But I don't think it's available / accessible / viewable by the current user, administrator or not. I just tried looking into the TMP directory and saw nothing while I was successfully viewing the source of a page! W2K can successfully hide many things from even the administrative users, even with Explorer set to show hidden / system files and to show critical system files.

As I say, I don't think it's normal for .tmp files to be associated with any application. Have you considered issuing this command

assoc .tmp=

at the CMD line? This is different from using &quot;assoc .tmp&quot; to elicit the list of associations for .tmp files. Using the &quot;=&quot; sign in the command removes all associations from the .tmp extension. It shouldn't do any harm to remove the associations. I've never seen the extension associated with anything on any system except by accident. Assuming that there is no special / oddball application that has established this association for its own purposes, no system or application functions should be compromised. And, of course, re-institution of the associations is a simple thing to do if it should be necessary.

I'm afraid I can't think of anything else to suggest at this point. I will continue to think about this, though. And I'll get back to you if I have any ideas. I'm sorry I can't be more helpful.

Regards,
Jim