Turn off Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration

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Turn off the extra security in IE

# Steps to Turn Off Enhanced Security on Windows Server 2003

When trying to use the web browser, several actions are being blocked, hindering the download of important files. The error message reads "Content from the Web site listed below is being blocked by the Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration." How can the Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration be disabled on Windows 2003 Server or Windows 2008 Server?

Steps:

1. Go to Control Panel
2. Open "Add or Remove Programs"
3. Select "Add/Remove Windows Components"
4. Uncheck the checkbox labeled "Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration" and click "Next"
5. Close all Internet Explorer browsers.
6. Open a new browser to attempt the download again.

# Steps to Turn Off Enhanced Security on Windows Server 2008 & Windows Server 2008 R2

Steps:

1. Close all IE browsers.
2. Open the "Server Manager"
3. Click on the top item in the tree labeled "Server Manager"
4. Open up the "Server Summary" tab.
5. Open the secondary tab named "Security Information"
6. Locate and open the "Configure IE ESC" link on the right of the window

This is the window that you will use to control IE ESC. You can turn IE ESC on or off for the Administrators group, the User group, or both groups. When you have finished configuring the IE ESC, press OK and close the server manager. Now open up a new browse, the browsers home screen should say, "Caution: Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration is not enabled". If it does not say this go back and check to make sure you have followed the steps correctly, if it does say that you have successfully disabled IE ESC on your Windows 2008 Server.

# Steps to Turn Off Enhanced Security on Windows Server 2012

Steps in GUI - Graphical User Interface:

1. On the Windows Server 2012 server desktop, locate and start the Server Manager.

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2. Select Local Server (The server you are currently on and the one that needs IE ESC turned off)

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3. On the right side of the Server Manager, you will by default find the IE Enhanced Security Configuration Setting. (The default is On)

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4. You have two settings that can be disabled, one only affects the Administrators and the other all users. The preferred method when testing (if for example SharePoint) is to use a non-admin account and if that is the case, disable the IEESC only for users. Using a local administrator account would cause an additional threat to security and it will also often not give you the required result in tests, since the administrator has permissions where a normal user do not.
Make your selection to Off for Administrators, Users or both.

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5. In this example, I have selected to completely disable Internet Explorer Enhanced Security. When your seelction is made, click OK.

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6. Back in the Server Manager, you will see that the setting has not changed at all. Press F5 to refresh the Server Manager and you wil see that it is changed to Off.

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Done, open up a IE browser windows and try to access any internal site to test the setting, you will notice that you no longer are prompted in the same way.

Steps in Powershell:

(Best I can do, if you know of any OOB CMDlets that does the trick, please drop a comment and let me know:

Put the code below in a textfile and save it with a ps1 extension i.e. Disable-IEESC.ps1
(This will disable both Administrator and User IE ESC)

function Disable-IEESC
{
$AdminKey = “HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Active Setup\Installed Components\{A509B1A7-37EF-4b3f-8CFC-4F3A74704073}”
$UserKey = “HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Active Setup\Installed Components\{A509B1A8-37EF-4b3f-8CFC-4F3A74704073}”
Set-ItemProperty -Path $AdminKey -Name “IsInstalled” -Value 0
Set-ItemProperty -Path $UserKey -Name “IsInstalled” -Value 0
Stop-Process -Name Explorer
Write-Host “IE Enhanced Security Configuration (ESC) has been disabled.” -ForegroundColor Green
}
Disable-IEESC

(You have to hit enter twice after pasting the script)

 

Done!