VB.NET app: Forms.WebBrowser and IE version dependency

[mrmiffo]

Hi,

Language: VB
Dev. environment: VS2005 Express Edition
OS: WinXP
Browser: IE7

I developed an application containing a WebBrowser object not visible to the user.
JPG, SWF and HTML files are loaded into the object and I'm grabbing the image of it for printing. Works great on systems that have IE7 but on machines that have IE6 installed, the grabbed image always comes out blank. Updating to IE7 on the problem machines makes them stop failing. Good, I thought...
New problem: the customer needs it to work with IE6 due to their internal regulations.

What I'd like to know, is if A) this is a known bug for IE6 or if B) it's just the fact that I'm using IE7 on the developing machine that makes the application depend on IE7?
If B is true, I gather it should help compiling the application on a machine that has IE6...?


Best regards and thanks for any input regarding this.

/Mr Miffo

[Plater]

I would guess that it has to do with option "B".
The webbrowser control seems to just wrap the underlying IE .DLLs, if the user only has "DLL version 6" instead of "DLL version 7", there could be some issues.

I think the only thing you can do it find a system that ONLY has IE6, and install VS on it and re-compile/build the project and test it in there.
I don't think using a system that has both IE6 and IE& (if that's even possible) will work since it will likely take IE7 by "default"

[balabaster]

Could you grab the active-x component for IE6 off one of those machines and dump it on your development box? Create the reference by browsing to the OCX/DLL file in question. There may be a whole bunch of other dependencies that may cause issues though... It might turn out being easier to install VS on a box that only has IE6 and compile it in that environment. Only one way to find out ;)

[mrmiffo]

Thanks guys, I'll try both solution suggestions and get back with the result.

Best regards,

/mrmiffo

[mrmiffo]

Could you grab the active-x component for IE6 off one of those machines and dump it on your development box?

Well, I think I could... if I knew which file to grab... feel kind of stupid here. Been trying to find out on Microsoft.com, but fell asleep after browsing 9 miles of text... ;-)

Any idea of which file I should look for?


Best regards,

/mrmiffo