IE 8 Developer Tools not working In Windows?

Question

I am using Internet Explorer 8, not by choice. I need to debug a script in it. However, no matter how many times I click the Developer Tools Icon, under Tools or click F12 it wi

Answer 1

Probably totally of topic, I have struggled with this as well, however it was disabled too.

After googling (the answer seemed almost identical to the one given here: Why isn't my IE8 Developer Tools working?) I found that the Disabled key was set (had its value set to 1). So open regedit, find the key (also mentioned above in other answers):

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\IEDevTools]

Then find the property:

Disabled = 1

And set it to:

Disabled = 0

After opening IE8, I could use the developer tools again :).

Answer 2

The window/toolbar may be off-screen (often way off to the left) or have a zero size. If @EricLaw's suggestion doesn't work I'd recommend uninstalling and then reinstalling (log off or reboot between the uninstall and reinstall to allow any pending deletes to finalize).

I've encountered similar issues with various applications over the years, especially if you've shut down the application while it is minimized (occasionally, even if maximized). Often the developers haven't taken these conditions into account before saving the window/toolbar size and/or position, resulting in a set of invalid coordinates for the next launch. The root cause goes way back to Windows 3.x and the GetWindowPlacement API.

Answer 3

I've never heard of a problem like this before, but if I had to guess, I'd guess that the tools might be pushed off the edge of the screen? If you click on the task bar item, hit alt+space, then m, do you get the "move" cursor?

Answer 4

I had the same problem. I don't know what I did but it just did not showed up. So in order to show it up I've right click in Status Bar on the right window from those 2 Internet Explorer windows and chose Maximize. Then I saw it back :)

Answer 5

Windows 7: as stated in other answers, the F12 window (or any window) can hide. Unfortunately, sometimes it does not show anywhere, including the taskbar. I've found right clicking on the taskbar and selecting "Cascade Windows" always brings it back into view.