User Agent as Internet Explorer 11 in Safari on MacOS Sierra

Question

Level 1

7 points

User Agent as Internet Explorer 11 in Safari on MacOS Sierra

I am running latest version of macOS Sierra on a late 2012 Mac Mini.

My problem is that I need to run an (interactive) website that only works in Internet Explorer 11 as part of one of my jobs as an examiner.

I looked at remote access options (I have a Windows 10 Home laptop) with various degrees of success but none ideal. I was hoping the simplest way would be to select Internet Explorer 11 from the User Agent list in the Developer menu in Safari.

The website loads and I can sign in and I can go through various menu options. But the main feature of the site is to mark student responses to exam questions.

I believe the functionality for this part of the site requires Java or JavaScript (This is where my knowledge ends and breaks down, are they different?). It possibly requires Active-X (whatever that is/was?). The website prompts me to install Java but takes me to the Windows version which obviously wont install on a Mac! (I have the latest Mac version of Java installed on my Mini.)

Any ideas if there is a way round this?

Or am I being over optimistic in seeking such a simple solution?

Thanks.

ps. I can just use my Windows laptop but prefer the big monitor I use with my Mac. I can connect my laptop to my monitor (I did this last year!) but for various reasons that boil down to the physically space available to work in I am seeking a more efficient solution.

Mac mini (Late 2012), macOS Sierra (10.12.3), Xcode

Posted on Mar 26, 2017 12:30 PM

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Answer 1

Kappy

Level 10

362,001 points

Mar 26, 2017 2:44 PM in response to Scissor2307

Have you changed the user agent via the Developer menu? In Safari it's enabled via Safari > Preferences > Advanced then click on the box at the bottom. The new menu will appear in Safari's menubar.

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Answer 2

Mar 26, 2017 2:53 PM in response to Scissor2307

Changing the user-agent to IE tells the website that you are using that browser, getting round the fact that some sites won't allow access from anything else. However if a site requires Windows-specific programming such as Active-X, as your site probably does, it's not going to work because the required programming simply doesn't exist in OSX. What you can do is run IE under emulation, either by using Boot Camp which enables you to set up a Windows partition on your Macs hard disk and boot into that - this will work exactly like a Windows PC - or by using an emulator such as Parallels which doesn't require a reboot, though I'm not sure whether it would handle Active-X: you would have to research that. Either way you will have to purchase Windows.

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Answer 3

Jun 16, 2017 9:08 AM in response to Scissor2307

Hi,

Go here to download the latest version of Java for Mac:

https://www.java.com/en/download/faq/java_mac.xml

When you have installed Java, restart Safari.

From the top menu bar, select:

Safari -> Preferences -> Security -> Plug-in settings

On the left hand side, tick ‘Java’ and select the website you wish to enable it on (in this case, I’m guessing ‘exams2score.com or something similar).

Ensure that you have ‘Internet Explorer 11’ selected from the ‘User agent’ section of the ‘Develop’ menu.

Go back to the website you wish to use Internet Explorer and Java on, and refresh the page.

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