Question

I want to use IE8 as a WebBrowser control in a C# application. How can I disable ‘quirks mode’ and force IE into standards compliance (as far as it is implemented)?

Answer 1

I think the issue you’re facing is described in IEBlog: WebBrowser Control Rendering Modes in IE8:

While webmasters can easily alter their site to render properly in the new version of IE, many software vendors do not have the resources to instantly push out new versions of their applications with updated internal pages. In order to ensure that these existing applications remain in working order, IE8 renders pages running within instances of the WebBrowser control in IE7 Standards Mode by default.

Here I should note that the comments on the page say the above is incorrect, and that ‘IE8 renders pages running within instances of the WebBrowser control in IE7 Strict Mode OR Quirks mode by default, depending on the page’s doctype.’

The solution is as follows:

When an executable loads an instance of the WebBrowser control it scans the registry to check whether the executable wants IE7 Standards or IE8 Standards mode.

…

To run in IE8 Standards Mode insert the following registry value:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\FeatureControl\FEATURE_NATIVE_DOCUMENT_MODE]

'MyApplication.exe'=dword:13880

In both of these instances, MyApplication.exe should be replaced with the name of the executable that will be running WebBrowser controls in a specified mode.

So it sounds like the ‘programmatic’ solution is to write a key in the registry saying you want IE8 Standards mode for WebBrowser controls in your specific application.