How to: Download files with Internet Explorer 11

A lot of people are dealing with the progressive nature of Microsoft, where products are being either introduced or updated (on average) every three years. It is both a blessing and a pain in the butt to deal as you navigate through the business world of today. Internet Explorer is no different and with the recent news, Windows 7 and later systems will need to run IE 11. For all general purposes, it is a dead product as the brand has been replaced with the new Microsoft Edge browser. However, the only supported operating system is Windows 10 as noted in these system requirements.

Note: Microsoft Edge does not support browser extensions, ActiveX, or Browser Helper Objects, but adds new features such as integration with Cortana, annotation tools, and a reading mode.

You can read more about these announcements here:

Support for older versions of Internet Explorer ended on January 12th, 2016

Stay up-to-date with Internet Explorer (Much more information)

Which now leads me to my point of this blog and one of the most annoying parts of this browser… the inability to download files with this browser. Nothing is more frustrating than having something work with an older version and now after an upgrade that feature is broke! After doing an upgrade, when you try to download any files, this is the error that you will see:

It is a part of Microsoft’s new approach to installing products with the bare minimum attack surface exposed. It is a far different approach to the ways things used to be, but I feel it is the right way to proceed. Regardless of that thought, the fix to resolve this issue is pretty easy.

Bring up the Internet Explorer Menu by pressing the ALT Key
Then select Tools, Internet Options
Click the Security Tab, Click the Internet Zone and Select Custom Level
Scroll down to Downloads (notice it is set to disabled by default)
Click then Enable radio button and say yes to change the zone settings