Fix Exchange 2003 Outlook Web Access (OWA) Compatibility with Internet Explorer 10

Posted by D. Thijssen Friday 14 June 2013

Symtoms

Outlook Web Access (OWA) does not display properly on Internet Explorer 10. CSS code is displayed at the top of the page. Javascript doesn't load properly and the list of messages keeps displaying the message "Loading...".


Outlook Web Access (OWA) on Internet Explorer 10

Cause

Outlook Web Access (OWA) is incompatible with Internet Explorer 10.

Solution

You can implement a work-around on the client, or centrally on your Exchange server.

Client Side

  1. Press F12.
  2. Set Browser mode to Internet Explorer 10 Compatibility mode.


Or...


Server Side

Add the HTTP header "X-UA-Compatible: IE=EmulateIE8" to Exchange. This header will instruct Internet Explorer 10 to render Outlook Web Access the "old-fashioned" way.

  1. Open Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager.
  2. Navigate to Websites, Default Websites.
  3. Open Properties for Exchange.
  4. Open the tab HTTP Headers.
  5. Click Add...
  6. Custom header name: "X-UA-Compatible" (without the quotation marks)
  7. Custom header value: "IE=EmulateIE8" (without the quotation marks)
  8. Click OK. 

Custom HTTP header for OWA
You need to restart your webbrowser for the changes to take effect.

6 comments... read them below or respond.

  1. Anonymous2 October 2013 at 18:19

    Your tech tip on how to resolve the IE10/OWA 2003 compatibility issue on the server side is awesome! Thank you for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous9 October 2013 at 16:23

    Thanks for the helpful information!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous10 January 2014 at 14:04

    Great !!! It work fine now.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous21 January 2014 at 12:28

    Great it works also on IE11 w/OWA 2003

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous23 July 2014 at 20:09

      Does it really work on IE11? I can't get it to. IE11 omits the MSIE token from the user-agent string. I would be very interested in knowing how you got this to work in IE11.

      Delete
  5. Anonymous5 November 2014 at 09:58

    OWA in IE11 look likes any other nonIE browser (Chrome, Firefox ..). It is so annoying. But as Outlook 2013 does not support Exchange 2003, IE11 does not fully support it as well. I hate Microsoft lifetime circle, there is no reason cut of working Exchange 2003. They know it, but wo will buy newer Exchange if this one is working great?

    ReplyDelete

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