Can I get rid of the "This page contains both secure and nonsecure items" warning?

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My problem is that I keep getting the "This page contains both secure and nonsecure items" warning even though "Enable" IS checked in the "Miscellaneous" section of the Security tab of Internet Options. Can anyone tell me what further step I must take to get rid of the nuisance warning?

Leo, I found the answer. I discovered that, on the Security tab in Internet Options, I had to make this configuration under "Restricted Sites" also, not just under "Internet" or "Trusted Sites." The problem occurred at games.com where I play Monopoly. I like your site. Very nice that one doesn't have to sign up or login to comment. Thank you very much.

The problem is generally caused by an iframe on the page. iframes are used under popups to ensure that dropdowns don't paint over the popup (another IE bug).

To stop getting this message, do the following :
1) Open the browser
2) Go to Tools->Internet Options
3) Click on the security tab.
4) Click on Custom Level
5) In this list, Look for " Display Mixed Content" and click on enable
6) Then look for "Launching programs and files in an IFRAME' and click on enable.
7) Click on OK and then OK again
8) Close all Internet explorer windows

Microsoft says this is a known issue and has issued a hotfix for it (I don't know if it works and it also requires some registry tweaking), but its only good for Windows XP, 2000, etc, and does not apply to Windows ME and before. Guess which OS I have.
I have enabled all the above mentioned and even enabled them in all the other zones and it still comes back.

I just set the "Display Mixed Content" to enabled for all zones : Internet, Intranet, Trusted and Restricted sites and the warning has gone.

Hi Leo,

I am a site developer. There are good reasons why there may be a mix of secure and unsecure elements within a page. For example, within a secure part of a site i developed, i have references to google maps, who - as far as i'm aware - do not offer a secure equivalent to their service (and even if they do, other services don't, so the argument prevails).

Even if you implement the the "brute force" method of segregating all secure information from insecure information (which may not make sense to the user), and then designating every page (of hundreds of pages) as secure or unsecure, you may still have users receive the "you are entering/leaving a secure page" type of message. If there is a not-"bad site design" that can get around this issue, i'm not aware of it.

And besides, users are already trusting me to properly handle their secure information. There are much easier ways for me to abuse that trust then to explicitly put links to unsecure services in my pages. This message is just a nuisance.

Hi everybody..

I was facing the same problem mencioned above.

It was caused by an IFRAME I put on my page to have a DIV over a SELECT box. The problem was that my IFRAME didn't have a secure SRC target (actually, it was left blank ;p), so it is treated as a "nonsecure item".

I just could get free from that boring message by adding a SRC URL to the IFRAME.

I hope, it'll be useful!

Marcio Lima
[Email Address Removed]

hey leo,
i have lost the microsoft word on my computer there is no sign of it how can i get it and i dont have the windows xp cd im in real trouble i need the word but i cant get it so plz can u help me.

You'll probably need to reinstall Microsoft Office to get Microsoft Word back.

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