Internet Explorer pictures not displayed - how do I bypass security so that they are?

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Summary: Internet Explorer will sometimes not display pictures. Bypassing security settings occasionally helps but there are also other settings to check.

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Well, to begin with pictures shouldn't be getting blocked based on security settings. You can turn pictures off entirely, of course, but that's a speed-up intended for slow connections.

Let's double check that setting, consider a couple of other issues that might be causing this problem, and then also see about what it means in IE7's security settings to, uh ... ignore ... the consequences.

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The ability to display pictures should be turned on by default, but IE7 still includes the option to turn it off. This is a browser-wide setting, so it'll effect every website you visit.

In IE7 click on Tools, Internet Options and then click on the Advanced tab. In the Settings list, scroll down until in the Multimedia section you see Show Pictures:

Simply make sure that's checked, or not, as you see fit.

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Sometimes files in IE's cache can interfere with new files and pictures. The quickest approach to eliminate this as a problem is to clear the cache.

Click on Tools, Internet Options and then in the General tab, in the Browsing history section click on the Delete... button:

In the Temporary Internet Files section click on the Delete Files... button and then click on Yes in response to the confirmation request.

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Another possibility is that your security software is somehow interfering with your web page displays. Unfortunately there's no way for me to confirm that this is the case, because different security packages all operate differently and have different levels of what I'll just call "intrusion" into your browsing experience.

If you're running a software firewall or some other kind of internet security suite, I would take a few moments to review whether or not that package is involved in protecting you from what your browser might display, and in turn, how to go about turning that off.

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Since you mention these are technical sites, I'm wondering if these aren't plain old images at all, but rather some kind of interactive, Javascript or other technology based image displaying utilities. If you can scroll around the images, zoom, pan, and whatever else, it's likely that this is the case.

This is also a case where "damn the consequences" might be an appropriate solution.

Within reason, of course.

In short, we're going to add the site you're having trouble with to Internet Explorer's list of "Trusted Sites". That should remove most of the restrictions that IE might be placing on that site's content.

Once again in Tools, Internet Options, this time click the Security tab, and then click on the Trusted Sites zone icon:

To add a site to the list of trusted sites, click on the Sites button:

Enter the URL of the site that you're having issues with (you can see I've typed in "http://ask-leo.com" here as an example). You also may need to un-check "Require server verification (https:) for all sites in this zone" if the URL does not begin with https.

Click on Add, and then click on Close. This will bring you back to the Security Tab displayed above. You may want to drop the security level of this zone from Medium to Low:

Since only sites you trust will be placed into this zone, it's reasonable to drop the restrictions placed on them. As it states "Appropriate for sites that you absolutely trust".

And if you don't absolutely trust? Well, that's the "damn the consequences" part of it all.

Related:

• Ask Leo! - Why don't pictures show when I visit websites?

• Ask Leo! - Why don't pictures show up in the emails I send or receive?

Article C3399 - May 29, 2008