Installing the IE Developer Toolbar

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I ran into a bit of confusion while trying to get the IE Developer Toolbar installed recently, so I figured I’d post my notes publicly in case others were having similar frustrations. It may be due to lack of effort on my part, but I had this thing installed for nearly a month before I actually figured out how to turn everything on. (It did, however, seem to be a pretty frequent problem on Google.)

As usual, nothing in Internet Explorer can be rudimentary. The first thing I noticed was that the toolbar wasn’t showing. It wasn’t located intuitively under View > Toolbars, but rather View > Explorer Bar. Once I had it showing, all of the options were grayed out/disabled. Urgh…less than useful. Here’s how I got everything to work.

  1. Download the IE Developer Toolbar.
  2. Run the MSI and proceed through the install as normal.
  3. When you restart IE, the developer toolbar will most likely not be showing. To show the toolbar, press ALT + V (to access the hidden View menu), then select Explorer Bar > IE Developer Toolbar.
  4. If all of the options are grayed out, go to Tools > Internet Options > Advanced and make sure Enable Third-party Browser Extensions is checked.
  5. Then, go to Tools > Internet Options > Programs > Manage Add-ons and look for IE Developer Toolbar and IE Developer Toolbar BHO. Make sure both are enabled.
  6. Restart IE and enjoy your new toy :)
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6 Responses to Installing the IE Developer Toolbar

  1. Befuddled User says:

    Thanks. I reinstalled tool twice thinking something was wrong. I was about to give up before finding this. Would have never thought to look under Explorer Bar. If they wanted to put it there they should have at least named it IE Developer Explorer Bar.

  2. meiyu says:

    appreciate!

  3. Frank says:

    Finally, a solution that worked. Hoorah!

  4. Tobias says:

    That’s it!!
    Thank you man :)

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