IE Enterprise Mode XML Check Frequency

IT Support Forum Forums Windows Windows 7 Applications IE Enterprise Mode XML Check Frequency

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    • #1837
      kelp
      Participant

      Excellent article. Very helpful thanks. Just wondering, how often does the browser check for a new version of the site list XML file?

    • #1839
      Webmaster
      Keymaster

      Hi and welcome to the site! I split your question out to a new topic because it’s a new question (helps people searching). Also coz I’m a control freak lol.

      From memory IE checks for an updated version of the xml site list something like 90 seconds after starting the browser. As I mention in the previous article, I’m not working in an environment that uses IE Enterprise Mode anymore, otherwise I’d do some testing and let you know. I don’t know how often, or if it checks regularly thereafter.

      I believe that an XML site list is cached in the users profile and a version number is cached in the users registry. Gotchas to watch out for if you’re doing funny stuff with user profiles, like profile management such as VMware User Environment Manager.

    • #1840
      kelp
      Participant

      No problem. I’ll do some more investigation. Would be good to know whereabouts in the registry that the cacheing happens. I’ll have a look further and if I find anything I’ll put it up here

    • #1841
      Webmaster
      Keymaster

      You’re a good fella 🙂

      Have a search of the forum, I other have already put it here.

      If you are doing fancy things with profiles, it’s possible that you can have a user log onto a PC, download a cached sure list and their registry will store the XML version number… Then when the user logs onto another PC, their registry roams, but not the cache. In that scenario IE won’t download the XML list because it thinks it already had the latest copy.

      What’s the issue that you’re trying to fix, anyhow?

    • #1842
      kelp
      Participant

      I haven’t specifically found the answer but some people are mentioning 60 seconds or 90 seconds after IE starts up. Nothing solid on that though. The problem I had was that, despite revising the site list XML file on our file share and changing the version / rules number, IE was not seeing any difference straight away. In the end, we’ve decided to implement a user group policy which deletes the ‘CurrentVersion’ value from the HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\EnterpriseMode key. This’ll happen at logon (and whenever policies are checked again), which will kind of force IE to constantly check and grab the latest copy of the XML file.

      I doubt it’s the recommended way of doing it but that didn’t seem to be working here. Maybe I wasn’t leaving IE long enough before checking the version number, but I have to say I tried a number of times after updating the version in the XML file and starting / restarting IE11, the registry key (above) never changed from the old version number so it seemed IE was never bothering to grab the latest XML file. Odd!

    • #1843
      Webmaster
      Keymaster

      Hmmm well sounds like you got there in the end. Thanks for posting the registry key.

      I managed to find a Microsoft article saying that checks for an update 65 seconds after IE starts.

      Not the best, really. I suspect they’re doing it so IE doesn’t take longer to start. The whole architecture of IE Enterprise Mode is sloppy if you ask me.

      Well, glad you’re up and running. Feel free to post more stuff on the forum if you need any help with anything else.

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