Webpage works in IE, Chrome and Firefox, but not when using the .NET WebBrowser control

It has probably got to do with that the WebBrowser control by default uses a document emulation mode of IE 7, meaning all pages are handled using the Internet Explorer 7 engine. Since that version is quite old most websites today are not compatible with it, which affects the functionality when you visit the page.

You can change this behaviour by adding a value for your application in the registry key Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\MAIN\FeatureControl\FEATURE_BROWSER_EMULATION in either the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE hive or HKEY_CURRENT_USER. By doing so you are forcing your application to use a specific version of the IE engine.

I’ve written a class which will help you with this:

'A class for changing the WebBrowser control's document emulation.
'Written by Visual Vincent, 2017.

Imports Microsoft.Win32
Imports System.Security
Imports System.Windows.Forms

Public NotInheritable Class InternetExplorer
    Private Sub New()
    End Sub

    Public Const InternetExplorerRootKey As String = "Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer"
    Public Const BrowserEmulationKey As String = InternetExplorerRootKey & "\MAIN\FeatureControl\FEATURE_BROWSER_EMULATION"
    Public Const ActiveXObjectCachingKey As String = InternetExplorerRootKey & "\MAIN\FeatureControl\FEATURE_OBJECT_CACHING"

    Private Shared ReadOnly WebBrowserInstance As New WebBrowser 'Used to get the current IE version in a .NET-friendly manner.

    Public Enum BrowserEmulation As Integer
        IE7 = 7000
        IE8 = 8000
        IE8Standards = 8888
        IE9 = 9000
        IE9Standards = 9999
        IE10 = 10000
        IE10Standards = 10001
        IE11 = 11000
        IE11Edge = 11001
    End Enum

    Public Shared Sub SetLatestBrowserEmulation(ByVal Root As RegistryRoot)
        Dim Emulation As BrowserEmulation = BrowserEmulation.IE7
        Select Case WebBrowserInstance.Version.Major
            Case Is >= 11 : Emulation = BrowserEmulation.IE11Edge
            Case 10 : Emulation = BrowserEmulation.IE10Standards
            Case 9 : Emulation = BrowserEmulation.IE9Standards
            Case 8 : Emulation = BrowserEmulation.IE8Standards
        End Select
        InternetExplorer.SetBrowserEmulation(Root, Emulation)
    End Sub

    Public Shared Sub SetBrowserEmulation(ByVal Root As RegistryRoot, ByVal Emulation As BrowserEmulation)
        Using RootKey As RegistryKey = Root.Root
            Dim EmulationKey As RegistryKey = RootKey.OpenSubKey(BrowserEmulationKey, True)
            If EmulationKey Is Nothing Then EmulationKey = RootKey.CreateSubKey(BrowserEmulationKey, RegistryKeyPermissionCheck.ReadWriteSubTree)

            Using EmulationKey
                EmulationKey.SetValue(Process.GetCurrentProcess().ProcessName & ".exe", CType(Emulation, Integer), RegistryValueKind.DWord)
            End Using
        End Using
    End Sub

    Public Shared Sub SetActiveXObjectCaching(ByVal Root As RegistryRoot, ByVal Enabled As Boolean)
        Using RootKey As RegistryKey = Root.Root
            Dim ObjectCachingKey As RegistryKey = RootKey.OpenSubKey(ActiveXObjectCachingKey, True)
            If ObjectCachingKey Is Nothing Then ObjectCachingKey = RootKey.CreateSubKey(ActiveXObjectCachingKey, RegistryKeyPermissionCheck.ReadWriteSubTree)

            Using ObjectCachingKey
                ObjectCachingKey.SetValue(Process.GetCurrentProcess().ProcessName & ".exe", CType(If(Enabled, 1, 0), Integer), RegistryValueKind.DWord)
            End Using
        End Using
    End Sub

    Public NotInheritable Class RegistryRoot
        Private _root As RegistryKey

        Public ReadOnly Property Root As RegistryKey
            Get
                Return _root
            End Get
        End Property

        Public Shared ReadOnly Property HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE As RegistryRoot
            Get
                Return New RegistryRoot(Registry.LocalMachine)
            End Get
        End Property

        Public Shared ReadOnly Property HKEY_CURRENT_USER As RegistryRoot
            Get
                Return New RegistryRoot(Registry.CurrentUser)
            End Get
        End Property

        Private Sub New(ByVal Root As RegistryKey)
            Me._root = Root
        End Sub
    End Class
End Class

To use it, put one of these lines in the application’s Startup event:

InternetExplorer.SetLatestBrowserEmulation(InternetExplorer.RegistryRoot.HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE)

'HKEY_CURRENT_USER is recommended if you do not want to run your application with administrative privileges.
InternetExplorer.SetLatestBrowserEmulation(InternetExplorer.RegistryRoot.HKEY_CURRENT_USER)

(NOTE: Using the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE root requires administrative privileges)

The InternetExplorer.SetLatestBrowserEmulation() method will set the browser emulation for your application, in the specified registry root, to the latest INSTALLED version of Internet Explorer.

However using the InternetExplorer.SetBrowserEmulation() method you can manually control what IE version it should use (not recommended!).

Read more:

• Internet Feature Controls – Browser emulation

• Application.Startup event

• How to: Handle Application Events (Visual Basic)

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EDIT

I seem to be unable to enter that site at all, but from what I’ve read there have been problems with Flash hosted in the WebBrowser control.

What you can try is to disable the ActiveX Object Caching feature, which can apparently cause some issues for Flash controls.

I updated the above InternetExplorer class. Copy-paste it, then add this line to your application’s startup event:

InternetExplorer.SetActiveXObjectCaching(InternetExplorer.RegistryRoot.HKEY_CURRENT_USER, False)

If it still doesn’t work then I’m afraid you’re out of luck. I have not been able to find anything else that is useful.