I have been working with some older versions of Windows 2000 lately including Windows 2000 SP2 or Service Pack 2. On this version of Windows 2000 SP2 the version of Internet Explorer or IE is 5.00.3315.1000 which is completely outdated. I doubt that many others will be running into Runtime Errors however it is possible even in more current versions of Internet Explorer though the setting that resolves this issue is enabled by default so unless you have modified the settings you should not run into this issue. Below we describe the error in more detail and how to easily change a single settings to fix the problem.

Runtime Error – Windows 2000 – Internet Explorer 5

On almost every web page visited in the IE5 browser on the Windows 2000 server there was an error popping up on the screen that always starts with the below text.

Internet Explorer Error Text: A Runtime Error has occurred. Do you wash to Debug?

After the “Debug?” there are a couple line breaks followed by the actual Runtime Errors. Below I have take numerous screenshots of the RunTime Errors to provide a couple different examples.

Internet Explorer Runtime Error Examples:

A Runtime Error Has Occurred. Do you wish to debug? Line: 16 – Error: Expected ‘:’

A Runtime Error Has Occurred. Do you wish to debug? Line 1 – Error: ‘undefined’ is Undefined

A Runtime Error Has Occurred. Do you wish to debug? Line 1651 Error: ‘$’ Is Undefined

As you can see above all of the error are fairly similar and complain about closing semi colons or variables that have not been defined. To resolve these errors you just need to put a check in the “Disable Script Debugging” which is located in the Internet Explorer Advanced Settings configuration window. Follow the quick steps below to disabled script debugging!

Open Internet Explorer Settings:

With a Internet Explorer window open click Tools in the top menu and select Internet Options from the drop down as shown in the above example image. This will launch the Internet Options configuration window which will be open to the default tab of General as shown in the below example image.

Internet Explorer: Internet Options – General Tab

Now click the Advanced tab in the IE Internet Options configuration window to display all the advanced options. The Disable Script Debugging configuration option should be viewable from the initial view but if not scroll down until you see the Disable Script Debugging as shown below.

Internet Explorer: Internet Options – Advanced

Add a check to Disable Script Debugging, click the Apply button, and click the OK button last. This will save your new settings for Internet Explorer. Once you have done that shutdown all open Internet Explorer windows and relaunch them for the change to take effect.

You should no longer receive the Script Debugging pop-up windows!