Some sort of IE debugger keeps popping up

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For the past week or so when I am using IE 11, I get a popup window stating that the web page has some sort of script execution error in it and do I want to debug it. The popup window has yes and no response buttons as well as a check box to specify that I don’t want the message again.

This popup keep occurring multiple time a day. I always click the check box that specifies I don’t want it to appear again which does silence it for a time but it keeps returning. Also note that the error that was encountered is shown in a window and it seems to be a different error each time.

I have never seen this popup window before and I am not even sure it comes from windows. So while I don’t know what is causing this but I suspect it may be a vendor’s way to advertise their product. The popup window doesn’t have any logos or other identifying items and it doesn’t look like most Windows 7 popups or windows which leads me to believe that perhaps a vendor has installed something that is causing this to occur.

I have run a full system antivirus scan with Kaspersky and found nothing. I have also looked at Add-Ins in IE but didn’t see anything that I recognized as relevant.

Another, perhaps related, issue is that also for the past week, I keep getting Kaspersky antivirus popups repeatedly throughout the day (something like 100 or so each day). Each and every time, so far, this popup says it found a virus or Trojan horse or some sort of offending virus and it disabled it. Since I did a full system virus scan and yet these popups keep occurring, I am guessing that there is some sort of kernel or virus that is either invisible to the Kaspersky scan or keeps getting re-infected somehow. The Windows component that the Kaspersky popup shows as being attacked seems to be the same one each time. The popup appears and disappears so quickly that I haven’t been able to copy that detail yet. My Kaspersky software is up to date.

I don’t know with certainty that the Kaspersky virus advisory popup is related to the IE debug popup but I am suspicious because they both started happening about the same time. I am planning to contact Kaspersky for help but have not done so yet.

Anyone have any ideas on how to solve at least the IE script debug problem? Screen shots of three of the debug popup windows are attached.

Specs
Windows 7-Pro, 64-bit, version 6.1 (Build 7601: Service Pack 1)
IE 11 – 11.0.9600.16476, Update version 11.0.2

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In Internet Explorer, click Tools > Internet Options > Advanced tab, scroll down to the Browsing section and select(/check) these two boxes:

[*]Disable script debugging (Internet Explorer)
[*]Disable script debugging (other)

[indent][/indent]

then click Apply > OK.

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Thanks for your suggestion. I looked at my IE settings and found that the script debugging for IE was already checked, i.e. already disabled. The other wasn’t so I checked it. I don’t know what this “Other” script debugging is for or what it controls. But I will wait and see if that solves the problem.

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Got my fingers crossed you.

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Okay, new information.
I looked at the IE advanced options and found that the entry “Disable Script debugging (Internet Explorer) was already checked but the entry “Disable Script debugging (other) was not checked. So I checked the other (as I stated in an earlier post) and at first I thought I had the problem solved. But it returned after a while.
So I checked the “Other” entry again and, sure enough, eventually the popup debugger came back after a short while.
So then I thought, I am changing this field in IE when I have it open. So I closed IE completely, went into control panel/Internet Options and found the same tab and entries. Once there I saw that the two entries were as before, IE checked, “Other” not checked. So I checked the Other and closed the window. Thought I had it, but no, after a while the debugging popup came back and after looking, I found the “Other” entry in Advanced options had unchecked itself once again.
I am not even sure what these two entries mean, but I am guessing that the “Internet Explorer” entry means disable the IE debugging application or tool and the “Other” entry means disable any other script debugger (though which one its referring to is unknown to me). So assuming for the moment those meanings are correct, my guess is that the “Other” debugger is some vendor tool that got installed and is smart enough to keep unchecking the advanced options entry. I do also have Firefox installed and presumably any debugger it used would fall in the “Other” category but I don’t use it as often and furthermore, the popup debugger happens when I am running IE only and Firefox isn’t even running.

As I stated in an earlier post, I have run Kaspersky antivirus and it found nothing and I also looked at Add-ins in IE but didn’t see anything unusual.

I also just looked at Programs in Control panel. I sorted by installation date hoping to find a program that had been installed about the time this started happening. Didn’t see anything that stood out as the culprit.

So my questions now are

1) Is my understanding of these two Advanced Options entries correct?
2) If my understanding is correct doesn’t my experience imply that some debugger is getting invoked and it also keeps unchecking the entry?
3) Suggestions on how to solve this problem.

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This 10-year-old Microsoft page says Other means other MS programs like Outlook:

Script debugging is turned off by default you can enable it by going to:
Tools->Internet Options…->Advanced->Disable Script Debugging

Prior to XPSP2 the above will turn script debugging on for all applications that host the WebBrowser control (Outlook for example).

On XPSP2 we’ve split the option into two:
Tools->Internet Options…->Advanced->Disable Script Debugging (Internet Explorer)
Tools->Internet Options…->Advanced->Disable Script Debugging (Other)

Scripting Debugging in Internet Explorer

What about the next checkbox: Display a notification for every script error?

Bruce

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Did you click on Apply – OK ?

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Did you click on Apply – OK ?

Ahh, yes, I have forgotten to press the Apply, then the Ok buttons before on other things! Might have happened with our nice OP?

"Take care of thy backups and thy restores shall take care of thee." Ben Franklin, revisted

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More new information.

1) Yes, I have clicked on Apply then OK in all my workings with this problem.
2) There is something very strange going on with this debugging pop-up. The two Browsing options that SpywareDr mentions above, keep getting unchecked by something. Every time the debugging window pops up I look at these two options. Most often the 2nd option is unchecked but sometimes both are unchecked. So something is unchecking these two options and doing it repeatedly.
3) At first I had doubts that the debugging pop-up window that keeps appearing was even from IE or Microsoft. I was suspecting an Add-In that was installed without my knowledge was triggering it. But I have now determined that this pop-up window does indeed come from Microsoft and more specifically from “F12 Developer Tools” that was implemented in IE11. I am attempting to learn more about F12 to see if I can disable it or at least disable some part of it to prevent this pop-up window from appearing. I am not interested in debugging the dozens of web pages that apparently have scripts errors and thus cause this pop-up window to appear. Its a sad state of affairs that so many web pages in production have some sort of script error, but alas that is the world we live in.
But more germane to the point, how do I stop this pop-up from appearing? The two “Disable script debugging…” options discussed above are not preventing it. Or perhaps more precisely, one or both of these two options are getting unchecked and thus allowing the debug pop-up window to appear. Some software code somewhere is unchecking these options. Why is that and how do I stop that from happening?

If you know anything about how to disable or modify F12 Developer tools, please reply.

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If you know anything about how to disable or modify F12 Developer tools, please reply.

The developer tools have been available in many previous IE versions (I would risk saying in all versions I can remember) and they don’t cause such behavior.

You may want to restore IE to its default settings and see if that helps with your problem.

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Try resetting IE back to its original defaults. In IE, click Tools > Internet Options > Advanced tab > Reset… button. Select “Delete personal settings”, click the Reset button, then restart IE and test.

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The “F12 Developer Tools” is not causing any pop-ups, or changing IE’s “Disable script debugging…” options here, on several different machines.

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To do so, in IE click Tools > Internet Options > Advanced tab > Reset… button. Select “Delete personal settings”, click the Reset button, then restart IE.

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Clarification – I didn’t mean to imply that F12 is causing the pop-up window nor that it was unchecking the script disable option. The pop-up I have been getting repeatedly (20 to 30 times per day) IS F12 Developer tools. I know this because when the pop-up appears, if I check YES to debug, it displays a larger more detailed window that says “F12 Developer Tools” at the top. Nor do I necessarily think that F12 is unchecking the script options. But something is unchecking the script debugging options and once enabled, any script error IE11 encounters invokes F12 Developer tools and its window pops up.
Here is the sequence of events as I see it.
1) Some software application, subroutine or applet is unchecking one or sometimes both of the “disable script debugger” option(s) in IE. Just what applet is doing this I have absolutely no idea. Nor do I know why or under what conditions this unchecking occurs.
2) As I browse the internet with IE, it encounters a script error on some of the pages (actually on many pages). Since “Script” debugging is now enabled, the F12 developer application is started and it displays the pop-up.
3) When I click No to debugging in the F12 pop-up and then go into IE options to disable the script debuggers, IE runs without starting the F12 pop-up for a while (like around 5 to 10 minutes maybe). Then the options get unchecked by the unknown applet and it starts all over again.
4) I mentioned that F12 Developer Tools was implemented in IE11 because I read a Microsoft web page that said that. After going back and rereading it here (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ie/bg182326(v=vs.85).aspx) I see that it really said F12 had gone through a major reworking and revision in IE11.

So aside from all of this I will try restoring IE defaults as SpywareDr and ruirib have suggested.
I’ll post again later with the results.

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A short explanation on my success on solving this problem.

I discovered that my Windows Update was not working and hadn’t been run for quite some time (don’t exactly how long but close to a year). So I did some research on how to update Windows Update and it took several attempts but eventually got that resolved.

Then I ran Windows Update and it had 106 updates to apply, which took nearly an hour to do.
I then rebooted, which itself took another 20 minutes.

Finally with all the Windows Updates done, I tried to see if I could recreate the problem. At first I could not and cautiously thought maybe I had it conquered.

But eventually (maybe 1 day later) the problem occurred again in IE. But the frequency of the problem had been reduced from about 40 times per day to about 2 times per day.

Several days later, I purchased and installed CCleaner. I had a couple of similar tools installed previously (WiseFixer and Speed Fix Tool) so I uninstalled both of them before installing CCleaner. I was unhappy with both (especially Speed Fix Tool) for several reasons but one reason was I am not certain they were not contributing to the problem.

At any rate, after running CCleaner, the IE problem occurred maybe twice and since then it has not returned. It is now nearly a month later and no IE pop-ups have occurred.

To summarize – Not entirely sure what solved it but it was probably a combination of the Windows Update and running CCleaner. I am still getting the hang of CCleaner. Its quite complex and will take time to learn the Ins and Outs of it.

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You could try disabling F12 Developer Tools as elimination and then see if the boxes are still being unchecked to look elsewhere.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/152554-internet-explorer-f12-developer-tools-enable-disable.html

If it is a 3rd party program that is responsible, then checking to see if the same occurs in Safe Mode with Networking and a clean boot could help to identify the culprit.

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Guys, Gals, is it possible we are blaming the messengers? Could it be that the popups are the effects of another cause? Another cause such as an antivirus/antimalware “thinks” it keeps finding something within a known-good EXE [or whatever file]? I’m wondering if it might be time to add known-good file into the Exclusion section.

"Take care of thy backups and thy restores shall take care of thee." Ben Franklin, revisted

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Guys, Gals, is it possible we are blaming the messengers? Could it be that the popups are the effects of another cause? Another cause such as an antivirus/antimalware “thinks” it keeps finding something within a known-good EXE [or whatever file]? I’m wondering if it might be time to add known-good file into the Exclusion section.

No. The popups pasted in post #1 show errors in visited web pages, not local files.

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BruceR, you’re right as rain! Web pages attempting to download or run something not good? I’m keeping tabs on this thread, to learn how to better fight against web-based attempts to monkey with us users.

"Take care of thy backups and thy restores shall take care of thee." Ben Franklin, revisted

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BruceR, you’re right as rain! Web pages attempting to download or run something not good? I’m keeping tabs on this thread, to learn how to better fight against web-based attempts to monkey with us users.

The OP’s #1 post includes screenshots of the errors the OP is seeing. The errors detail problems with scripts (e.g.: scripts (executable code) such as JavaScript, Perl scripts, VBScript, etc.) running on the website the OP is accessing, and ask if the OP wants to debug the script (on the server).

Script debugging is a very useful tool for web developers (programmers) to track down and fix bugs in their code, which is why the functionality is included in browsers. It is not intended for ordinary users, which is why it is turned off (disabled) by default.

The fact that the OP has repeatedly ticked the “Disable script debugging (other)” checkbox, yet it later is un-ticked is suspicious. It could be caused by malware, but it could also be caused by some legitimate program the OP has installed (suggestions I have seen include MS Outlook, but I don’t understand why Outlook would need “script debugging” enabled).

Overall I think malware is the most likely cause, so the OP should run scans with several known-good anti-malware programs (e.g.: Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware, Spybot Search and Destroy, ADWcleaner, etc.

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Windows Secrets > Help for picking your next anti-malware tool

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Windows Secrets > Help for picking your next anti-malware tool

Huh?

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BruceR, my guess is that SpywareDr believes with the correct antiviri/antimalware protection & monitoring tools [programs], perhaps the difficulty OP is facing could be resolved or mitigated if not altogether prevented.

"Take care of thy backups and thy restores shall take care of thee." Ben Franklin, revisted

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dglarson
Since this seems to be in tread water mode..
Do you have any programming tools installed ?
If so check settings there.
Have you done any thing with Group Policy Editor templates?
Again check there if so.
The Machine Debug Manager mdm.exe runs as a service and can be disabled as a last resort.

Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.

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Machine Debug Manager mdm.exe — can’t find it on my Windows 7 Pro. Does it go by another name?

"Take care of thy backups and thy restores shall take care of thee." Ben Franklin, revisted

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Does it go by another name?

Don’t know

Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.

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“Does it go by another name?” “Don’t know” cool, man, cool
[back to the hunt via search…]

"Take care of thy backups and thy restores shall take care of thee." Ben Franklin, revisted

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INow that I am in front of an W7 machine I do not see it either. Changing debug settings in IE does not seem to change that. That maybe treeing up the wrong bark :p

Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.

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Code:

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.

C:>[color=red]dir mdm.exe/a/s[/color]
 Volume in drive C is Intel120GBSSD
 Volume Serial Number is 70EA-CD1A

 Directory of [color=red]C:Program Files (x86)Common Filesmicrosoft sharedVS7DEBUG[/color]

10/26/06  12:40 PM           335,872 [color=red]mdm.exe[/color]
               1 File(s)        335,872 bytes

     Total Files Listed:
               1 File(s)        335,872 bytes
               0 Dir(s)  28,229,791,744 bytes free

C:>

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I do not have an mdm.exe within my Windows 7 Pro 6.1.7601; is that a file from within SysInternals?

"Take care of thy backups and thy restores shall take care of thee." Ben Franklin, revisted

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“mdm.exe” not found on any of my Windows systems (Win7 32bit & 64bit, Vista 32bit, XP).

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I do not have an mdm.exe within my Windows 7 Pro 6.1.7601; is that a file from within SysInternals?

Yes, it very well could be. I’ve been using much of their stuff for years.

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Nor do I, perhaps the good Dr. has visual studio installed

Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.

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Nor do I, perhaps the good Dr. has visual studio installed

I wondered about that.

What is mdm.exe?

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From http://support.microsoft.com/kb/321410

The Machine Debug Manager, Mdm.exe, is a program that is installed with the Microsoft Script Editor to provide support for program debugging. The Microsoft Script Editor is included with Microsoft Office 2000, and also can be obtained from the Microsoft Windows Update Web site.

If you run Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 or later, you can turn off the Machine Debug Manager by turning off script debugging. To do this, follow these steps: 1.Open Internet Explorer.
2.On the Tools menu, click Internet Options.
3.Click the Advanced tab.
4.Click to select the Disable script debugging check box, and then click OK.
5.Close Internet Explorer.

Jerry

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Thanks Jerry.

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You’re welcome.

Jerry

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Drive-you-crazy debugging messages are associated with Nero, in case you have that or any remnants of it installed.

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