Change IE's security settings to download from USC

Issue: Can't download report.

If you are using Internet Explorer version 6 or above to view an Excel (XLS) report, you might get these warnings.

To see a larger view of the image, click on the image.

If you are using Internet Explorer version 6 or above to view an Excel (XLS) report, you might get these warnings.

Depending on your browser's settings the Information Bar message window may or may not appear. If it does, click on the [Close] button to close it and look at the actual Information Bar located at the top of the browser content window.

The way it's suppose to work is if you right-click on the Information Bar and select the "Download File..." option from the context menu, IE is suppose to download the XLS file.

Instead, all you get is a blank screen.

Solution:

There are several solutions on how to resolve this. This guide demonstrate how to change IE's settings so that the warnings no longer appear for USC sites only. You can click on an image to get a larger view of it.

From the IE menu bar, go to:
Tools > Internet Options.

You can also bring up Internet Options via the Windows Control Panel from the Windows Start button.

When the Internet Options panel appears, go to the Security tab.

Where it says to select a zone near the top, select "Trusted Sites." Changing the settings for Trusted Sites allows you to bypass stricter security settings that you would want to maintain for all other sites.

Then click on the [Sites] button.

Now we need to add the sites that will use the different security settings that we will change.

In the "Add this website to the zone" textbox, enter:

usc.edu

If the "Require server verification..." at the bottom is checked, uncheck it.

Then click on the [Add] button to the right.

You can add other sites to this zone at any time.

Now you see "usc.edu" now added to the list of trusted web sites.

Click on the [Close] button at the lower right corner.

After adding the sites that will use the Trusted Sites security settings, we want to make a change to those settings.

Make sure the "Trusted Sites" zone is still selected at the top.

Then click on the [Custom Level] button near the bottom.

The Security Settings panel appears.

Scroll down about a third of the way down the Settings list and find under the "Downloads" heading, the setting "Automatic prompting for file downloads".

Select "Enable".

Then click on the [OK] button at the bottom.

The Security Settings panel closes and we return to the Internet Options panel.

Click on the [OK] button here.

You can now return to the web to download your Excel report.