Question : Unable to view RTF files in IE8

Our organization deployed approximately 12 new desktops. Since then, I have received a complaint of one user who is not able to open rtf files from her school's Blackboard site. She is able to navigate to them, however when she attempts to open them, they do not download or open. When she uses an older machine she has no problem, just when she uses one of the new desktops.

All of our machines are running Win XP Pro SP3.

Some troubleshooting I have done:

Internet Explorer-> Tools menu-> Internet Options-> Advanced tab
Go to the Security section all the way at the bottom.
Clear the check on the "Do not save encrypted pages to disk"
Close all Internet Explorer windows
Start IE and download the file again


OR

Open Internet Explorer. On the Tools menu, click Internet Options.
2. On the General tab, under Temporary Internet files, click Delete Files.
3. In the Delete Files dialog box that appears, click OK.
4. Under History, click Clear History.
5. In the dialog box that appears, click OK.
6. Quit Internet Explorer.
7. Log on to the computer by using the account of a user who does not experience the problem, and then open a command prompt.
8. Change the directory to the following path:
drive:\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5
where username is the name of the user account that has the problem.
9. Type del index.dat, and then press ENTER.
10. Close the command prompt, and then restart the computer.
The Index.dat file is recreated the next time that you log on to the computer.

Neither of these worked. Also changed her security settings to Medium (a downgrade from Medium-High), and tried compatibility mode.

She also isn't able to access her online banking site, when she goes to login, she is sent back to the start page.

Any suggestions?

Answer : Unable to view RTF files in IE8

The error was:

Internet Explorer was not able to open this Internet site. The requested site is either unavailable or cannot be found. Please try again later.

After some fiddling in the Internet Options, I have resolved the issue.

Internet Options -> Security -> Custom Level -> Set FILE DOWNLOAD to ENABLE.

This presents the Open/Save dialog we are all accustomed to seeing. Prior to this, we were only getting the yellow download bar at the top of the window.