It’s been a while since my struggles with IE9 and Report Builder (documented here), but it seems like you just can’t keep a good thing down. This time the circumstances were a bit different though…

I was attempting to open an SSRS report in Report Builder 3.0, through our integrated SharePoint 2010 environment. The SharePoint site was internal to our network, so I was connected through VPN. To my surprise I received an http 500 error (internal server error) without any further explanation. With the fond memories of my previous encounter, I proceeded to try to circumvent the issue by doing the following:

  • Run the site in compatibility mode
  • Add the site to the trusted sites zone
  • Recreate my saved credentials for the site
  • Run IE as Administrator
  • Run IE as my domain account, by using “runas /netonly

Needless to say, none of the above resolved the problem.

And the best part was that other people had no issues opening Report Builder. We could even gain access to Report Builder through my account on somebody else’s machine…which eliminates SharePoint permissions as a cause. At that point I thought of trying as many different things as possible, and finally managed to conquer the proverbial beast. I will admit that I am no internet (or VPN) security expert, but you have to wonder why it would be such a convoluted process to try and resolve these things. I for one wish it could be a little more “obvious”…but let’s get to the solution before the rant goes off track.

The following combination of settings seem to resolve the issue:

  • Save credentials (Windows Credential Manager) for the SharePoint site you are accessing
  • Check the “Enable Protected Mode” checkbox (Internet Options >> Security >> Local Intranet)



Who would know that a little checkbox would make all the difference??

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