Microsoft deactivates VBScript in IE as of August 2019

[German] Microsoft has just announced that it will soon deactivates (or already has deactivated) the execution of VBscript in Internet Explorer for untrusted Internet zones, as a security measure.

VBScript is the script language developed by Microsoft and based on Basic, which was supported in Windows Script Host and since 1996 in Internet Explorer. Other browsers, on the other hand, have used JavaScript for something like this, which is available in IE as JScript. VBScript has therefore always been limited to special cases.

Windows 10 Insider Preview: IE w/o VBScript

Now the end of VBscript in the browser is sealed, because Microsoft turns off the light step by step. I didn't notice it, but at the beginning of July 2017 there were reports that Microsoft disabled VBScript in Internet Explorer 11 under Windows 10 in the Insider Previews. You can find more details in this Microsoft blog post. There it was announced, that support for VBScpt would be phased out.

But it is also known that Internet Explorer will die in the long run and that the Microsoft Edge browser will be the successor. This article recently described that Microsoft would release the Internet Explorer mode in the Edge browser.

Windows: End of VBScript in IE

In a blog post Microsoft announced the next changes for the upcoming patchday (August 13, 2019):

The change to disable VBScript will take effect in the upcoming cumulative updates for Windows 7, 8, and 8.1 on August 13^th, 2019. VBScript will be disabled by default for Internet Explorer 11 and WebOCs for Internet and Untrusted zones on all platforms running Internet Explorer 11.

This change is effective for Internet Explorer 11 on Windows 10 as of the July 9^th, 2019 cumulative updates.

Note: WebOCs are applications that use a Web browser control (see this article).

VBScript will be disabled for the Internet zones 'Untrusted Sites' and 'Internet', but it will be disabled for 'Trusted Sites' (Intranets). The settings to enable or disable VBScript execution in Internet Explorer 11 remain configurable per site security zone, via registry, or via Group Policy if you need to continue using this old scripting language. Microsoft has provided the required information in this document. (via)