Javascript – How to tell IE a HTML file on the disk is not a security risk

In IE7, you could use the following JavaScript to get some idea of whether your site is trusted or not:

window.status = "test";
if (window.status == "test")
  alert("Trusted, or local intranet");
else
  alert("Not trusted, or internet");

This is based on the fact that in IE7 and onwards, scripts can no longer set the status bar text through the window.status method in the Internet and Restricted Zones. See the Release Notes for Internet Explorer 7

The previous suggestions on this page didn't work for me. I found the answer on this page

To summarise, go into Internet Options > Advanced then down to the Security section, and tick the box for "Allow active content to run in files on My Computer*"

The * means the setting only takes effect after Internet Explorer is restarted.