It has probably got to do with that the WebBrowser control by default uses a document emulation mode of IE 7, meaning all pages are handled using the Internet Explorer 7 engine. Since that version is quite old most websites today are not compatible with it, which affects the functionality when you visit the page.
You can change this behaviour by adding a value for your application in the registry key SoftwareMicrosoftInternet ExplorerMAINFeatureControlFEATURE_BROWSER_EMULATION in either the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE hive or HKEY_CURRENT_USER. By doing so you are forcing your application to use a specific version of the IE engine.
I've written a class which will help you with this:
'A class for changing the WebBrowser control's document emulation.
'Written by Visual Vincent, 2017.
Imports Microsoft.Win32
Imports System.Security
Imports System.Windows.Forms
Public NotInheritable Class InternetExplorer
Private Sub New()
End Sub
Public Const InternetExplorerRootKey As String = "SoftwareMicrosoftInternet Explorer"
Public Const BrowserEmulationKey As String = InternetExplorerRootKey & "MAINFeatureControlFEATURE_BROWSER_EMULATION"
Public Const ActiveXObjectCachingKey As String = InternetExplorerRootKey & "MAINFeatureControlFEATURE_OBJECT_CACHING"
Private Shared ReadOnly WebBrowserInstance As New WebBrowser 'Used to get the current IE version in a .NET-friendly manner.
Public Enum BrowserEmulation As Integer
IE7 = 7000
IE8 = 8000
IE8Standards = 8888
IE9 = 9000
IE9Standards = 9999
IE10 = 10000
IE10Standards = 10001
IE11 = 11000
IE11Edge = 11001
End Enum
Public Shared Sub SetLatestBrowserEmulation(ByVal Root As RegistryRoot)
Dim Emulation As BrowserEmulation = BrowserEmulation.IE7
Select Case WebBrowserInstance.Version.Major
Case Is >= 11 : Emulation = BrowserEmulation.IE11Edge
Case 10 : Emulation = BrowserEmulation.IE10Standards
Case 9 : Emulation = BrowserEmulation.IE9Standards
Case 8 : Emulation = BrowserEmulation.IE8Standards
End Select
InternetExplorer.SetBrowserEmulation(Root, Emulation)
End Sub
Public Shared Sub SetBrowserEmulation(ByVal Root As RegistryRoot, ByVal Emulation As BrowserEmulation)
Using RootKey As RegistryKey = Root.Root
Dim EmulationKey As RegistryKey = RootKey.OpenSubKey(BrowserEmulationKey, True)
If EmulationKey Is Nothing Then EmulationKey = RootKey.CreateSubKey(BrowserEmulationKey, RegistryKeyPermissionCheck.ReadWriteSubTree)
Using EmulationKey
EmulationKey.SetValue(Process.GetCurrentProcess().ProcessName & ".exe", CType(Emulation, Integer), RegistryValueKind.DWord)
End Using
End Using
End Sub
Public Shared Sub SetActiveXObjectCaching(ByVal Root As RegistryRoot, ByVal Enabled As Boolean)
Using RootKey As RegistryKey = Root.Root
Dim ObjectCachingKey As RegistryKey = RootKey.OpenSubKey(ActiveXObjectCachingKey, True)
If ObjectCachingKey Is Nothing Then ObjectCachingKey = RootKey.CreateSubKey(ActiveXObjectCachingKey, RegistryKeyPermissionCheck.ReadWriteSubTree)
Using ObjectCachingKey
ObjectCachingKey.SetValue(Process.GetCurrentProcess().ProcessName & ".exe", CType(If(Enabled, 1, 0), Integer), RegistryValueKind.DWord)
End Using
End Using
End Sub
Public NotInheritable Class RegistryRoot
Private _root As RegistryKey
Public ReadOnly Property Root As RegistryKey
Get
Return _root
End Get
End Property
Public Shared ReadOnly Property HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE As RegistryRoot
Get
Return New RegistryRoot(Registry.LocalMachine)
End Get
End Property
Public Shared ReadOnly Property HKEY_CURRENT_USER As RegistryRoot
Get
Return New RegistryRoot(Registry.CurrentUser)
End Get
End Property
Private Sub New(ByVal Root As RegistryKey)
Me._root = Root
End Sub
End Class
End Class
To use it, put one of these lines in the application's Startup event:
InternetExplorer.SetLatestBrowserEmulation(InternetExplorer.RegistryRoot.HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE)
'HKEY_CURRENT_USER is recommended if you do not want to run your application with administrative privileges.
InternetExplorer.SetLatestBrowserEmulation(InternetExplorer.RegistryRoot.HKEY_CURRENT_USER)
(NOTE: Using the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE root requires administrative privileges)
The InternetExplorer.SetLatestBrowserEmulation() method will set the browser emulation for your application, in the specified registry root, to the latest INSTALLED version of Internet Explorer.
However using the InternetExplorer.SetBrowserEmulation() method you can manually control what IE version it should use (not recommended!).
Read more:
EDIT
I seem to be unable to enter that site at all, but from what I've read there have been problems with Flash hosted in the WebBrowser control.
What you can try is to disable the ActiveX Object Caching feature, which can apparently cause some issues for Flash controls.
I updated the above InternetExplorer class. Copy-paste it, then add this line to your application's startup event:
InternetExplorer.SetActiveXObjectCaching(InternetExplorer.RegistryRoot.HKEY_CURRENT_USER, False)
If it still doesn't work then I'm afraid you're out of luck. I have not been able to find anything else that is useful.
