How to make Internet Explorer display PNG images on OS X
From ArticleWorld
If you are using the OS X version of Microsoft's Internet Explorer, you might have come along an annoying bug. While PNG images are correctly rendered inside a web page, when trying to view it outside the page (opening it from your own computer or from a remote location, but outside a web page), it will not show at all.
The origin of this problem is, ironically enough, the Apple Quicktime plugin, which overrides Internet Explorer's settings. However, the problem is easy to solve.
Steps
- Open the System Preferences panel. In the Internet & Network section, open the Quick Time panel.
- In the Advanced section, click MIME Settings. This will open a new window. In this new window, click the arrow near Images to expand that section. Find a checkbox labeled "PNG image file" and make sure it is not checked.
- Launch Internet Explorer and go to Preferences, File Helpers.
- There are two parts referring to PNG. One is "PNG Image [image/x-png]", and the other one is "Portable Network Graphics [image/png]"). Select each one of them and click Change, which will pop up a new dialog. Go to Handling, and change it to "View with browser". Click OK.
- Restart Internet Explorer.
Notes
Although, knowing Microsoft's history of buggy products, you may be tempted to say this is yet another one, the truth is that truly responsible for this is Quicktime. Nevertheless, if you do not have any strong reason to use Internet Explorer (i.e. if you can use something else), you should try some other browsers as well. Safari seems like the obvious alternative, being probably as user-friendly as Internet Explorer, but others, like Opera, Firefox or Omniweb may also be a good alternative. You should at least try them.