watir - file_field not working when running on server

I am currently writing features to upload an image using the file exploer in ie. Locally this works fine and opens the file explorer and locates the image without any problems. However when i run it as part of the acceptan开发者_如何转开发ce run ont he server it self it fails to open the file explorer, It will just sit there waiting for it, it doesnt even time out at the usual 60 seconds so i assume something is trying to happen behind the scenes but is failing silently.

Has anyone had this issue and found a fix or work around for it?

Most servers have IE very locked down by default since very little browsing is typically done from servers, and the browser itself represents a significant attack surface. See here for more info http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms537180(v=vs.85).aspx

The result is that unless you disable this enhanced security there are a number of things that just flat out won't work. If you are running your test from the same server where the website is installed, then you will need to disable all the enhanced security stuff on IE.

This would be a violation of best practices for a production system, but is an understandable expedient for a test system as an alternative to having a pair of systems with different OS's (client and server) for your testbed and running the tests on the client. (more realistic, but requires another system or VM be created and maintained)