IE 8 seems unable to display some Wikipedia Pages - application/x-gzip-compressed MIME type

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Problem:

IE8 is unable to display some pages from https://en.wikipedia.org when IE 7 and other browsers can open the same pages fine. IE8 is able to open most wikipedia pages. The pages it cannot open seem to be very random and fit no pattern.

Environment:

IE 8.0.6001.18702 on XP SP3 32-bit OS

Error Message:

File download - Security Warning

Do you want to save this file, or find a program online to open it?

Unknown file type

En.wikipedia.org

Find save cancel

    (And after selecting the FIND option…)

Windows has the following information about this MIME type. This page will help you find software needed to open your file.

Windows File Association

MIME Type: application/x-gzip-compressed

Description: UnKnown

Windows does not recognize this MIME type.

Possible Solutions:

1. Simply register with Wikipedia (create an account) and log into Wikipedia. This seems to work for most people experiencing this error.

2. Uninstalling the google desktop supposedly has worked for others. Updating the google desktop may have worked for some. Stopping the google desktop supposedly worked for some. Installing the google desktop supposedly worked for one.

3. Setting IE as the "Default program" has supposedly worked for some.

Click the Windows Start Button, type "Default program" (without quotation marks) in the Start Search box and press Enter.

Click Set default program.

Click Internet Explorer

Click Set this program as Default and click OK.

Click Set program access and computer defaults

Expand Custom

Besides IE, check Enable access to this program.

Click OK.

D. Downloading the IE8 addon for Wikipedia Visual Search helped one person. (https://www.ieaddons.com/en/details/searchhelpers/Wikipedia_Visual_Search/)

E. Clearing the IE cache (Tools menu > Internet Options > General Tab > Delete button (to delete temp files, history, cookies, saved passwords, and web form information) has supposedly helped one person.

F. Running IE8 in compatibility mode and restarting IE supposedly helped one person

 

Root Cause:

Unknown. I took Fiddler2 traces of a failing attempt and a succeeding attempt. The main differences I see between the failure trace and the success trace is that in the success trace we get a 200 rather than a 304. We also have a cookie that has more information. I’m tempted to speculate that the problem may be more with some nuance of the X-Vary-Option rather than with the application/x-gzip-compressed MIME type. But this is only speculation at this point.