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I just renewed my antivirus (Kaspersky's) yesterday.

After that, I logged onto Chemistry.SE (which I frequent often) but then I was greeted with this enter image description here

Which was definitely not how it looked like earlier that morning.

I wasn't able to

  1. Open the reputation and badges tab
  2. Vote on questions, answers and comments (even answers to MY questions)
  3. Comment on questions or answers.
  4. 'Favorite' a question
  5. Attach tags to a question
  6. Post questions

etc., etc.

But when I logged on to the Physics and Biology SEs (which I also frequent), the page format hadn't changed, but I still faced the same problems as above.enter image description here

Does anyone know how to fix this?

P.S- I'm not a computer/formatting whiz, so you'd have to try avoiding the jargon when helping me out, sorry.... (Also I use Chrome...in case that's important.)

Also @Oded recommended checking out the browser developer tools and having a look at the CSS, but as I said, I'm no Software/formatting whiz...so I'm still lost....

enter image description here

On @Shadow Wizard 's advice I've taken a screen shot of the 'error' notification (I had to scroll down to get all 10 'errors' on screen, hence the need for separate screen-shots)

enter image description here

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  • Although clearly I'm able to post questions, attach tags, and do most other things on Meta.SE for some reason.......thank God...... Sep 1, 2016 at 12:35
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    Need to figure out why our CSS is being blocked. What do your browser dev tools tell you?
    – Oded
    Sep 1, 2016 at 12:36
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    The 10 errors are the cause for your problem. Click it to see what those errors are and post a screenshot. Sep 1, 2016 at 12:54
  • @ShadowWizard Just added those screenshots to the post, thanks! Sep 1, 2016 at 13:06
  • Oh, oops. Well, that's the result not the source. The source is in the network tab of the dev tools. Sep 1, 2016 at 13:07
  • When you look at the network tab (after a refresh of the page), are any of the lines red? If so, which, and what error/s?
    – Oded
    Sep 1, 2016 at 13:07
  • @Oded I put up a screenshot of those in the question (latest edit) Sep 1, 2016 at 13:09
  • Nope, you didn't. You put up a screenshot of the console errors - I am asking for something else, in a different developer tools tab.
    – Oded
    Sep 1, 2016 at 13:09
  • @Oded Alright, let me get this straight; I've got to click the network tab, refresh the page, and THEN take a screenshot ? (Really sorry for being a pain in the neck...) Sep 1, 2016 at 13:11
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    I don't need the screenshot, but yes. Go to the network tab, refresh the page (F5). If there are any lines in red (or with a status code in the 400 or 500 range) - those are the ones we need to see.
    – Oded
    Sep 1, 2016 at 13:13
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    @AaronAbraham as a workaround, try browsing https://chemistry.stackexchange.com/ instead (i.e. the secure site), if it's indeed the anti virus blocking the site, it might not block if it's the secure version. If it works, note you won't be able to visit its meta site though due to a known issue on SE side. (But that's rather minor.) Sep 1, 2016 at 13:18
  • @ShadowWizard Whoa, that WORKED! Sep 1, 2016 at 13:22
  • @Oded Thanks as well! Sep 1, 2016 at 13:23
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    Cheers, posted this as answer. Sep 1, 2016 at 13:37
  • @Robert not only layout is skewed, user also couldn't perform any actions requiring JavaScript. Sep 1, 2016 at 16:33

1 Answer 1

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As a work around, you can bypass the antivirus by browsing the secure version of the site.

This works for all Stack Exchange sites and let you perform all the core actions, however HTTPS is not yet fully supported: Better HTTPS support for Stack Exchange sites

The main downside of being forced to browse the https version is not being able to log into any per-site meta (due to their sub domain), unless you add a manual security exception. For more details about that, see Ilmari's answer.

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  • FWIW, all Stack Exchange sites have been using HTTPS automatically since 2017, so the only way antivirus software etc. can modify pages on SE now is either by doing HTTPS interception (which requires installing a custom SSL root certificate in the user's browser and/or OS certificate store) or by installing a browser extension to gain access to the pages within the browser itself. Apr 5, 2021 at 1:05
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    @IlmariKaronen I won't be surprised if that's exactly what they're doing these days, when most sites are secure. Apr 5, 2021 at 6:05

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