Read Only settings in SharePoint 2010 Central Administration

If you have upgraded your browser to Internet Explorer 11 (IE11) and still administer SharePoint 2010, you may have found yourself trying to configure or edit certain data in Central Administration that appear to be read-only.

This is yet another side effect in a long list of problems caused by IE11 being unrecognized by IIS as a current web browser.

Let's say you are trying to edit user properties in the User Profile Service Application.  When you mouse over a property, you should see a drop down appear with a menu to Edit the property.

Menu working correctly

 

However in IE11 this will not appear if you do not have the Central Administration site added to the Compatibility View list.  The following shows the result of not viewing user profile properties in IE11 compatibility mode.

No menu is generated

Mouse hovering over these properties does not generate a menu, giving you no way to manage these properties.

 

To use a quick workaround, the solution is to open Compatibility View settings in IE11 and add the Central Administration site to the list.