Updated at: Jun 26, 2024
JavaScript is enabled in your web browser. Congratulations; you're one step closer to having a fully featured online experience.
Remember that JavaScript is a "per browser" setting; if you have it enabled in Chrome, you might also have it disabled in Firefox on the same computer.
A lot of websites use Javascript as a part of their core functionality, and if you browse the internet without JavaScript enabled then you probably won't have the full experience that you normally would. Some websites may not work properly, others may not work at all.
JavaScript is a multipurpose programming language. There are many, many things that it can be used for. Generally speaking, it is used to allow Website developers to create web pages that have some intelligence built in to them. Instead of a webpage just being a plain page that has no interactivity, JavaScript can allow webpages adapt to what you do on the page, load new information, make decisions and respond to events.
For example, JavaScript might be used to validate a Mailing List Subscription form. So that when you try to submit a form the code runs and looks at each field on the form. If the code notices that you've forgotten to enter something in one of the fields (For example, your email address) it would pop up a warning and not let you submit the form until it is complete. Once that field is fixed then the form will be allowed to be submitted.
JavaScript can also be used to dynamically update part of a page without needing to reload the entire page. So for example, when you're using Facebook and you see a new notification come through; you can know that JavaScript was used to do that!
In fact, JavaScript was used to create the JavaScript detection on this page! If JavaScript is enabled then it updates the default "No" answer in to a "Yes" answer! (so that if JavaScript is not enabled, the default "No" remains as the answer). It's also used for Cookie detection, Flash version detection, Java version detection and so on.
As with most things, there is a flip side to JavaScript. There is an increasing number of ways for JavaScript to be used maliciously. JavaScript based attacks such as Cross Site Scripting and Click Jacking rely on JavaScript and can cause your security to be compromised. There are an increasing number of security minded people who do not just let JavaScript run on every single page they visit to decrease the chances of these attacks. There are browser extensions for Chrome and Firefox which can disable JavaScript by default but make it easy to turn it on only for trusted websites. The security minded web user would do well to check these extensions out.
We have a series of guides to help you enable JavaScript in your web browser.
Once you've got Javascript enabled, visit the Homepage to make sure your web browser is up to date and to get a full read-out of your web browser's capabilities.
If you have any more questions about JavaScript and what it can do, use the contact form and we'll answer it and add your question here.