Back in older IE versions, you could simply glance at the status bar to see which security zone a URL belonged to. With IE11's minimalist interface, this visual cue disappeared, leaving administrators scratching their heads when troubleshooting Group Policy assignments.

When your "Site to Zone Assignment List" Group Policy setting doesn't behave as expected (like a URL stubbornly remaining in the Internet zone despite being assigned to Trusted sites), you need programmatic verification. The GUI provides no direct way to check this.

For batch processing or Group Policy validation, this VBScript checks zone assignments:

Set ie = CreateObject("InternetExplorer.Application")
ie.Navigate "about:blank"
WScript.Echo "Zone for https://example.com: " & ie.Document.parentWindow.security.GetZoneByURL("https://example.com")
ie.Quit

Return values correspond to zones:

• 0 - Local Machine
• 1 - Intranet
• 2 - Trusted Sites
• 3 - Internet
• 4 - Restricted Sites

For web applications needing zone awareness:

function getUrlZone(url) {
    try {
        var secMgr = new ActiveXObject("InternetExplorer.Application").Document.parentWindow.security;
        return secMgr.GetZoneByURL(url);
    } catch (e) {
        console.error("Zone check requires IE and ActiveX enabled");
        return -1;
    }
}
// Usage:
console.log(getUrlZone("https://yourdomain.com")); 

Zone assignments ultimately reside in the registry at:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\ZoneMap\Domains

But programmatic checks are preferable as they account for:
- Group Policy overrides
- Temporary session changes
- Dynamic zone assignments

If your script returns unexpected results:

1. Verify the URL exactly matches the Group Policy entry (including http/https)
2. Check for conflicting entries in user-level zone settings
3. Confirm the policy has refreshed (gpupdate /force)

Many administrators notice that IE11 removed the visual zone indicator that previously appeared in the status bar. When troubleshooting Group Policy settings like "Site to Zone Assignment", you need programmatic methods to verify zone membership.

Create a test HTML page with this script to display the security zone:

<script>
function checkUrlZone() {
    var url = document.getElementById("urlInput").value;
    try {
        var zone = document.security.getZoneForURI(url);
        var zoneNames = ["Local Machine","Local Intranet","Trusted Sites","Internet","Restricted Sites"];
        alert("URL belongs to: " + zoneNames[zone]);
    } catch(e) {
        alert("Error checking zone: " + e.message);
    }
}
</script>
<input type="text" id="urlInput">
<button onclick="checkUrlZone()">Check Zone</button>

For URLs that aren't respecting your Trusted Sites assignment, check these registry locations:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\ZoneMap\Domains
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\ZoneMap

• Wildcard entries (e.g., *.example.com) may not cover all subdomains
• HTTPS vs HTTP protocol differences
• Group Policy update delays (run gpupdate /force)
• Conflicts between user and machine policies

For system administrators, this PowerShell script checks zone assignments:

$url = "https://yourdomain.com"
$zoneMap = [Microsoft.Win32.Registry]::CurrentUser.OpenSubKey(
    "Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\ZoneMap\Domains")
$domainParts = $url.Split('/')[2].Split('.')
$currentNode = $zoneMap

foreach ($part in $domainParts.Reverse()) {
    $currentNode = $currentNode.OpenSubKey($part)
    if (!$currentNode) { break }
}

if ($currentNode) {
    Write-Host "Zone found:" $currentNode.GetValue("https")
} else {
    Write-Host "URL falls to default Internet zone"
}