I've been tasked with developing a method to functional test and load test an application we're implementing in our environment. The vendor created a shell which uses Internet Explorer_Server controls to display content and get input. The problem lies in that I cannot get the raw HTML from the control, I get "Access Denied" 80020009 when I try to get the data using COM.

Up till now, I worked around the COM error by entering data into fields and pulling it out again for evaluation. The assumption here is that if I could enter data, the page loaded and at least the field was there. This approach has gotten me only so far, as I've gotten to parts where there's no form of input but I need to verify it loaded. The narrator program of windows is able to see inside this control and read the text.

My question is what other methods/technologies can I use to get the HTML from the control? I'm using AutoIt for this project (but I'm not limited or restricted to it).