How do I get my browser to display a local .html file and not its content?

weird. Try changing the suffix to .htm It should work in the browser as file://c:\foo\bar.htm or whatever. Somewhere there's a tool to change what suffixes are associated with which program; usually when you install a browser it sets those automatically.

your code is right, try right clicking the document and selecting open with IE. also you may have saved it as a txt file as that is the default. make sure to select all files when saving. Also are you using note/word pad? because other word processors such as microsoft word will add code