Internet Explorer 8 and IE 6 side by side

Question

Is there a way to have Internet Explorer 8 and IE 6 side by side without virtualizing?

I used Multiple IEs which works fine with IE 7, but since I installed IE 8 beta 2, IE 6 started behaving oddly (that is, more than usual)

Answer 1

Virtualization is the easiest way to achieve this. It has a higher overhead, but since IE has so many hooks into the OS trying to install multiple versions of it is doomed to confusion and failure.

Answer 2

What I do is use VMware with other OS with IE6.

Not perfect, but it helps.

Answer 3

Try this: http://www.my-debugbar.com/wiki/IETester/HomePage
LE: This isn't really fully compatible yet, there are a few minor issues, like it crashes on JavaScript pop-ups, but I've found it quite reliable during development. At the end of everything, I just tested the web application against a real IE6 to make sure everything's fine.

Answer 4

I also use virtualisation. I've got Virtual PC 2007 which is a free download from here on my machine and have downloaded the Internet Explorer Virual PC images from Microsoft. You can get the images here

Answer 5

Either run it in a VM, wait untill multiples get IE8 added or, use http://browsershots.org/ which will take screenshots of your website from several different Operating systmes, and browsers.

Answer 6

MS does not support multiple versions of IE on one operating system. The reason is that the operating system and IE share certain DLLs. When you upgrade from IE6 to IE7 (or IE8) you're actually replacing some system DLLs. This is the reason why you "get" IE6 when you uninstall IE7.

Chris Wilson, IE Architect, addressed this issue in a blog post Multiple IEs on one machine. Chris states that on-the-fly replacement of mshtml.dll might work for CSS rendering "...but it's not the same as having a full set of new IE system DLLs installed" and would certainly not be considered a definitive solution.

Only virtualization can provide the full DLL stack for definitive testing.

Edit:

On March 18, 2009, the Microsoft Expression Web team released SuperPreview a free stand-alone application that allows cross-browser side-by-side and onionskin comparison between IE8, IE8-IE7-Compatibility mode, and IE6. Additional browsers and an on-demand service to render pages in realtime on other operating systems is planned.

Edit in response to Zac comment

Thanks for the comment. Expression Web 3 (which will include SuperPreview) will allow comparison between any combination of IE6, IE7, IE8, and Firefox 3. This according to Somasgear's blog entry Expresion Web 3 posted on June 5, 2009. In the screenshot on his blog, you'll see Firefox 3 as the base browser (left side) and IE6 as the comparison browser. Any browser can be placed on either side of the comparison window.

Answer 7

There's also IE7 standalone

Answer 8

A very light-weight (and just released) way to do this is to use Expression Web SuperPreview. It allows you to compare IE6 and IE7 (or IE6 and IE8+IE7-compatibility-mode) side-by-side. It's currently just a preview, but I've used it with good results. They're going to release a commercial version that enables side-by-side comparison of more browsers, but they say the IE-specific one will remain free forever.

Answer 9

I use a utility called "Sandboxie" (free for personal use, $29 for commercial) to provide application sandboxing. One useful side-effect of this is that you can install applications (even OS-modifying ones such as IE) into the sandbox, and the parent OS is completely unaware (allowing you to have different versions of the parent OS's IE and the sandboxed IE - and both running simultaneously). The two scenarios I've used so far:

• Internet Explorer 7 in the parent OS, and uninstalled IE7 in the sandbox to make IE6 available
• Internet Explorer 6 in the parent os, and upgraded to IE8 in the sandbox

Caveats:

• If you need more than one additional version of IE available simultaneously, then you will need to purchase the full version, as you can only have one version of IE in a sandbox, and the free version supports only one active sandbox at a time
• Installing a version of IE into the sandbox can take a little trial and error - IE8 was particularly tricky. Some warnings that occur during installation (or uninstallation) are trivial, though.

Answer 10

I've written a step-by-step blog post showing how to run IE6, IE7 and IE8 as "virtual applications" on Windows 7 Ultimate.

Answer 11

One more multiple, standalone IE option: IE Collection.

Answer 12

Take a look at link text