I recently started a new job and my Lead is out sick. He assigned me a bug in our code that only affects IE6. The dev. box I'm running is Windows Server 2K3 with IE 7 though.
How can I open the web page and debug it from my computer in IE 6?
this is the best solution because the project is being maintained it include IE 5.5 through to 8. I use it constantly for testing the various versions of IE. this is simply because setting up and running several virtual machines is long winded and memory consuming and running each browser versions along side each other causes massive issues with your internet settings.
Matt Smith
2009-11-03 18:33:32
Exactly! But then with a few more words :)
BalusC
2009-11-03 18:34:32
+13
A:
Install Virtual PC (now a free download) and one of the disk images from this page that provides you with a vanilla install of XP with the browser you want to test.
pmarflee
2009-11-03 18:13:06
This is by far the best solution. There is also the stand alone versions of IE from evolt, but you have to dig in the install package to get a dll so that alpha png hacks work. Microsoft has had the IE6 VM for testing out for a long time, and it's very solid and a true install of IE6 (and customizable resolutions for other testing). In fact it also works well on Windows7, you can set it so that it will be a shared application and launch it directly in Win7 without seeing the constraining box.
thismat
2009-11-03 18:37:48
Fantastic fantastic resource! I had assumed a VM would probably be the best way to go, but I had no idea Microsoft happened to provide them. Here's hoping they add a Windows 7 VM in there too eventually...
Robert P
2010-01-17 21:44:59
+2
A:
We do all of our IE6 testing on a VMWare machine that runs XP with IE6. Obviously takes a bit of setup time but worth it once it's done.
Robin Day
2009-11-03 18:14:33
+1
A:
I've played with many of these ie6 options, and the best IMO is just to have a vmware install with an ie6 image in the long term.
In the short term, however, I've had the most success with IE Collection, but it is still somewhat buggy.
IES4Linux and IES4OSX work [sometimes] on their respective Operating Systems too.
lucas
2009-11-03 18:16:11
It's good for quick checks, but limited in functionality and also it limits the number of shots you can take a the same site (at least it did a few months ago when I was trying to debug some CSS - ended up dropping IE 6 support altogether.
MetalMikester
2009-11-03 18:20:04
This method only works if your page is available to the public, a big minus.
chelmertz
2009-11-03 18:35:18
+2
A:
Use Spoon (was Xenocode)... http://spoon.net/browsers/
It will let you startup any number of different browsers in a sandbox from within your browser.
The advantage:
- You don't have to install any virtual machines.
- You don't have to rely on apps like IE Tester and can instead use the actual browsers.
Radek
2009-11-03 18:20:47
This has worked awesome for us, but today it was really slow. I wonder if they just did a release.
Trevor Allred
2009-11-03 19:23:00
Another benefit of Spoon over a VMWare option is that you can run the Spoon browser on your localhost and develop on your own machine without having to release for each change you want to test.
Trevor Allred
2009-11-03 19:24:42
+2
A:
This obviously doesn't apply to your specific situation, but for anyone who is running Windows 7, a good option is to use XP Mode. The XPM image has IE6 installed and won't expire like the Internet Explorer Application Compatibility VPC images.
Once you've installed XP Mode, create a shortcut to IE in the XP Programs menu (so a shortcut is published to your Win 7 Start menu). You can then launch IE6 side-by-side with IE8 on your Win 7 desktop.
josh3736
2009-11-03 18:26:13
+1
A:
You can also use Microsoft's own Expression Web SuperPreview
Download page: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=8e6ac106-525d-45d0-84db-dccff3fae677&displaylang=en
Further info: http://expression.microsoft.com/en-us/dd565874.aspx
Edit:
Sorry I didn't notice your "...and debug it..." statement in the original post. I think SuperPreview will just show a side-by-side visual comparison. If you need to debug javascript or anything like that, then I would use the virtualization methods mentioned above. (In practice I actually use virtualization for testing, but I figured I'd suggest something different.)
rally25rs
2009-11-03 18:33:21
Is superpreview free to use. can we download and use superpreview without buying Expression web?
metal-gear-solid
2009-11-25 03:29:37