Running IE6, IE7, and IE8 on the same machine

Question

Like everyone else ;), I need to test my code on IE6 and IE7. Now IE8 has some great tools for developer, which I'd like to use. I'd also like to start testing my code with IE8, as it will soon be released.

The question is: how to run IE6, IE7, and IE8 on the same machine. So far with IE6 and IE7 I've been using Multiple IE. But people have reported (see comments on the page linked in the previous sentence) issue with IE6 after installing IE8. Those errors are related to focus in form fields. Running IE7 wouldn't matter so much as IE8 can use the IE7 rendering engine, but we still need IE6.

Any recommendation on how to IE6, IE7, and IE8 on the same machine?

Answer 1

I wouldn't do it. Use virtual PCs instead. It might take a little setup, but you'll thank yourself in the long run. In my experience, you can't really get them cleanly installed side by side and unless they are standalone installs you can't really verify that it is 100% true-to-browser rendering.

Answer 2

I use Virtual PC to run an instance of windows where I have IE6 installed. It's a bit clumsier than having different versions in the same computer, but it's a 100% working IE6. Multiple IE works fine for most testing, but it's lacking that last few percents.

Don't work too much to get the page looking right in IE8, it still has some glitches that most likely will be fixed in the final release.

Answer 3

This does not directly answer your question, but have you had a look at Litmus? We tend to use it mostly for testing HTML/CSS compatibility across multiple browsers (supported by Litmus).

Answer 4

You can't use IE8 to replace IE7. The JavaScript engine in IE8 is never the same as in IE7. Try leaving trailing commas in array or object literals in both IE7 and IE8 - you'll get an error in the former, but not the latter even in compatibility mode. If you want your site to work in IE7, you need to test in IE7.

Answer 5

I would also suggest running a few virtual machines rather than running multiple versions of Internet Explorer on the same instance of Windows.

Microsoft provides Virtual PC disk images with Internet Explorer 6, 7, and 8 at the Internet Explorer Application Compatibility VPC Image download page.

The current list of virtual disk images available from the above link are:

• Internet Explorer 6 on Windows XP SP3
• Internet Explorer 7 on Windows XP SP3
• Internet Explorer 8 on Windows XP SP3
• Internet Explorer 7 on Windows Vista
• Internet Explorer 8 on Windows Vista

(List is current as of October 11, 2009. All versions have expiration dates.)

Answer 6

Backing up the other users, you will need to run virtual pc's on your window box. If you try to do a multi install of IE, you will break conditional comments on pages, which will make testing difficult anyway (For example, With IE 5,6,7 On a windows box, the IF IE statements will resolve to IE 7 even in IE 5, which means even more weird bugs.

More information and a link to download and run a IE6 Virtual Image: http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2007/04/17/ie7-virtual-pc-image-and-ie6-virtual-pc-image-refresh.aspx

If you have Virtual PC already, here is the image: http://www.microsoft.com/Downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=21eabb90-958f-4b64-b5f1-73d0a413c8ef&displaylang=en

Answer 7

What about using App-V? http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/appv/default.mspx

In particular Dynamic Application Virtualization http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/appv/dynamic.mspx

It virtualizes at the application level. It is useful when running incompatible software on the same OS instance.

Answer 8

I'm not sure if the installation you're using automatically does this, but to get IE6 to honour it's conditional comments once you've installed IE 7 too, you need to delete a key in the registry. I think its something like /software/microsoft/internet explore/version vector/ and the key is called version.

Answer 9

Firefox has an add in that will render a webpage the same as if it was in internet explorer 5.5/6/7/8 beta 2.

IE NET Renderer

edit: This looks like it only does screen shots so it may not be very useful. Good for making sure your layout isn't broken but not much else.

Answer 10

I asked a similar kind of question. I think few of the answers given here may help.

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/533688/how-to-unit-test-my-application-manually-on-multiple-browsers

Answer 11

As Eduardo mentioned, recently announced Microsoft SuperPreview is a tool that lets you view how web pages are rendered in many different browsers, even if they aren't installed locally.

For example, you can see how your page looks in IE6, IE7, IE8, Firefox, and Safari, even if you don't have those browsers installed.

Answer 12

Somewhat related, you should consider running your site past BrowserShots when it is almost done, see how it looks in dozens of browsers on hundreds of configurations.

Answer 13

try www.xenocode.com/browers, run ie7 , ie8.. all withint a java sandbox applet

Answer 14

Have you tried this ? http://finalbuilds.edskes.net/iecollection.htm

Answer 15

I'd use http://browsershots.org

G-Man

Answer 16

Someone I know created a portable version of IE8 using thinstall (now it's bought by vmware and called thinapp) (only 1.8 MB). Thinstall creates a virtualized application with a virtual filesystem builtin and is the perfect solution to DLL hell. The whole app runs from a single exe file.

This is untested against other versions install, I might add.

http://rapidshare.com/files/247957494/IE8.Portable.Thinstall.exe

Answer 17

I did this on my Windows 7 computer today:

1. Installed Windows Virtual PC, and ran XP Mode
2. Created two Windows XP images. One with IE6 and one with IE7.
3. Now I can run these to browsers from my Windows 7 desktop! Just like any other application. No need to open the Virtual PC.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/

Answer 18

.02 more...

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 19

On my Mac OS X machine I use Sun's VirtualBox wich is free.

I run 3 WinXP virtual boxes and assign 256K to each. See this tutorial:

http://www.10voltmedia.com/blog/2008/12/screencast-install-internet-explorer-on-osx-using-virtualbox/

Answer 20

Adobe BrowserLab.

Answer 21

I realise that this is an old thread, but has anyone come across issues with SuperPreview for Internet Explorer and sIFR text? sIFR text doens't get rendered - it's like it's being completely ignored. Not too helpful for testing...

Answer 22

This blog post worked for me: http://aarfing.dk/?p=120 (How to run IE6, IE7 and IE8 side by side).

Answer 23

IETester is a free WebBrowser that allows you to have the rendering and javascript engines of IE8, IE7 IE 6 and IE5.5 on Windows 7, Vista and XP, as well as the installed IE in the same process. For more details click the below link [http://www.my-debugbar.com/wiki/IETester/HomePage%5D%5B1%5D

Answer 24

I wrote an article about how to test on many browsers without having these browsers installed: 10+ Ways for testing website browser compatibility

Answer 25

I use http://www.spoon.net/browsers.

You can run IE8, IE7, IE6, Firefox 3.5, Firefox 3, Firefox 2, Safari 4, Safari 3, Opera 10, Opera 9, Chrome.

You just need to install a plugin, and then click on the corrisponding icon. It will download and run the files needed to run each of the abovementioned browsers.

Answer 26

So, what is the best option now?

Answer 27

To Check All IE You can go to CodeckPack . nl and install all IE, ie, IE collection.

or you can use www. multibrowserviewer .com it can check in 45 browsers and 3 os

Answer 28

Multiple IE http://tredosoft.com/Multiple_IE Will install ie up to 6, without disrupting current installation (i have 7 and it left it as it is). Now I need to find a way to run 8 on top of all that. 6 and 7 already run fine thanks to that little app above. (only tested on XP)

Answer 29

10+ Ways for testing website browser compatibility

Answer 30

IETester crashed when I tried to test a highly interactive travel search engine, Zoombu. It sounds good in theory but didn't do the job in practice.

Answer 31

A colleague of mine recommended Internet Explorer Collection. It appears to work without issues, but I'm far from a power user. It also supports installing IE 1 (!!) through 8.

Answer 32

http://cleartypemedia.com/press/2009/10/test-strategy-for-ie6-ie7-ie8/

Answer 33

Run IE6, IE7, and IE8 on the Same Machine Using Windows 7 XP Mode

http://articles.sitepoint.com/article/ie6-ie7-ie8-win7-xp-mode

Answer 34

There is one elegant way to run IE6, IE7 and IE8 on the same machine, called virtual PC.

First download virtual PC from Microsoft website here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloadS/details.aspx?FamilyID=04d26402-3199-48a3-afa2-2dc0b40a73b6&displaylang=en

Then download 3 EXE files with IE6, IE7 and IE8 here:http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=21EABB90-958F-4B64-B5F1-73D0A413C8EF&displaylang=en

Install them on your PC and test your web applications. Saved me days of looking for similar solutions.

Answer 35

The best and probably only solution is probably IE tester that could be found at ietester[dot]com It uses the IEengines for all IE 6, 7 and 8! And I have not found any discrepancies yet!

Answer 36

the new url for the xenocode browser testing suite of almost all available browser is now to be found here: http://spoon.net/browsers No need to set up a virtual machine or install a browser. Simple testing.

Answer 37

I'd suggest the free Browser Sandbox.

This plugin will let you securely test your site in the most popular versions of Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome and Opera. All browsers are run in a virtual environment so it's safer than installing an outdated browser for real.

Best of all: as soon as you have the plugin, no additional installs are required. Just click the browser you wanna launch and you're good to go.

Answer 38

CSS has release a Virtual IE6 running on all Windows platforms including Windows 7 using App-V

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cccFGXORmE