views:

1112

answers:

14

Hi,

Is there any way to test a website in IE6 on a computer that already has firefox and IE7 installed, without either:

  • Using VM-ware
  • Uninstalling IE7 and installing IE6 (if that's even possible)

Cheers, Don


Duplicate

+5  A: 

You can try multiple IE

andi
That's what I use. Very good and simple. You can have multiple IE's installed.
Kriem
we use multiple IE as well
Bob The Janitor
doesn't work on vista
hasen j
The one drawback with Multiple IE is that it doesn't support conditional comments. So if you're using these to include an IE6-specific stylesheet, you'll be stuck.
Graham Clark
I wouldn't rely *solely* on Multiple IE. I used it previously (in a virtual machine) for quick checks, but it does not pick up on all the oddities of IE. I have adjusted to, and recommend, using virtual machines, or some other approach where you can run separate versions of IE independently.
tedmiston
+4  A: 

I usually see IETester recommended, though I don't have any experience with it personally (I run linux and use VirtualBox for this).

Chad Birch
That's what I use as well. So far so good.
jfrobishow
IETester is really good but remember that flash does not work, and applet behave strangely. But who uses them, right?
Sander Versluys
IETester is great for CSS stuff, but if you really need to know for robust QA purposes if your site is fine in IE6, it isn't enough.
Yishai
seems good, but I keep getting out of memory at line 20 errors.
hasen j
A: 

Solutions that will allow IE6 and IE7 together may not give you a real vanilla IE6 so it may not be what you should be looking for. I use http://www.virtualbox.org/ which is lighter than VM-ware.

cherouvim
+2  A: 

Microsoft has published free virtual pc images for Internet Explorer compatibility testing. You can find it here.

Aaron Daniels
"free"? Care to explain?
Samuel
free as in beer, VirtualPC is free, and you have the OS image for free, so no licensing issues.
Yishai
"free" would usually mean there are strings attached. It's completely free and doesn't require quotation.
Samuel
Sorry about the quotes. I first heard about it when IE7 came out. I wasn't sure about the licensing, so I included the quotes. Normally, if you install an OS on a virtual PC, you have to have a license for the OS. This, as you pointed out, is not the case here. Thanks for the input.
Aaron Daniels
It's "free" (with quotes) because it keeps expiring every X monthes and you have to download a new one that's completely identical except the expiration date is set a bit further.
hasen j
+7  A: 

Could this solve your problem:

Microsoft Expression Web SuperPreview for Windows Internet Explorer

Bravax
+1  A: 

Try the Xenocode Web Apps. They're virtualized, but not full-blown VMs.

Virtual PC 2007 is free from MS and isn't VM-Ware. Not sure if your requirement is no VMs or no VM-Ware. The MS provided testing virtual machines work well.

From what I've heard, any of the 3rd party multiple IE testers all have compatibility issues where they're not 100% accurate to the original browser versions.

John Sheehan
A: 

if it's for testing the rendering you can use Microsoft Expression Web SuperPreview :link text

Matthieu
+2  A: 

Try out SuperPreview or the whole package (Expression Web announced at Mix) if you can..

SuperPreview is a new free standalone application from Microsoft (still in beta) which enables you to see how your websites will look across different versions of Internet Explorer making migration from IE6 to 7 and 8 much easier than before, without have to start up a Virtual Machine to run IE6, or have a separate computer dedicated to running IE6.

Gulzar
+3  A: 

Download Microsoft VirtualPC. Then download any of the files in Internet Explorer Application Compatibility VPC Image. The second download contains four VHD (virtual hard drive) files which have:

  • XP SP2
    • IE 7
  • XP SP3
    • IE 6, IE 8 Beta 2
  • Vista SP1
    • IE 7

My answer from duplicate question

Samuel
This is what I do for IE6, but this is freaking heavy. plus it doesn't seem to recognize http://localhost so you have to use your ip to test webpage on your local development server
hasen j
A: 

If you can find an IE 6 Setup executable then you could use the wonderfully handy application called 'Altris Software Virtualization Solution' SVS.21.Personal.zip

Basically it allows you to create layers that can be enabled or disabled. It can create a layer by capturing changes made by an installation executable.

Keith_CE
A: 

You ought to have an old crappy pc to test on- It's easy to make code work on a modern, well set up machine, but you may have users less fortunate. And outdated pc's are cheap or free, if you don't have any of your own laying around somewhere.

kennebec
+2  A: 

I had the same problem. A VM would work but it slow my 1 GB laptop down to a crawl. So I ended up having to upgrade to 2GB memory and install linux. I enjoy this ALOT better. But since that is not an option here is what I came across.

  1. VirtualBox - Personally I like this one. If you have a Windows XP disc lying around this option is great. Especially if you have virtualization options on your processor.

  2. SuperPreview - Though I don't like this one it is an option. I had Windows 7 installed because it ran better than Vista and XP but it gave me IE8. I tried this and it only let me preview IE8. Maybe it was too early a beta or because I had a beta OS. Either way, I dont like this one just yet.

  3. IETester - By far a great great program. Works perfectly in XP and Vista. IE 6 and 7 dont work right with it in Windows 7. But if you have Vista this is the way to go. Multiple IEs doesnt work right under Vista but this does.

  4. MultipleIEs - As stated above, this does not work in Vista but it is an option for any XP user out there. There have been known issues with this causing your OS to actually become more unstable but I don't know for a fact if thats true. Just heard some reports about it.

  5. IE7 Standalone - Though not applicable for this question others may find it useful to know that there is a standalone IE7. On my VM I have IE6 installed by default and IE7 as standalone. I would not reccomend this as standalone IE7 is not perfect. MUltipleIEs + genuine IE7 or IETEster is much better option.

  6. BrowserShots.com - Browser shots is a great tool but somewhat limited. Basically it takes a screenshot on literally 100s of browsers and lets you view tyhem. Thing is it is mighty slow and you don't get a full screen preview.Not a great option.

  7. Meer Meer - I heard about something from Adobe Labs called Meer Meer a while back but never was able to actually find it. I believe meermeer.com actually takes you to Adobe Labs' website too. But it looks like a great tool complete with Onion Skin Overlay and the works. Like Super Preview but on the web instead of local. If it is released, definitely would check this one out.

Overall, I say IETester is a great bet. Anyone running Windows 7 however is left in the cold. I tried every option out there and none of them worked for me except for Linux host and VirtualBox XP guest. Thats my 2.5 cents though

Chuck

A: 

Although you specifically said you didn't want to use VMWare, have you consider VMWare ThinAPP?

It effectively lets you build an EXE that lets you run IE6 and IE7 concurrently on the same computer without incurring the performance cost of running an entire virtual machine. It is a little pricey ($6K), buy you only need a license for the machine you build the virtualized version of IE on.

JohnFx
A: 

Here's an solution which is 100% free and also works on Vista WITHOUT the need of any virtual machine.

alt text

"IETester is a free WebBrowser that allows you to have the rendering and javascript engines of IE9 preview, IE8, IE7 IE 6 and IE5.5 on Windows 7, Vista and XP, as well as the installed IE in the same process."

Enrico Pallazzo
You can also use: http://browsershots.org if you want to see the behavior of your website in different browsers on different Operating Systems
Enrico Pallazzo