Online Internet Explorer Simulators

Question

(Tried to find simular questions / duplicates, failed)

I develop on a mac. I love my mac. I develop using Chrome, Firefox, and Safari. I love them all for different reasons.

But I have to develop for Internet Explorer users as well.

I know, I am not unique here.

I enjoy using the webkit inspector / firebug to mess with CSS. One of the biggest issues I've found when testing ie6-8 is the inability to edit CSS on the fly. The back and forth to a VM or an actual pc, trying something in CSS, saving, reloading in IE, failing, and repeating, leads to a slow development process.

So, on to my actual question.

Is there any sort of online emulator/simulator for various internet explorer versions? Something that somehow renders the page using the ie engine, but still allows me to use my inspector?

Is this even possible?

Answer 1

Something like BrowserShots?

Answer 2

Just stick with the virtual machine: If you're running Internet Explorer 8 you'll be able to activate the developer window using F12. There you're able to edit CSS as well as HTML on the fly without saving/reloading the page.

Answer 3

Adobe Contribute provides a snapshot service also, but it's not free.

Here's the developer toolbar for IE 6 and 7.

Answer 4

You could try Firebug Lite

It's a pure JavaScript-implementation of Firebug that runs directly in any browser (at least in all major ones: IE6+, Firefox, Opera, Safari and Chrome)

You'll still need the VM to actually run IE, but at least you'll get a quicker testing cycle.

Answer 5

I just realized that there's yet another option. I've heard a lot of good things about this service: Litmus Alkaline.

"Alkaline tests your website designs across 17 different Windows browsers right from your Mac desktop in seconds. No need for virtual machines, Windows licenses, or any messing around with Windows Update."