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Is there any way to test a website in Internet Explorer 6 on a computer that already has Firefox and Internet Explorer7 installed, without either:

  • Using VM-ware
  • Uninstalling Internet Explorer 7 and installing Internet Explorer 6 (if that's even possible)

Duplicate

Community
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Dónal
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  • Exact duplicate of this question: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/421945/possible-to-degrade-from-ie7-to-ie6-for-debuggin-purposes (from which most of the answers seem to be copied as well). – Joachim Sauer Mar 25 '09 at 22:53
  • Don: care to tell us why exactly you're deleting the edit for duplicate question? Or more specifically: Why isn't this a duplicate? – Joachim Sauer Mar 25 '09 at 22:55
  • It might be because his requirements on not using VM, even so, it's still should be considered a duplicate beceause most of the answers don't use VM. – Samuel Mar 25 '09 at 23:10
  • @saua - Do you REALLY think that before answering, I first search for a similar question, in order to copy an answer from it?! – andi Mar 26 '09 at 07:43
  • @Saua, @Samuel - The reason it's not a duplicate is because of the no VM condition. The reason most of the answers don't suggest using a VM is precisely because I added this condition – Dónal Mar 26 '09 at 22:47
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    possible duplicate of [Running IE6, IE7, and IE8 on the same machine](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/574463/running-ie6-ie7-and-ie8-on-the-same-machine) – i_am_jorf Jan 05 '11 at 17:15

14 Answers14

12

Could this solve your problem:

Microsoft Expression Web SuperPreview for Windows Internet Explorer

Luke Woodward
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Bravax
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7

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

Peter Mortensen
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Aaron Daniels
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    free as in beer, VirtualPC is free, and you have the OS image for free, so no licensing issues. – Yishai Mar 25 '09 at 17:31
  • "free" would usually mean there are strings attached. It's completely free and doesn't require quotation. – Samuel Mar 25 '09 at 17:33
  • 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 Mar 26 '09 at 17:25
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    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 May 13 '09 at 07:14
  • @AaronDaniels It looks like that link is bad. I think the IE6 vm is gone – Eric Feb 01 '13 at 15:54
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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
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  • 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 May 13 '09 at 07:12
5

I had the same problem. A VM would work, but it slows my 1 GB laptop down to a crawl. So I ended up having to upgrade to 2 GB memory and install Linux. I enjoy this A LOT 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 Internet Explorer 8. I tried this, and it only let me preview Internet Explorer 8. 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. Internet Explorer 6 and 7 don't work right with it in Windows 7. But if you have Vista this is the way to go. Multiple Internet Explorers don't 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 Windows 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 that's true. I just heard some reports about it.

  5. Internet Explorer 7 Standalone - Though not applicable for this question others may find it useful to know that there is a standalone Internet Explorer 7. On my VM I have Internet Explorer 6 installed by default and Internet Explorer 7 as standalone. I would not recommend this as standalone Internet Explorer 7 is not perfect. MUltipleIEs + genuine Internet Explorer 7 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 hundreds of browsers and lets you view them. The 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 I was never 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. That's my 2.5 cents, though.

Peter Mortensen
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4

For future inquisitors, (which are hopefully a dying breed), modern.IE is the best resource i've found for testing across older Internet Explorers. It's run by Microsoft and provides different images for different virtualization environments.

jrsconfitto
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4

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
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  • IETester is really good but remember that flash does not work, and applet behave strangely. But who uses them, right? – Sander Versluys Mar 25 '09 at 17:31
  • 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 Mar 25 '09 at 17:31
  • seems good, but I keep getting out of memory at line 20 errors. – hasen May 13 '09 at 07:12
  • If you're testing certificate errors, I've not been able to find a way to view the certificate. Software seems fairly polished though. – Jens Frandsen Jan 30 '14 at 16:54
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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 Nazim
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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
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0

Take a look at BrowserStack. It's a 3rd party service with live, web-based browser testing.

idrinkpabst
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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
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0

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

MatthieuGD
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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
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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 PCs are cheap or free, if you don't have any of your own laying around somewhere.

Peter Mortensen
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kennebec
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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
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