Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Testing on IE6, IE7 and IE8

Have you ever needed to test your web app in multiple versions if Internet Explorer? It is not quite common to have IE6 and IE7 (or IE8) installed on the same computer side by side.

It is possible. But if you have already upgraded to IE7, there is no going back. Or is there?

Well, you can still test on both browsers. Microsoft quite conveniently produced a free Virtual PC image for IE6 compatibility testing. Go to Internet Explorer Application Compatibility VPC Image page, where you can download images for IE 6, 7 and 8 Beta 2.

  • Internet Explorer 6 on Windows XP SP3
  • Internet Explorer 7 on Windows XP SP2
  • Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 on Windows XP SP3
  • Internet Explorer 7 on Windows Vista

All you need to run these images is Microsoft Virtual PC. It's all free.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great tip, but a link to the images that worked would be nice.

Unknown said...

True. It's fixed now.

David Lantner said...

I believe this is the best way to test multiple versions of IE. If anyone is curious how to setup Virtual PC and install the VPC images, I posted a tutorial here:

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

- David


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