Installing Internet Explorer

Question

I just installed Ubuntu 14.04 and need to install Internet Explorer. My banks require that I use it. Any help would be appreciated. I've only found very old answers online.

Solution 1

Internet Explorer is just too dependent on a Windows environment to work well with Ubuntu. Even if you somehow manage to install it, you're likely to have a very poor experience: it will crash and do unexpected things constantly. If you call your bank for support, they'll blame it on your environment (and if you tell them you're using Ubuntu they'll just say it's not supported and stop helping you).

Options to install Internet Explorer include Wine (but see this report which shows that the experience is "garbage"), playonlinux (again, the reports show a very poor experience) or this thing called ies4linux (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/InstallingInternetExplorer), which installs very old versions of IE which are also likely to be rejected by your bank.

You're likely to have better luck if you install VirtualBox, create a virtual machine, and install Windows with native IE there. I assume you already have a copy of Windows to install.

Solution 2

This is 100% honest and being 100% straightforward. It is possible, and impossible at the same time. One way you could try is by using Wine to make an instance of Windows, that can use Internet Explorer. Other ways are out-dated. Here's how to get Wine and get Internet Explorer running.

sudo apt-get install wine

This may take anywhere from 3 to 5 minutes depending on your internet speeds.

1. Open winetricks
2. Set Windows Version to 8
3. Go from Winetricks to Install a windows program
4. Scroll down until you find Internet Explorer and install it
5. You will then be able to see Internet Explorer in your launcher.

Comments

[muru]

"Other ways are out-dated." What other ways?

[David]

Using Virtualbox @muru

[Dooley_labs]

@DavidCole How is using a vm outdated? It runs better than trying to convince Wine to run it and throws no errors.

[TheCodingKlam]

VM also takes up more resources, and wine doesn't. so I'd rather enjoy still using my computer, while running IE 8.

[Cerin]

This doesn't work. There is no option to "install a windows program". There's an "install app" option, but that doesn't list IE.

[David]

This may be outdated. I apologize for that, but since 2015 I have become less knowledgeable about Ubuntu. Again my sincere apologies @Cerin

[Fr0zenFyr]

So we have yet another "out-dated" way! :D

[David]

@Fr0zenFyr How so?

[Dharmesh patel]

@David, Cerin ... sorry for late reply but ie6, ie7, ie8 are available. For that, you will require selecting option (1) Select the default wineprefix (2) Install a windows DDL or component Thats it.

[Orhan G. Hafif]

+1 for the assumption from the username