Need a good Internet Explorer 6, 7, 8 standalone

Question

Possible Duplicate:
Running Internet Explorer 6, Internet Explorer 7, and Internet Explorer 8 on the same machine

I need recommendations on a good Internet Explorer standalone for Internet Explorer 6, Internet Explorer 7 and Internet Explorer 8.

I tried using Tredosoft's Internet Explorer 7 standalone and MultiIE for Internet Explorer 6, but select elements were being blocked as pop-ups, even when the pop-up blocker was turned off, in all Internet Explorer browsers (6,7,8).

I also tried the Internet Explorer Collection from Edskes, but Internet Explorer 6 and Internet Explorer 7 refuse to let me type in a text box.

If someone can provide me with either a solution or an alternative that'd be brilliant.

Also, I'm using VMware Fusion to run Windows XP on my Mac.

Solution 1

You could try IETester.

Update In 2015 this is now the wrong answer to this question. See the accepted answer of the duplicate question linked above for a better solution (https://stackoverflow.com/a/574465/70795)

Solution 2

Have you tried the compatibility virtual machines? They are from MS and free. I have used them for IE 6 testing.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=21EABB90-958F-4B64-B5F1-73D0A413C8EF&displaylang=en

VM's are available for 6,7, and 8 in Windows XP SP3.

Solution 3

If you need a way to test your app on the different IE-versions, you can download and install Microsoft Virtual PC: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=04d26402-3199-48a3-afa2-2dc0b40a73b6

...and download VHD-files with Windows installations with the different browsers included: http://www.microsoft.com/Downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=21eabb90-958f-4b64-b5f1-73d0a413c8ef&displaylang=en

Solution 4

Spoon provides a good list of virtualized browsers, including IE 6, 7 and 8.

http://spoon.net/browsers/

Solution 5

You're out of luck if you're trying to run them all reliably in one VM. There are several products out there, but none are perfect (they work mostly through DLL hacks).

My recommendation would be to create multiple VMs in VMware and install a different version of Internet Explorer on each. That way you get the true, full experience.

View more solutions

Comments

[Justin Niessner]

Exactly my thoughts...great link though!

[Neil N]

This has worked very well for me. Easily open a URL in IE 5.5, 6, 7, 8 all with one click.

[Wayne Koorts]

Bear in mind that these images expire after a few months (all at the same time, so if you download it a day before it expires then you will only have its use for a day). They also require the free MS Virtual PC 2007. New ones are typically released within a week or two of the old ones expiring (not immediately, which is annoying) and are valid for about 3 months.

[Admin]

I can create multiple snapshots but where do I get the IE installers?

[Nguyen Hieu]

This is the coolest thing ever. Where is the buzz?

[TEEAMO]

its quite rare that screenshots alone will provide the kind of insight required for a javascript heavy app.

[mpen]

@seengee: I don't think the OP even mentioned JS...

[CRUTER]

IETester is a great little app but be warned it isn't a true representation of the various versions of IE.

[asnyder]

I just tried this. It's completely off for IE 6, & 7.

[Dan Rosenstark]

@dougoftheabaci browsers.evolt.org

[Dan Rosenstark]

Checking if this is true :) stackoverflow.com/questions/2859010

[Dmitri Farkov]

No way to turn off Flash in IETester :(

[Dmitri Farkov]

I have noticed odd behaviour previously with this method - rendering engines not behaving like the original counterparts.

[GeekyMonkey]

Spoon WAS brilliant... Until Microsoft pulled the plug on it. virtualizationpractice.com/blog/?p=8204

[Ricardo Gomes]

@asnyder i also just tried this. it is not off for ie6 or 7

[deejayy]

Last updated in 2006 ...

[deejayy]

These tests are often misconfigured, you can only check, that it works/not works for the whole page. It is impossible to test multiple times, because 1 page shots takes hours to complete.

[mpen]

Still a handy service if you don't have time to meticulously fire up 30 different VMs, you can at least give it a look over and find problem areas.

[user56reinstatemonica8]

What is the specific problem with this answer? I hate it when people downvote and don't comment. Do the browsers at that link not work? Are they full of malware? Or are they fine, and Bo just wrote his original answer unclearly? I wish people would respect the community and share what they know...

[user56reinstatemonica8]

You can get IE6,7,8,9 from Spoon.net (March 2012, UK) - but only for 2 minutes use every 24 hours unless you pay US$8/month. Not a terrible price for a professional tool, but the idea of anyone receiving money in exchange for IE6 makes me feel ill... Also I don't know of any way to make it work with my-debugbar.com's IE debug bar.

[megaSteve4]

It has always given me varied results - in some instances it has definitely NOT given the same results of the actual browsers...

[B T]

Stupid parent company software only works in IE8. IE9's IE8 development mode doesn't work, IETester doesn't work, FF/etc doesn't work. Any thoughts?

[spinn]

I don't know if this is the reason, but I just went to this site as I'm looking for standalones myself, and they appear to only have IE6, which means this wouldn't answer the question asked. (But then again, the tredosoft link above appears to have the same problem, so who knows.)

[Ricardo Zea]

The problem with MultipleIE is that it doesn't work on Win 64bit (Vista/7/8). I used it while on XP and it worked great.

[Matthias Wegtun]

I think testing natively is the best

[Tony Wall]

Microsoft organized all their browser VMs in one place now, available here: modern.ie/en-US/virtualization-tools#downloads

[Hades]

The compatibility VM's are the only true way to test IE8 as @rifferte says in their answer below.

[Mark]

@Hades if I was answering this today I would agree with you. I have also found Browserstack useful recently.