IE6 - I hate it!

I need help with IE6

[BritishAgent]

I don't have access to IE6 anywhere and it seems to always mess with my CSS. The sites that I have that are fine in IE7 and Firefox always look funny in IE6.

I have to go to another location to test IE6 - so my question is - does anyone have a list of all of the differences that show up in IE6 (it seems to be sizing issues, mostly) so that I can try to plan around them before testing?

I believe that there is also some code that I can put in the page that tells the browser to use something else (a different style sheet maybe) if the site is in IE6. Does anyone have this code?

Thanks so much in advance. It's driving me absolutely nuts!

[BritishAgent]

Sorry - just read the post below this and it covers the IE6 only issue (thanks!), but I am still looking for the list of what's different in IE6.

Thanks again.

[SuzyUK]

Hi BritishAgent and Welcome!

that's a big question..

here's the deal, there's not that much difference betwwen IE6 and 7 IF you're already using a strict rendering DOCTYPE. The Box Model (sizing) issue is IE5.x and only still in IE6 if you're not using an aforementioned Doctype or are using a "quirky" one. See: What's your Doctype [webmasterworld.com] and the post it refers to for more info.

IE7 mainly just fixed some of the hasLayout bugs that IE6 has, now they're fairly impossible to list as the circumstances of these arising is not set in stone, but they will and do arise all the time. Take a look at "Position is everything" for the range of "bugs" which are 95% related to a hasLayout error [webmasterworld.com]. Mainly the symptoms would be disappearing content and/or borders, links shifting on hover.. you name it

but IE7 didn't quite fix them all it just hid them ;) these display errors still appear from time to time, even in IE7, so unfortunately the best thing is to test (or at least have the availability to test if an error is reported) in both.

You can install multiple IE's on your machine, I run IE6, 5.5 and 5 as standalones, which I've found perfectly adequate for testing purposes. ref: Install multiple IE's [webmasterworld.com] since then however IE have released something (Virtual PC?.. sorry can't remember as what I have is working fine so haven't changed) which allows the same functionality.

However there is one little trick which sometimes throws light on the simplest of things and that is to add

<!-- -->

right before a strict Doctype in IE7, this then puts the page into "Quirks Mode" and removes all IE7's extra functionality e.g. :hover on any element - but you should note that this does not always make IE7 revert to the equivalent of IE6, just something a bit like it - so in all I suggest the multiple tests - In fact if you're developing a site right now I would use IE6 for the main (IE) testing still yet as IE7 simply hides more than it fixes :o

Sorry, it's just not as simple as a list, but hopefully this will all be over in 4-5 years!

-Suzy

[BritishAgent]

Thanks for the advice and the welcome, Suzy.

It's good to know that I can run both version of IE on my machine - the library is getting tired of me!

[BritishAgent]

Hey there,

I have followed all of the instructions on the how to install multiple browsers thread and it doesn't work for me. I'm using XP Pro and currently have IE7 installed. I cannot get IE6 to work even having extracted a million files.

Am I supposed to click on the IEXPLORE.EXE.local file to open it or the IE icon in that folder? Neither works, but the icon at least attempts to open it but then gets a fatal error. Clicking on the local file just gets me a window asking me what I want to open it with.

Anyone have specific instructions for installing IE6 onto XP - I'm not sure if I'm supposed to download the MIL files too, or just the NT ones.

[swa66]

Microsoft has a virtual PC image available that's intended to be used to test IE6 or IE7 on a machine with the other version installed on it.

It should be easy enough to use it (for free) if you have a windows host OS, and are willing to download the (time-bombed) image every so often.

I hope this is neutral enough to allow the URL, cause it's not that trivial to find using a search:
[microsoft.com...]

Mac users can install windows in something like parallels or vmware. Once you have it activated you can clone the image and upgrade one of them to IE7. Similar approaches can be used for those not willing to use the time-bombed image Microsoft makes available.