How do I check how my site looks in older browsers such as IE5?

[internetheaven]

I changed my random banners scripting and the numbers being displayed has dropped dramatically (about 60%) even though traffic seems to be the same.

I'm worried that the script (javascript) is having problems in older browsers like IE5, is there somewhere or some function in the modern Internet Explorer that allows you to see what your page is like/reacts to older versions?

Currently I check Opera, Firefox and IE6.

[JAB Creations]

You can download IE 5.5, 5.01, 4.0, and 3.0 though I don't recall anyone getting IE 6.0 to work along side IE 7.0. You can still use IE 6.0's shell with the 7.0 rendering engine. Anything older then 5.0 does not support XML (and thus XHTML) so sites like mine take a massive beating on 4.0 and IE 3.0 doesn't even support stylesheets! There are still a few people using IE 5.X believe it or not.

Keep in mind that when you use older versions of IE you will be whether you know it or not spoofing. IE uses a windows registry key to set it's useragent. Some version specific stuff works and some doesn't. You have to really be in control of the code like myself to know exactly what is going on and why some things are acting odd.

If you are unable to find the older versions (not sure exactly where I found them myself) then send me a sticky and I'll try to help you out. ;)

- John

[edited by: JAB_Creations at 2:33 pm (utc) on July 17, 2006]

[kiwibrit]

I find it hard to believe a possible problem in IE 5 generation browsers has cause a drop of 60% in traffic. That said, there are said to be ways of having IE 5 along side 6. Personally, I do the occasional check with a screen capture service.

[DanA]

Standalone versions can be dowloaded from
[browsers.evolt.org...]

Linux users can have a look there :
[tatanka.com.br...]

[edited by: DanA at 4:47 pm (utc) on July 17, 2006]

[encyclo]

Virtualization is the way to go if you have a reasonably powerful machine: you can run different instances of several operating systems from within your main OS.

There are two options: there is Microsoft Virtual PC, which is now available as a free download [webmasterworld.com], or the (better, IMO) VMware Server, which is also now availble for free:

[vmware.com...]

For testing in IE5, you can install Windows 98 in a virtual machine.

One advantage with VMware is that there is a Linux version - I run Windows XP under Linux for browser testing - it's a better bet than using IE installed under Wine.