Whats the best way to check pages on different versions of IE?

[TheVanWarehouse]

I have IE8 installed on my machine (xp), along with Firefox and Chrome. I'm looking for way to check pages in different versions of IE6 - can anyone recommend a way to do this? Thanks

[swa66]

I think Microsoft recommends to use virtual PC and run an image in there that's still got the old version.

Virtual PC (for windows as a host) itself and time-bombed (guest) images are free at Microsoft.

I use myself parallels on a mac and have 3 images runnig windows in that one for IE6, one for IE7 and one for IE8.

There also are ways to install older versions of IE aside of you main IE version, but you'll never be sure it's not interacting partly with the newer version (I had that once years ago: I hadn't noticed my site was seriously broken in IE5.5 till I got complaints. Never again for me, I only want the real thing anymore.

There also are web services that give you a look at your site in different versions, never used it myself.

[TheVanWarehouse]

Thanks for that :)

The Windows Virtual PC homepage only has links to the one for Windows 7 (a bit strange) but I found Virtual PC 2007 after doing a search.

[wandoledzep]

I use MultipleIEs and it works great! Link below:

[tredosoft.com...]

[SuzyUK]

I too have been wondering the same now that IE8 is going to be rolled out via Automatic Update.

At the minute I have standalone IE5 and 6, I have 7 installed and am using 8 on a virtual PC

I was wondering however if I now installed IE8 - is the emulate IE7 function good enough for testing with? or is it only similar and not identical with the bugs etc

PS: I never had a problem with the standalones once I configured them to read the Conditional comments properly

[edited by: SuzyUK at 5:55 pm (utc) on June 30, 2009]