Testing All Versions of IE

[tsisson]

Wondered if anyone had a program they use to test all versions of Internet Explorer or what is the best way to go about testing for the different versions of Internet Explorer.

Thank you

[Hoople]

Microsoft provides a free Windows Virtual PC VHDs for testing websites with different Internet Explorer versions [microsoft.com]

Windows XP Image
Filename: Windows_XP_IE6.exe
Contains: Windows XP SP3 with IE6 VHD file and was fully patched to December 2011. This image also contains the install files for IE7 and IE8. If you want to have separate base XP images for IE7 and IE8, you can copy the VHD, rename it, and install the other desired version of IE.

These VHD's time out after 90 days and you have to download them again. They update this package regularly and extend the expiration. With little effort the VHD's can be run on older Windows machines, Macs and many linuxes under VBox with a little prep work.

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Also from MS is Expression Web SuperPreview [microsoft.com]

shows your web pages rendered in all versions of Internet Explorer.

Under System requirements "Supported Operating Systems: Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP Service Pack 3". Older (beta) articles pointing to the above page disclose 'all' means IE6/IE7/IE8.

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Under Ubuntu Linux I use WineTricks [wiki.winehq.org] to run IE6 which works well.

There are other 3rd party apps that one can find that work to varying degrees. Some have been dropped by their creators after Microsoft had gone after them for copyright infringement.

Another tread here @WW: [webmasterworld.com...]

[tsisson]

@Hoople
Thanks for the information exactly what I was looking for!

[blend27]

I stopped testing for IE6 w awhile back. IE9 Now has "F12 Developer tools" where you could switch the Browser mode and Document Mode from 7 to 8 to 9. Something worth looking into.

[tsisson]

I think I am going to stop testing for IE6 as well, especially since it was declared dead by Microsoft.

Do you know if they render the page exactly like IE7 or IE8, or are there any subtle differences?

Thanks for the information, I had not seen those before but will definitely give them a test.

[blend27]

I run 3 quick boxes(on 1 laptop via Parallels).

Win7/IIS 7.5/IE9/FF8.1(main-host) : Win2008R2/IIS 7/IE8/FF5 : Win2003-SRV/IIS 6/IE7/FF3.6

On most of the sites I manage, the code CSS2/JS, is written to support IE7/FF3.6. Actual HTML is stripped to bare minimums. The target Audience seem to be up to par with IE8 and up.

"Developer tools" seem to do a good job for me. There might be some differences here and there, after all it is a part of MS Browser.