Testing in multiple versions of Internet Explorer

[blufive]

Many web designers know that you can't have more than one version of IE installed on a single installation of windows. It's a royal PITA.

Well, I iust came across this.

Would you believe, fairly straightforward instructions on how to get IE5, 5.5 and 6 running side-by-side on one windows machine. Y'know, just like *can't be done*, since forever (well, IE5, anyhow).

More follow-up here, including the inevitable question:

Why on earth would they not want you to be able to do this? Since the instructions are so simple, I'm going to assume someone, somewhere in the IE browser group [...] knew all along this was possible. What possible explanation would keep them from releasing the simple info and making developers the world over happier to use MS products?

Microsoft deliberately making life difficult for people? Say it isn't so!

[edit: more here, including handy-dandy zips of the minimal files required, though they may not last for long...]

[via Eric Meyer]

Comments

[alexmc.livejournal.com]

Sounds pretty yucky to me. There are tools which let you keep multiple virtual machine installations of windows on the same phycial machine but you probably know about them.

[blufive.livejournal.com]

Yes, it's yucky, but I reckon I've got a far better chance of getting this past our IS department and installed on half-a-dozen workstations than I have of getting a similar number of developers/testers set up with virtual machines...

[sbisson.livejournal.com]

I tend to use Safari or Frebird in masquerade mode. Generally, though all I'm testing is server-side browser sniffing code, and the browser-side stuff is HTML 3.2...

[blufive.livejournal.com]

Oh, there's no problem getting BROWSERS installed - I use Firebird for my day-to-day in the office, and all our internet developers/testers have at least one non-IE browser on their machines (some of them even USE them!)

We produce websites, so the business case for installing (free) browsers for testing is a no-brainer. (We just growl loudly whenever some dork in charge of the corporate firewall decides to require NTLM authentication to see the outside world)

The problem is getting any kind of virtualPC-type arrangement set up - we've been working on getting one for years. It's easier (but far from easy) to get a whole dedicated workstation, which is inconvenient for the users.

(and don't get me started on the disappearing iMac...)

[replyhazy.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's pretty fascinating! I can't tell you the number of times I've had to almost physically stop somebody when they say, "Mind if I install IE6 on this machine too?" We have test machines with various 5's, 5.5's, and 6 in our browser farm and some folks just don't comprehend that it's not like Netscape. (And I also have to remind them that AOL is running IE. But let's not go there.)

But I don't know if I would use this method. I'm not positive we would be able to reconstruct user-found bugs with this setup. And those who would really appreciate it, our engineers, are mostly on Linux. But I will send the link around to a few people anyway. Thanks.