Internet Explorer 8 and Internet Explorer 6 side by side [duplicate]

Question

Possible Duplicate:
Running Internet Explorer 6, Internet Explorer 7, and Internet Explorer 8 on the same machine

Is there a way to have Internet Explorer 8 and Internet Explorer 6 side by side without virtualizing?

I used Multiple IEs which works fine with Internet Explorer 7, but since I installed Internet Explorer 8 beta 2, Internet Explorer 6 started behaving oddly (that is, more than usual).

Answer 1

I also use virtualisation. I've got Virtual PC 2007, which is a free download from here, on my machine and have downloaded the Internet Explorer Virual PC images from Microsoft. You can get the images here.

Answer 2

Microsoft does not support multiple versions of Internet Explorer on one operating system. The reason is that the operating system and Internet Explorer share certain DLLs. When you upgrade from Internet Explorer 6 to Internet Explorer 7 (or Internet Explorer 8) you're actually replacing some system DLLs. This is the reason why you "get" Internet Explorer 6 when you uninstall Internet Explorer 7.

Chris Wilson, Internet Explorer architect, addressed this issue in a blog post Multiple IEs on one machine. Chris states that on-the-fly replacement of mshtml.dll might work for CSS rendering "...but it's not the same as having a full set of new Internet Explorer system DLLs installed" and would certainly not be considered a definitive solution.

Only virtualization can provide the full DLL stack for definitive testing.

Edit:

On March 18, 2009, the Microsoft Expression Web team released SuperPreview, a free stand-alone application that allows cross-browser side-by-side and onionskin comparison between Internet Explorer 8, Internet Explorer 8 - Internet Explorer7 compatibility mode, and Internet Explorer 6. Additional browsers and an on-demand service is planned to render pages in realtime on other operating systems.

Edit in response to Zac comment

Thanks for the comment. Expression Web 3 (which will include SuperPreview) will allow comparison between any combination of Internet Explorer 6, Internet Explorer 7, Internet Explorer 8, and Firefox 3. This is according to Somasgear's blog entry Expresion Web 3 posted on June 5, 2009. In the screenshot on his blog, you'll see Firefox 3 as the base browser (left side) and Internet Explorer 6 as the comparison browser. Any browser can be placed on either side of the comparison window.

Answer 3

Try this: http://www.my-debugbar.com/wiki/IETester/HomePage
LE: This isn't really fully compatible yet, there are a few minor issues, like it crashes on JavaScript pop-ups, but I've found it quite reliable during development. At the end of everything, I just tested the web application against a real IE6 to make sure everything's fine.

Answer 4

Virtualization is the easiest way to achieve this. It has a higher overhead, but since IE has so many hooks into the OS trying to install multiple versions of it is doomed to confusion and failure.

Answer 5

A very light-weight (and just released) way to do this is to use Expression Web SuperPreview. It allows you to compare IE6 and IE7 (or IE6 and IE8+IE7-compatibility-mode) side-by-side. It's currently just a preview, but I've used it with good results. They're going to release a commercial version that enables side-by-side comparison of more browsers, but they say the IE-specific one will remain free forever.

Answer 6

One more multiple, standalone IE option: IE Collection.

Answer 7

Either run it in a VM, wait untill multiples get IE8 added or, use http://browsershots.org/ which will take screenshots of your website from several different Operating systmes, and browsers.

Answer 8

I've written a step-by-step blog post showing how to run IE6, IE7 and IE8 as "virtual applications" on Windows 7 Ultimate.

Answer 9

There's also IE7 standalone

Answer 10

What I do is use VMware with other OS with IE6.

Not perfect, but it helps.

Answer 11

I use a utility called "Sandboxie" (free for personal use, $29 for commercial) to provide application sandboxing. One useful side-effect of this is that you can install applications (even OS-modifying ones such as IE) into the sandbox, and the parent OS is completely unaware (allowing you to have different versions of the parent OS's IE and the sandboxed IE - and both running simultaneously). The two scenarios I've used so far:

• Internet Explorer 7 in the parent OS, and uninstalled IE7 in the sandbox to make IE6 available
• Internet Explorer 6 in the parent os, and upgraded to IE8 in the sandbox

Caveats:

• If you need more than one additional version of IE available simultaneously, then you will need to purchase the full version, as you can only have one version of IE in a sandbox, and the free version supports only one active sandbox at a time
• Installing a version of IE into the sandbox can take a little trial and error - IE8 was particularly tricky. Some warnings that occur during installation (or uninstallation) are trivial, though.