I need a PC! (for testing)...multiple installs of IE?

[jng]

So, lately I've been delving into CSS a bit more and I'm finding that I need PC or at least access too one, esp. one with IE6. My University updates their machines relatively often and they all have IE7, which is a huge improvement over IE6.

Anyway, so to all you mac fanboys, how do you test your sites on a PC? And what about the issue of testing in different versions of IE?

If anyone has a good suggestion, let me know!

 

[Dave the Great]

... And what about the issue of testing in different versions of IE?

If anyone has a good suggestion, let me know!

Actually, there have been a couple of ingenious people that have created custom versions of IE for exactly that reason (testing multiple versions of IE on a single machine). You actually don't install them, you just run the executable out of the folder. Works pretty good.

I don't have the info handy, but if you google it you should find it.

 

[rackbreaker]

I use Parallels + this: http://tredosoft.com/Multiple_IE

Works great for me on my MBP

 

[radiantm3]

The best approach is to install XP, keep the IE6 install, and then install the standalone version of IE7. This setup is less buggy and lets you install Microsoft's DOM Inspector into both (which is like a half-baked version of the firefox web developer tool). The DOM Inspector isn't that great, but considering it's the only thing available to help debug IE issues, it's an invaluable tool. If you need to test IE 5.5, you can run that standalone hack as well.

 

[grapes911]

The best approach is to install XP, keep the IE6 install, and then install the standalone version of IE7.

I do it the other way around. I upgrade to IE7 and then install the standalone version of IE6.

 

[radiantm3]

I do it the other way around. I upgrade to IE7 and then install the standalone version of IE6.

A few developers in my office do it that way and they always have issues with their standalone installs. They end up always coming to me to check stuff in IE6. And from what I've seen, you can't install the DOM Inspector into the standalone version of IE6 which is extremely useful for debugging.

 

[operator]

I upgraded to IE7, and then used the Multiple IE Installer to install IE6 and IE5.5 (not that I code for IE5.5 anymore). I use these with Parallels and it seems to working well so far. You can have all versions os IE open at the same time.