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Run IE6 and IE7 on Fusion?

P

Photomax

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 26, 2007
137
0
Seattle
I recently reintalled VMWare Fusion and Windows XP on my Mac Pro.

The default browser is IE6 which I use for testing the abomination that is IE6. I would like to add IE7 without losing IE6 though. What is the latest thought on running mulitple versions of IE on the same virtual machine like this?

I did some searching but it sounds like there are some bugs and outdated info in this arena...

Thanks!

Max
 
There are bugs with trying to install multiple versions on the same OS, as they all use some of the same registry keys. I know there are a couple workarounds like MultipleIEs, but they've all had bugs in them too, at least for me. I know for a while I thought I was running both side by side, but it turned out what I thought was IE6 was actually using the IE7 engine.

I use a free Virtual PC image from Microsoft at work to test all my sites in IE6 (running IE7 natively), but you will have to download and install Virtual PC (2007 is the latest version I believe) and it's free as well. The only catch is that the virtual image will expire, but so far they've always posted new images that have been ready when the old ones expire. I think you can usually use the same image for 5-6 months before you have to get the next one, and it is somewhat of a pain, but definitely worth it.

I have NOT yet tried running Virtual PC within Fusion yet, but I'd be surprised if Virtual PC didn't run on Windows via Bootcamp and that's what I use as the source image in Fusion. I've been planning on trying it recently, but just haven't had the time. Let me know and I can test it for sure and get back to you tomorrow, but that free image from Microsoft has been a lifesaver for me at work (professional Web Developer).

Edit: Forgot to mention... there are free IE6, IE7 and IE8 Beta 2 Windows XP images, as well as a much larger (but still free) IE7 Windows Vista image.
 
I don't believe this is possible. When you install IE7, it totally replaces IE6. The only way to get around multiple app versions on the same OS would be to use some sort of application virtualization.

Check out these links:

http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/appv/default.mspx

http://www.vmware.com/products/thinapp/

I don't think they have mac versions of these apps, but just to give you an idea of how it can be accomplished. We used the microsoft product at my last job and it was pretty cool. We ran multiple versions of different apps on the same workstation. This was especially helpful to our marketing department who needed to test websites on multiple browsers.
 
torid110 said:
I don't believe this is possible. When you install IE7, it totally replaces IE6. The only way to get around multiple app versions on the same OS would be to use some sort of application virtualization.
Click to expand...

Unless you use a program like MultipleIEs, like jrrdnx mentioned. I use it on my Windows machine for testing IE 5/6. It's not perfect at all of things, but generally good enough to see how designs looks and feel in each.
 
Did a little testing this morning 'cause I was also interested to see if running Microsoft Virtual PC inside of VMWare Fusion could be done... and it crapped out on me :rolleyes:

I don't think VMWare Fusion likes sharing its virtual hardware, or Virtual PC doesn't like using double-virtual hardware... but whatever the reason it doesn't look like that'll be an option. I'd love to know if someone else has been able to do this successfully.

Right now, it looks like your best bet is MultipleIEs (sorry I forgot to link to that before, and thanks angelwatt). Just be careful to make sure that it's showing you what it's supposed to, and good luck :)
 
angelwatt said:
Unless you use a program like MultipleIEs, like jrrdnx mentioned. I use it on my Windows machine for testing IE 5/6. It's not perfect at all of things, but generally good enough to see how designs looks and feel in each.
Click to expand...

That's precisely what I use. They're good enough to proof in - I mean as long as you don't go overboard writing down every little difference between this and the Real McCoy you'll be fine. I've used it for a year or so and no problems stand out.

I sat down with a problem client once that insisted I wasn't testing properly.. They were flabbergasted that I could run every browser they mentioned right there on the projector, right from my laptop. :D (the problem was on their end and they didn't want to admit it)
 
You could always just keep 2 separate VMWare virtual machines, one for IE6 and one for IE7. That may well be the simplest way to go.
 
danny_w said:
You could always just keep 2 separate VMWare virtual machines, one for IE6 and one for IE7. That may well be the simplest way to go.
Click to expand...

That would mean purchasing two copies of Windows, wouldn't it? Or am I off on this one?
 
Melrose said:
That would mean purchasing two copies of Windows, wouldn't it? Or am I off on this one?
Click to expand...
Technically both copies would run on the same hardware so I don't see any real problem here, esp. if you only run one vm at a time. The problem you may run into is chewing up your Windows activation attempts twice as fast, but MS is usually good at just giving you a new key.

EDIT: Businesses do this all of the time by keeping multiple vm's and loading whichever one is needed at the time. I don't know if the licensing would be different, but I can't see where they could fault you.
 
Thanks for the replies.

I tried ie4osx and it seemed very buggy and did not render pages well. Also most of the tool bars were missing...
 
I use a site called Browser Shots to test how things look, but this doesn't help in interactive tests.

Does anyone know how much space I would have to allocate for an installation of windows for the sole purpose of IE6 on VMware?

Cheers
 
danny_w said:
You could always just keep 2 separate VMWare virtual machines, one for IE6 and one for IE7. That may well be the simplest way to go.
Click to expand...

This worked fine for me. I installed a virtual XP once, and duplicated the virtual machine image, and it didn't ask for activation again.

~Mike
 
gamera~ said:
This worked fine for me. I installed a virtual XP once, and duplicated the virtual machine image, and it didn't ask for activation again.

~Mike
Click to expand...

That's also what I did. Install XP in VMWare Fusion, duplicate the VM, upgrade the 2nd VM to IE7. No problems so far.
 
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