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Microsoft Makes Testing IE6 and 7 Easier
Posted by
Zonk
on Fri Dec 01, 2006 11:20 AM
from the was-keeping-me-up-at-night dept.
from the was-keeping-me-up-at-night dept.
davidmcg writes "Finally, Microsoft has made steps to make testing IE6 and IE7 easier for Windows users. Previously, you had to pay for an additional Windows license to legally run both versions of IE for testing purposes. Now Microsoft is making available free Windows XP/IE6 images available for VirtualPC (also free as MS is competing with VMWare). This means that you can run IE6 in a virtual machine while running IE7 on your host machine. The drawback is that the download is set to expire April 2007 ... although we are promised new versions will be released. What Microsoft doesn't mention is that Virtual PC also runs on Windows 2000 (and IE7 doesn't). Therefore it's possible to install this Windows XP VPC image on your Win2k machine. You can then update IE6 on the XP image to IE7, testing IE7 without upgrading from Win2k. This is all-around excellent news for web developers."
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Microsoft Makes Testing IE6 and 7 Easier
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:C (Score:1, Funny)
::ducks::
Helping check compatibility is the right idea (Score:5, Insightful)
What would have really been good news for web developers would have been if Microsoft had gone a bit further with the standards support and not broken a number of methods developers used to trick IE6.
That being said, reaching out a hand to the web development community like this is a great move on Microsoft's part. It will encourage developers to test for both IE6 and IE7 even if they couldn't normally run both (or either). I would imagine this would be enormously useful for Mac developers who don't want to buy a PC (as I imagine it would work for Mac Virtual PC).
On that subject, I've been wondering why Apple doesn't release a test kit for Safari. I would test against Safari even though it doesn't have a large market share. I test against Opera. I even make sure my pages degrade gracefully in Netscape 4 and IE and Netscape 3. But I'm not going to buy a Mac just to make sure my pages look okay to Mac users. I know 98% of the time Safari will display like Firefox or Opera, but there are noticeable exceptions (especially in styling forms). Wouldn't helping people verify web page compatibility be an opportunity for Apple to ensure the compatibility of their platform?
I think Microsoft has the right idea here.
Website (Score:4, Insightful)
Believe it or not, your site is hardly representative of the rest the internet's tubes.
Some people are paid to develop websites designed for a less limited group of users. Some, dare I say most websites, especially on corporate intranets, have some need to support Internet Explorer.
Microsoft made this easier, and they made it free. Seems like a Good Thing to me, even if you never plan on using it.
Re:Helping check compatibility is the right idea (Score:4, Funny)
(http://www.fredshome.org/)
So it is absolutely obvious to me that you are making your numbers up and inventing browser names. I await your apologies.
web developers? (Score:2, Interesting)
For WINDOWS web developers, that is. Still no way to run IE7 in wine, AFAIK
I'm confused... (Score:5, Funny)
(Last Journal: Friday March 31 2006, @11:17AM)
I know...ITSAHOAX!
It must be...
IE6 Via FF Extensions? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:IE6 Via FF Extensions? (Score:5, Informative)
(http://jfctravelclub.com/travelblog/)
More of a move against VMWare (Score:4, Interesting)
(http://www.pramari.com/)
Let's look at why? The majority of web developers I know develop on the mac anyways. I don't see why Microsoft would really care so much about this niche crowd who always beat up on MS. No - What this does is it gives them an opportunity to gain some favor in the community and also push another product which microsoft is so good at doing.
Not being paranoid but I am just thinking about what makes sense for Microsoft as a business. They really want to push VirtualPC and you can see this in their partnerships with Xen and the feeling that they are loosing massive market share to VMWare (which they are btw).
So this is more of a counter with the guise of backward compatibility.
If they really wanted to help out Web Developers they would have simply included a IE6 mode in IE7 as an update that lets you switch between the rendering engines. I am sure this would be possible and also much easier to a web developer.
It's way easier (Score:4, Informative)
On following sites you can test your webpage via an online renderer
For IE 6 and 7: http://ipinfo.info/netrenderer/ [ipinfo.info]
For Safari: http://www.danvine.com/icapture/ [danvine.com]
For Firefox and many others: http://browsershots.org/ [browsershots.org]
hth
IE4Linux (Score:1)
Then you have IE7 on your main windows machines (god.. did i say windows is your primary OS ?) and test backward compatibility with IE 6, IE5.5 and another i don't remember the number within your neat little Linux image through wine...
May be easier than having a win2k computer somewhere...
Check it here :
http://www.tatanka.com.br/ies4linux/page/Main_Pag
MS doesn't even test its own apps with IE7 (Score:1)
Firefox is simpler (Score:4, Informative)
(http://www.soundsourcemusic.net/)
Prior to the release by Microsoft of this VM image I got round the legal requirement to buy an extra XP licence by running XP with IE6 and running the free to download (at the time) betas of Vista in a virtual machine for IE7 testing.
Why bother? MS should use Opera or Firefox instead (Score:4, Insightful)
Maybe MS is somehow is benefiting from the endless cycles of MSIE-based spyware, viruses, and general security problems. If not, then it (and we) would be much better off if MS should drop MSIE completely [pcmag.com]. Where does MS come out ahead financially? MSIE is probably the largest single public relations problem as well as one of largest security and productivity problems that MS produces these days.
The Netscape/DOJ v MS has been over for years. MSIE wastes our time, it wastes MS time. There's simply no need for anyone, even MS, to be wasting resources with MSIE. The public certainly has no reason to let MS foist on them such low quality security hole masquerading as a useful application. Drop MSIE or let users uninstall it completely.
Firefox [mozilla.com] and Opera [opera.com] are what people are using anyway [informationweek.com]. Go with the flow and invest the resources that would have gone into trying to keep life in MSIE go somewhere they'll actually have a chance of doing good.
so microsoft is providing a free XP image? (Score:1, Insightful)
For all the MS apologists... (Score:2)
(Last Journal: Thursday July 12, @12:30PM)
So: MS has to go out of their way to "let" people run more than one instance of Internet Explorer?** Two conclusions: a) why would this be so hard, if IE weren't so ingrained in the OS? b) And is this the "innovation" Scoble was talking about? [slashdot.org] "Letting" me run programs?
* I remember an old trick from back when NS3 was new: I knew it would crash sometimes, so if I had a lot of windows open, instead of opening another, I'd launch another instance of the app. One instance could crash, taking its windows with it, but the other would be fine, as if nothing ever happened. Now *that's* programming!
** Besides all the technical issues--they don't even charge for the fscking thing! It's not like you bought the "upgrade" version at a discount, compared to buying a full copy of the new version at full retail price. I understand if they don't want me running Win95 anymore if I bought the upgrade version of Win98. But if I buy the full versions of both, shouldn't I be able to run them both? This is like saying if I get the CD, I can't listen to the tape any more. And the tape and CD were both free to begin with.
Oh, wait, let me guess--since I didn't pay for them, I have no right to decide how I want to use them?
Don't test sites on browsers (Score:5, Funny)
(http://anticirc.coconia.net/)
Re:Don't test sites on browsers (Score:4, Insightful)
(http://ninenine.com/)
Write code for standards not for Virtual Machine (Score:2)
(http://commandline.org.uk/ | Last Journal: Wednesday May 30, @05:49AM)
Running a virtual Windows is pointless and a load of hassle, for what benefit exactly? Just have one old box with IE6 still on.
So "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn".
great (Score:2)
(http://www.gemstate.net/friends | Last Journal: Tuesday September 11, @10:32AM)
Hey everyone that can not update to IE7 please download Firefox and or Opera NOW.
Download IE6 standalone (Score:2, Informative)
(http://www.u2boy.nl/)
I have no idea if this is legal or anything, but i do know that it's a very simple solution that works...
What would be nicer (Score:2)
Microsoft could easily achieve that by unbundling the web browser from the OS.
What, did I just say something stupid?
*Free* XP images? (Score:3, Interesting)
(http://hackingfamily.com/ | Last Journal: Thursday August 23, @05:15PM)
Are they *fully functional* versions? I.E. can you install other software (there's a decent supply of XP-only software that won't even run in W2K)? The summary suggests you can upgrade the browser, which is a big step by itself... but I have a few friends who haven't upgraded to W2K for various reasons, and still run W2K. Does this new download mean they would be able to use XP (within W2K) without needing to buy an XP license?
Multiple IE Installs on a single machine (Score:2, Informative)
why a virtual machine? (Score:2)
(http://www.umich.edu/~bfields)
Why go through all the trouble? (Score:2)
Code for standards, tweak for IE6 should be sufficient. Once IE7 hits over the 70% mark, then it's moot anyway.
Corporate needs are different but they'll code for a specific browser anyway.
If the site breaks for IE6 - which shouldn't, just display funky, then the user can download Opera or Firefox for free.
Likewise when there is yet another vulnerability for IE6, the user shouldn't be using IE anyway.
Microsoft is "supporting" web developers? (Score:1)
Shouldn't need a VM (Score:1)
(http://electricsand.badnerds.org/ | Last Journal: Thursday December 28 2006, @10:21AM)
Now just admit that it's NOT part of the OS... (Score:3, Insightful)
(http://localhost/)
Lessie... memory management, process scheduling, storage, parsing & rendering HTML.
Which of these doesn't fit again?
In the words of Shenia Twain... (Score:2)
(http://www.uberconcept.com/)
As a web developer, this doesn't really do anything for me because:
1. Virtual PC was already free
2. An XP license is a negligable cost (if you don't already have an MSDN subscription)
3. This does nothing for IE 5 & 5.5
Maybe IE 5 & 5.5 are so long ago inside the Microsoft campus that they can be forgotten, however in the real world people still use them.
In addition Virtual PC is a headache because:
1. You need to boot the machine up which takes a while
2. You can't hit a local IP address
3. It is noticably slower than running natively (Core duo2 6400, 2Gb RAM)
When you compare this with how say firefox works, the Microsoft solution just doesn't compare well. With firefox I can install multiple versions and run them side by side.
In addition, this still doesn't answer why Microsoft chose to sic the lawyers onto the much more useful solution [skyzyx.com], which is closer to the Firefox style.
Full credit to Microsoft for the attempt, but it is a pretty half assed one at that.
I can't believe this is slashdot... (Score:1)
You can install standalone versions of any IE you want, from 3 to 7. I don't get what the fuss is about. Installing a virtual machine just to run IE? pfff!
Try this and be happy:
http://tredosoft.com/IE7_standalone [tredosoft.com]
Seriously, what sort of geeks are you?
PHP Test (Score:1)
Take IE and just browse some WordPress themes and see how many it butchers trying to render. Nuff said, back to the drawing board.
Easier ??? (Score:1)
Can't upgrade this disk image to IE7 (Score:1)
(http://www2.gvsu.edu/~brittedg)
Into the recycle bin...
Why bother with this? (Score:2)
Hope this helps.
And if you want IE6 but not Windows... (Score:2)
IE6 stand-alone from Browsers Evolt (Score:1)
(about:blank)
Install IE7 and use these stand-alone zipped versions to test your site. The trick was to grab all the files in \program files\internet explorer\ and include a iexplore.exe.external (I don't recall that filename very well, it's been some time till I used them).