Running Different Internet Explorer Versions

admin — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 16:54:47 +0000

If you're doing web development – building sites, writing html and/or javscript, writing WordPress plugins, then you need to be able to test your site and code out with different versions of a web browser. Firefox is easily given its open source nature and versions of portable apps out there. You can have both Firefox 2.0 and 1.5 installed on your system and launch the appropriate one. For IE, this is a much harder task as Internet Explorer installs dlls all over the place, performs upgrading checking, uses the registry, etc.

I have IE 7 loaded on my system. Downloading IE6 from the Microsoft download site and then installing, gives an error that Internet Explorer is already installed. Ugh.. Well that won't work.

Once again, thanks to the power of Google Search, typing in "running internet explorer 6 and 7 same time" yields an array on search results. I found exactly what I was looking for -Install multiple versions of IE on your PC.

Here is a free program by TredoSoft that will install all older versions of IE, creates shortcuts to launch a specific version, and implement several "hacks" to get multiple IE versions to run on the same system. Now to try it out and see it it works correctly. I'll provide an update once I kick the tires a bit.

Kudos to those before me that needed this problem solved, tackle it, and find creative solutions that we all can benefit from.

Mike's Software Musings » Web Development

Running Different Internet Explorer Versions