Is there a way to validate sites against IE6 after you upgrade to IE7?

November 1, 2006 12:59 PM

Is there a way to validate sites against IE6 after you upgrade to IE7 (that doesn't involve something ridiculous like VMWare)?
posted by mkultra to Technology (13 answers total)

Microsoft's own recommendation is to run IE6 in Virtual PC. Which is like VMWare, yes.
posted by Mwongozi at 1:02 PM on November 1, 2006

Any reason why you wouldn't just validate against the W3 specs? It seems like you are chasing the tail, not the donkey.
posted by Kickstart70 at 1:11 PM on November 1, 2006

I agree that VMware is the best way to go. I'm not sure why you call it ridiculous though, it's a very nice piece of software that has tons of uses. Now that they've released the VMware player you can create your own Windows virtual image with completely free tools.

Regarding validating against W3 specs, that's all nice and good in theory but in the real world people care about what a site is going to look like in the world's most popular browser, and just because a site is valid HTML doesn't mean IE will get it right, so that's not a very useful answer.
posted by Rhomboid at 1:21 PM on November 1, 2006

Validating against the specs is good but since the browsers aren't perfect implementation of the specs, you can't rely on just the specs.

I also second that you break down and use something like VMWare or VirtualPC. Once you setup the environments they really are pretty wonderful to test out different setups.
posted by mmascolino at 1:24 PM on November 1, 2006

You can try the standalone ie6 from evolt. Just unpack ie6eolas_nt.zip and run iexplore.exe. I haven't verified that it actually still uses the ie6 rendering engine, but it should be easy to test.
posted by rpn at 1:25 PM on November 1, 2006

Any reason why you wouldn't just validate against the W3 specs?

Because IE doesn't follow the W3 specs.
posted by empath at 1:34 PM on November 1, 2006

Short of reinstalling Windows XP SP 2, no. The virtual machine options also require reinstalling the operating system.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 1:35 PM on November 1, 2006

What's "ridiculous" isn't VM software, which surely we all think is hunky dory, but the fact that we Web workers need it just to make sure our stuff looks okay on Microsoft's two current browsers.

I'm waiting until the auto-install to test on 7, and then I'll just pay less and less attention to how things look on 6.
posted by Doctor Barnett at 3:14 PM on November 1, 2006

If you need to switch back and forth between the two regularly, this would not be fun; but FWIW you can revert to IE6 via Add/Remove Program.
posted by nakedcodemonkey at 3:28 PM on November 1, 2006

Do what folks have been doing for years to perform multi-platform testing: Use a second computer. Pretty easy to resuscitate an old one that will be used for testing only, if you have the parts lying around.
posted by caution live frogs at 10:30 PM on November 1, 2006

This might be an option. I haven't tried it.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 10:37 PM on November 1, 2006

If you just want to see how it LOOKS, use browsershots. If you need to test functionality, a second computer.
posted by jesirose at 6:55 AM on November 2, 2006

Response by poster: I only mean ridiculous in the context of having to shell out another Windows license fee (this is correct, right?) just to access IE6.

Thanks for the advice...
posted by mkultra at 10:09 AM on November 2, 2006