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In typical MS fashion it didn't get good until 3 versions later, IE4, before getting proprietary vendor lockin with that piece of shit IE6.

If IE6 was such a piece of shit, as you put it, that implies that the other browsers at the time were much worse than that. You've inadvertently made a profound statement about the browser landscape of the day. IE6 rightfully earned infamy in its unnaturally long life even more repugnant is rampant revisionism. IE introduced a feature that is the foundation of today's web, some of you might be aware of the XMLHttpRequest object, for the non-developers it's like the force now, all around us. JavaScript support and performance, CSS support. Unfortunately this period had to occur, and it will occur again once these lessons are forgotten; Without the stranglehold IE6 eventually obtained, and more importantly stagnated the web with, the choices we have today wouldn't exist.

Their stupidity of not being able to down-grade IE or simultaneously install different versions so web developers could test ALL the various versions, forcing people to rely on hacks like SandBoxie, was absolutely retarded.

As much as it pains me to say Microsoft wasn't unique in this regard, as an aside, try installing multiple versions of Safari. Even the easy mode package managers don't support multiple versions of browsers out of the box (not to say it's difficult). Internet Explorer 6 released in 2001 following the launch of Windows XP. For those unfamiliar with their history, Web Development of that era revolved around IE and Netscape. With IE being the Chrome of its day (as in "works here, onward!") since the browser market was 90%+ IE and IE6 was supported on Windows 98, NT, and 2k. Low usage for potential targets results in a chicken and the egg problem. Low single digits just aren't a priority for many shops, see Opera.

Sandboxie came out in 2004ish and has its uses, especially on 32bit machines. However, for web development involving IE it's much easier to use MultiIE which has been around since 2006. IETester is worth another mention. Not to mention there are alternatives due to the ever growing number of devices and variants released year after year, requiring a different approach such as farms that show screenshots from targeted browsers. Regarding the hassle of Sandboxie, limiting yourself to one tool is pretty silly.

This is a little off topic. Since this criticism is being framed as a Microsoft issue you might be shocked to discover how apps and to a lesser extent websites, are developed and tested in 2015 on devices manufactured and supported by multiple vendors. This process requires physical devices, in many cases multiple to support the popular OS versions on them (there are other OS, but they're less than 8%). Think it's a hack to wrangle Sandboxes or multiple installations, try wrangling devices that let you only upgrade! But what about device simulators, one might ask? Oh yes, they do exist and they're improving but there isn't a substitute for deploying and testing on device. IE variants are a dwindling piece of the very large fragmentation pie.

Microsoft writing the browser from scratch, is too little, too late.

Too late for whom? W

You mean like this:
http://tredosoft.com/Multiple_IE

Which allows you to have IE 6,7,8,9 and 10, all installed at the same time. And running separately. I used to use it when I needed to test websites I was developing on multiple IE versions. Now, I just test in Chrome and everyone else can suck it. :-p

Perhaps this can help somebody

Then install MultipleIEs, and you can have your IE6 still exist somewhere, while the main IE on the machine is 8 or 9.

There have been a few hacks like this one which leverage things like DLL/COM redirection to allow you to run multiple versions of Internet Explorer in the same Windows installation. Someone has also written an installer which allows you to run Internet Explorer 7 and all previous versions side by side in Windows XP.

Isn't the standalone method (known since the eolas debacle) sufficient?

I use http://tredosoft.com/Multiple_IE for cross browser testing and IE6 runs fine on Win7. Also you can install IE6 for XP mode with a couple of hacks.

Multiple versions of IE can be done courtesy of here or here

And as for IE6 keeping people away from sites like YouTube.. I'm not even going to dignify that with a refutation. Anyone who wants to get around that problem could do so without the slightest difficulty in the space of about ten minutes.

The answer to to both of these is two words: "Group Policy". Group policy allows IT admins to lock down almost everything imaginable. But (in my experience) it will not work properly with multiple IE. And, yes, I can block youtube along with any other site that requires specific plugins with no problem at all, just disable {INSERT-GUID-OF-CONTROL-HERE}, .

Multiple versions of IE can be done courtesy of here or here

Also here Stuck on IE6? Upgrade to Linux! :)

Sorry, but having RTFA, I still can come back to just one reason for still using IE6: Ignorance.

Okay, so there's companies that have IE6-only apps. That's no reason to not upgrade: Nobody forces you to have only one browser. Even if you don't want to have IE6 and Firefox, you can have two versions of IE itself installed. You can set up the hideously-insecure IE6 to only be able to access the company intranet where you need it, and use IE7 or 8 for the rest of the world where having a more-modern, more-secure browser is useful.

Multiple versions of IE can be done courtesy of here or here

Old hardware can run Firefox just fine - I used Portable Firefox for years when I was working for an IE-only company. You don't have to use the browser your company installs on your machine if you don't want to.

And as for IE6 keeping people away from sites like YouTube.. I'm not even going to dignify that with a refutation. Anyone who wants to get around that problem could do so without the slightest difficulty in the space of about ten minutes. This sounds more like a fairy story from the IT depertments to clueless PHB's: "Don't worry, boss, we don't need to block YouTube, it doesn't work with our browser. Not get out of my cubicle so I can watch the latest Foamy the Squirrel video, wouldya?"

It's entirely possible (and relatively easy) to install multiple versions of Internet Explorer on a computer; I have everything from IE3 to IE8 installed right now (mainly for fun). Just do that, create IE6 specific desktop shortcuts to whatever webapps those people need, and move everything else to IE 8. It should be relatively low-maintenance, as long as you set IE 6 to never ask about becoming the default browser.

If IT doesn't go for it, they need to think about which they'd rather have: the notoriously insecure IE 6 as a company-wide default browser, or a special config for a small set of users.

I used to use MultipleIEs, but it doesn't seem to work properly in conjunction with IE8 - form input in IE6 has issues. Thanks very much for that link - it'll definitely be useful if I ever have to do any web development on Windows again!

      --- Mr. DOS

since you can't parallel install IE

Like Obama said: yes we can.

Fixed that for you. Slashdot uses HTML syntax, not BBCode.

Multiple IE is pretty awesome for web development. It is also pretty fun to trounce around the modern web with IE 3.0.

Hence "they could download it from the 'net". I've used IEs4linux but I prefer to run "Multiple IEs" ( http://tredosoft.com/Multiple_IE ) on a VirtualBox with the license of XP I have from my stolen laptop.

Does anyone know if it is possible to run IE6, IE7 and IE8 on one system without multiple VMs for my web site testing..?

I've been using MultipleIE http://tredosoft.com/Multiple_IE for testing in IE6 & IE7 alongside each other, but it is not compatible with IE8 and it looks like there is no intention to make it so...

Am I just gonna have multiple VMs or is there a more elegant solution?

MultipleIE allows standalone installs of MSIE3-6 by utilising DLLHELL technologies
http://tredosoft.com/Multiple_IE

You can choose which versions of IE it installs (I only test in IE6). Perhaps IE7 will be included in the pack in the near future.

The biggest problem is that you cannot have multiple versions of Internet explorer installed on the same computer.

Actually, I played around a bit with this: http://tredosoft.com/Multiple_IE, which seemed to work somehow. It was almost nostalgic to start up IE3 again, and kind of fun seeing it rendering various webpages horribly.

http://tredosoft.com/Multiple_IE You would only need 1 windows xp vm, so you would probably only need 1 gig of ram for the virtual machine at most, which doesn't cost that much and 1 copy of windows xp which is only $150 at most I believe

Yes, it's possible:

http://tredosoft.com/Multiple_IE

Oh it's necessary... With normal browsers you can install multiple versions on the same machine. With IE, you have to use hacks which Microsoft breaks... Now Microsoft might charge you to make things compatible with their browser in single vm. http://tredosoft.com/Multiple_IE

I don't think iexplore.exe is a mere stub, otherwise software like MultipleIEs wouldn't work.

Yep, I use Multiple IE so I have IE 6 handy to work out bugs. I was also using it to try and support IE5.5 but a vertical alignment bug pissed me off too much and now I just test for 6 and up with IE.

You probably want something like MultipleIE:
http://tredosoft.com/Multiple_IE

I'm able to run IE 4.01, 5.01, 5.5, 6.0 and 7 all at the same time...

http://tredosoft.com/Multiple_IE

Multiple IE works for me, as long as you aren't on Vista. I have all the IE versions back to 5 running.

Why don't you use something like this http://tredosoft.com/Multiple_IE ?

Because it's not *quite* right - IE6 and 7 share certain DLL's and registry settings, and I've seen on a couple of occasions bugs crop up in either standalone IE6 or Multiple IE's IE6 (both with the exact same version number) that didn't appear on the other. Little things, like PNG issues and flickering background images, but if you are working on a busy site, you can't really risk it.

The best way to go is to install IE7 properly, and use IE6 within the Virtual PC image Microsoft provide (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=21EABB90-958F-4B64-B5F1-73D0A413C8EF&displaylang=en). It's a pain in the arse, and rather stupid that you have to go to such lengths to do it, but it's the only way to be sure you are seeing the same as your end users!

Why don't you use something like this http://tredosoft.com/Multiple_IE ?

http://tredosoft.com/Multiple_IE is really useful for that sort of thing, also.

IE doesn't run quite that well on Wine as it does on Windows natively. Unfortunatelly. That is the bad news.

The good news is that you can run versions 3 to 7 in Windows pretty easily! First you install IE7 and then you get MultipleIEs which installs versions 3 to 6. I am running versions 5 to 7 simultaneously! :)

You're preaching to the choir. I only use the Apple Updater to update Safari, as I've been testing webpages I design in Safari since 3.0 beta for Windows came out. I also have Mozilla 2.0.0.12, Opera 9.26, and both IE6 and IE7 installed (using Multiple IEs).

I have to ignore those irritating updates for Quicktime and Quicktime + iTunes every time they come out. If I want to play Quicktime videos, I use QT Lite.

Not at all complicated.

- First you install IE7.
Until recently you had to go through some sort of verification to download IE7 but now it's open for everyone. Nevertheless, you can get IE7 customized from Google: http://www.google.com/toolbar/ie7/

- Second you install Multiple IEs: http://tredosoft.com/Multiple_IE ...which gives you an installable .exe package with IE 5.0, IE 5.5, IE 6.0 (and some older versions 4.0 and 3.0 if I remember correctly). It even makes the registry configurations so that you can use Conditional Comments (google that for more, it's a life-savior).

After you have finished, you can even have mutliple version of IE open at the same time. I do this all the time.

All well and nice :)

We have to test with IE6 as our clients demand it. Of the couple of sites that I've done since starting here, all of the corporate big wigs that sign the payment checks use IE6. So what is pretty simple to do with IE7 or any other browser we have to spend 3x the time checking things out with IE6. Then go back to more modern browsers and make sure none of the hacks we put in affected those browsers.

And it's actually very easy to install multiple versions of IE. See here. It's a nice, tidy installer.

You can install multiple versions of IE and also install IE7 in standalone mode alongside your IE6.

You can install multiple versions of IE and also install IE7 in standalone mode alongside your IE6.

You probably already know this, but you can install IE6 as a standalone app and just run it out of a folder with all its DLLs in it. I do this constantly for testing.

You can have ALL versionf of IE under the same installation of Windows: http://tredosoft.com/Multiple_IE

Yep, I've been using this setup all on one machine for a while now:
http://tredosoft.com/Multiple_IE
http://tredosoft.com/IE7_standalone

Works an absolute treat. The only problem I've come across (aside from a few sporadic crashes) is that some of the IE version don't identify themselves as the appropriate IE version when using [If IE x] tags to call different stylesheets in the XHTML. There areregistry fixes for this, but I don't have links to hand.

Yep, I've been using this setup all on one machine for a while now:
http://tredosoft.com/Multiple_IE
http://tredosoft.com/IE7_standalone

Works an absolute treat. The only problem I've come across (aside from a few sporadic crashes) is that some of the IE version don't identify themselves as the appropriate IE version when using [If IE x] tags to call different stylesheets in the XHTML. There areregistry fixes for this, but I don't have links to hand.

I've found a little utility that installs Internet Explorer 3, 4, 5, 5.5 and 6 all working in conjunction with IE7. Check it out here: http://tredosoft.com/Multiple_IE

If you want to run multiple versions of MIE for testing, read this: http://tredosoft.com/Multiple_IE

I cuurently have MIE 5, 5.5, 6 and 7 running on the same XP box. And with a simple registry hack, they display the version number in the title bar and respond to the appropriate conditional comments for CSS stylesheets. I develop on Mac, and use the PC only for testing, but even I was able to get these installed.

If you so desired, you could install IE 7 as your primary browser and use Multiple IE to install a standalone version of IE 6 for testing your webpages out.

http://tredosoft.com/IE7_standalone ...by using this I am running IE7 on WinXP SP1 (while IE7 requires SP2). And IE7 seems to do OK (for the things that I use) from a CSS point of view: I have just tested fixed backgrounds on boxes, I don't see the a guilotine effect, can hover on boxes, the PNG transparency works nearly perfect (some people say it doesn't, but my mileage may vary).

From a developer to another: On the same machine? If so, by virtualization, or how?

Actually, there's this sweet program out there called Mulitple-IE. To use it, install IE7, then install Multiple-IE. Multiple IE installed IE3 through IE6. How? Well, the website explains it. They add IE numbers to the title bar, which, for whatever reason (I think it has to do with the registry keys) keep the programs separate. However, the Multiple IE version do not have full capabilities, though I've not run into any problems yet, but I simply use them for CSS design checks, not for Active X plug-ins or the like.

(note, this is for Windows machines)

Cheers,
Fozzy

Yes:
http://tredosoft.com/Multiple_IE
(link on that page for standalone IE7, too)

All our developers at work have this installed, plus all the other windows browsers, plus a Mac with a few relevant browsers. In fact if they weren't devout Windows/Linux developers I'm sure they could do the whole thing on a mac using parallels.

In Nov. 2003, ie standalone appeared on the evolt.org website. I used that to run IE 5.0, 5.x side-by-side. Now, (I haven't tried this), if you already have IE7 installed you can use Multiple IE to have IE3 IE4.01 IE5 IE5.5 and IE6 installed standalone.

Hope this helps.

Guys,

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

Seriously, what sort of geeks are you?

Without having to use a virtual machine, here's how to install multiple versions of IE on a single machine: Multiple IE.

There is a buggy way to get both versions at: http://tredosoft.com/IE7_standalone. But if you use it, then strange things will happen with both versions, and IE7 will be prone to crashes. But for the most basic of needs- testing if a website looks ok, it'll work for you.

Beware though, IE7 uses some registry keys also used by IE6, so the official answer is no, you can't run them both at the same time. Unfortunately. Kind of a kick in the teeth for web developers I think.