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Free VMs of Windows to test older versions of IE

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Re: Free VMs of Windows to test older versions of IE

#91

Post by sovok »

BonoboBoner wrote: post #89
crazygringo wrote: post #34

These have been around for years. I put together a guide for personal use a while ago, for how to get them running under VirtualBox on OSX. Should be a similar process under Linux. I don't have a blog or anything, so I'll include them here, hoping they'll be helpful to people here, sorry about the length (I last did this a few months ago, so it should be pretty up-to-date). - Extract the RAR files. On OSX use UnRarX:…

Awesome guide, thanks a lot! Since the WinXP is just a single exe file, UnrarX cannot extract it. Any idea to fix this besides extracting it on a Windows computer?

The Unarchiver works for me: http://unarchiver.c3.cx/unarchiver

Re: Free VMs of Windows to test older versions of IE

#92

Post by conductor »

BonoboBoner wrote: post #89
crazygringo wrote: post #34

These have been around for years. I put together a guide for personal use a while ago, for how to get them running under VirtualBox on OSX. Should be a similar process under Linux. I don't have a blog or anything, so I'll include them here, hoping they'll be helpful to people here, sorry about the length (I last did this a few months ago, so it should be pretty up-to-date). - Extract the RAR files. On OSX use UnRarX:…

Awesome guide, thanks a lot! Since the WinXP is just a single exe file, UnrarX cannot extract it. Any idea to fix this besides extracting it on a Windows computer?

Hackers don't search for easy solutions ;) You can use any hex editor to cut the PE file: just cut from the beginning to the point where the Rar! signature starts and rename the extension to .rar.

Re: Free VMs of Windows to test older versions of IE

#93

Post by laumars »

thristian wrote: post #2

The VMs are designed for Virtual PC, which is of course only available for Windows. There's a script called ievms that will automatically downloade those VMs and convert them for use with VirtualBox on OS X or Linux: http://xdissent.github.com/ievms/

Thanks for that.

I was a little baffled why MS would make this images only run on Windows when the people most likely to need to emulate other versions of IE / Windows would be non-Windows users.

Re: Free VMs of Windows to test older versions of IE

#94

Post by mushishi »

jtchang wrote: post #16

Just a quick note that one of the easiest ways to get a legitimate license key is to join BizSpark. If you are a startup (which I imagine a lot of people here have some sort of startup) there is no reason not to be a part of it.

IIRC, it cannot be just any kind of startup, i.e. if you have a software service house (build software for others / consulting), you are not going to get into BizSpark.

Feel free to straighten out my misconception.

Re: Free VMs of Windows to test older versions of IE

#95

Post by michaelt »

laumars wrote: post #93
thristian wrote: post #2

The VMs are designed for Virtual PC, which is of course only available for Windows. There's a script called ievms that will automatically downloade those VMs and convert them for use with VirtualBox on OS X or Linux: http://xdissent.github.com/ievms/

Thanks for that. I was a little baffled why MS would make this images only run on Windows when the people most likely to need to emulate other versions of IE / Windows would be non-Windows users.

Presumably it's useful for web developers on Windows 7 or above, but who need to test on IE6/7.

As to why they'd use their own VM in preference to VirtualBox I don't know. But to be fair, Microsoft isn't the only company that neglects developers who aren't on their platform; "not invented here" syndrome seems to impact all software companies eventually!

Re: Free VMs of Windows to test older versions of IE

#96

Post by yesbabyyes »

camtarn wrote: post #81
nnq wrote: post #69

Why use this instead of the setup that I use for years?: a WinXP virtual machine and this IEs collection: http://www.askvg.com/how-to-run-multiple-internet-explorer-v... - you end up with one VM and IE 3 - 8. ...and since I use Win7 for work I was tempted to try http://www.my-debugbar.com/wiki/IETester/HomePage but ended up using my old solution out of fear of messy installs/unistalls that such software could do on m…

In the past (about four years ago) we had a difficult to debug issue which only manifested in IE on one team member's computer - we traced it down to Multiple IE screwing up cookie handling in some odd manner. So you'd be testing with an environment that's not necessarily 100% the same as your end users.

Yes, I have also seen peculiarities with Multiple IE. IMO, it's decent for casual testing, but you still need to do testing on real installations of your target platforms.

Re: Free VMs of Windows to test older versions of IE

#97

Post by sudhirj »

thisone wrote: post #80
sudhirj wrote: post #36

It would serve the world so much better IF THEY JUST LET IT FUCKING DIE! GRAAAAAAGGHH!

the only way early versions of IE would go away is if the computers upgraded themselves. Even going out of support won't kill them as some people/businesses still won't allow their computers to upgrade IE, or install anything else. Example: Over the weekend I was at a big chain store and decided to sign up for a discount card (which is done online). The employee pulls up the browser, and it's IE6. The website we go t…

But that's precisely the point - the only thing that can force businesses to upgrade is if the cost of developing, testing and maintaing software for IE6 becomes more than what it costs to do a full overhaul and re-education. Microsoft stepping in to make IE6 support easier and cheaper simply sends the message that it's still a valid choice for development and support.

Re: Free VMs of Windows to test older versions of IE

#98

Post by hopeless »

mattmanser wrote: post #88
lotyrin wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly, if it's not worth 20 bucks a month to you, you probably aren't in their target market (deliberately priced out of it, for good reason).

Depends, when you look at it another way $20 a month is almost your own virtual server with windows on it.

If it saves me ~30mins/month then it has paid for itself

Re: Free VMs of Windows to test older versions of IE

#99

Post by hopeless »

dave1010uk wrote: post #74
duck wrote: post #28

Or better yet, just use https://browserling.com/ which is from another HN member, pkrumins.

Similar remote browser testing services I'll be testing soon: http://saucelabs.com/ http://crossbrowsertesting.com/ http://www.browserstack.com/ Some of these even do mobile browsers too. After spending several hours setting up just 1 or 2 VMs, I'm convinced using these services is not only cheaper and more stress-free but also lets you keep more up to date.

Thank you for mentioning these. I tried BrowserStack and got so much value from the free 30min trial (found & fixed several IE8 bugs) that it was a no-brainer to sign up for a monthly plan.

Even the tunneling to a local Vagrant instance, with a subdomain (through lvh.me), worked simply and flawlessly. I couldn't have asked for a better experience.

Re: Free VMs of Windows to test older versions of IE

#100

Post by xyzzyb »

thristian wrote: post #2

The VMs are designed for Virtual PC, which is of course only available for Windows. There's a script called ievms that will automatically downloade those VMs and convert them for use with VirtualBox on OS X or Linux: http://xdissent.github.com/ievms/

Big thumbs up here for ievms. I use it all the time and I not so humbly was the first person to donate money to the project.

I can't believe that it's only raised $400 so far. It's completely excellent and I know lots of people out there depend on it.

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