Working together for standards The Web Standards Project

The kit contains a pointer to the latest publicly available build of Internet Explorer 7, a developer checklist including new features and changes of interest to application and web developers should be aware of, testing guidance and tips for isolating and identifying a particular compatibility problem; tools for development and testing; links to resources, technical articles and helpful blog posts; various methods for providing feedback to Microsoft.

Of course, be aware that you’re downloading beta software, and that it will overwrite IE 6.0. Ideally, you should install IE7 on a designated testing machine. If you don’t have one, the only real alternative to have more than one version of IE on your machine is to use Virtual PC (which, for those who weren’t aware – like me – is available for Windows as well as Mac). The registry hack that people use for running multiple versions of IE may produce erroneous results.

Your Replies

#1 On July 13th, 2006 2:45 pm Emil Stenström replied:

The difficulty of running more than one version of IE is a long known problem and it would be nice to see someone officially say what method they want us to use. I wrote about the problems on my blog.

The comments mentions a third way of getting two versions to work simultaneously. You can download a standalone (home made) version of IE6 and run that one alongside. Sounds pretty good to me.

#2 On July 14th, 2006 2:10 am » IE7 Readiness Toolkit — cne _LOG Archiv replied:

[...] Microsoft hat ein Toolkit herausgegeben, dass es Webdesignern ermöglicht, ihr Webseiten auf dem IE7 zu testen. Molly Holzschlag vom Web Standards Project schreibt über das Toolkit: The kit contains a pointer to the latest publicly available build of Internet Explorer 7, a developer checklist including new features and changes of interest to application and web developers should be aware of, testing guidance and tips for isolating and identifying a particular compatibility problem; tools for development and testing; links to resources, technical articles and helpful blog posts; various methods for providing feedback to Microsoft. [...]

#3 On July 16th, 2006 10:26 am Nick Fitzsimons replied:

Not only is Virtual PC available on Windows, but Microsoft have just made it a free download!

@Emil: on a number of occasions, the IE Team have said in response to comments that they recommend using Virtual PC for testing multiple IE versions, and that side-by-side installations of different versions are not supported. Personally, I’ve not had any problems running versions 5 and 5.5 alongside 6 for testing, but getting 6 and 7 to co-exist hasn’t really worked out for me (yet). But as VPC is now free, it makes sense to use that from now on.

#4 On July 17th, 2006 5:19 am Ivan replied:

I was checking designs on my other pc with ie6 and sometimes calling my friend to check it with older IE …. sad :(

#5 On August 7th, 2006 10:29 am Jamie replied:

I’ve installed IE7 beta3 (and beta2 prior to that) and then have standalone executables for IE6 and IE5.5. There’s no need for registry hacking and they happily all run at the same time.

I don’t use IE7 with force though, also have FireFox for my day-to-day internet browsing.

#6 On August 8th, 2006 6:32 am Brad Seo replied:

Perhaps it is still early days but I am quietly happy with what IE have produced this time around particularly in the area of standards. It could have been a lot worst. I’ll still continue to use Firefox though.

#7 On August 18th, 2006 8:09 pm Jeremy replied:

In the excerpt, you have written “The Toolkit requires a genuine registered copy of Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003, and XP.”

This implies that you need a copy of all three. Shouldn’t it read “The Toolkit requires a genuine registered copy of Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003, or XP.”?

#8 On August 21st, 2006 4:59 am Chris Hester replied:

Note about Virtual PC: “It runs on Windows XP Professional and Windows 2000 Professional.”

#9 On August 31st, 2006 9:53 pm Wayne replied:

The problem that I have with installing virtual PC is you need to have a licence for windows. This is why microsoft are giving virtual PC away for free. They want you to buy another copy of windows. I can’t see why Microsoft don’t allow you to run multiple versions side by side like firefox or opera. It’s just frustrating for us developers who Microsoft don’t seem to care enough about.

#10 On September 30th, 2006 12:58 pm Asp_net_2_0_Rocks replied:

I’ve installed IE7 beta3 and then have standalone executables for IE6 and IE5.5 but they dont run together very well. any ideas?

#11 On October 23rd, 2006 4:44 am Joe replied:

“I can’t see why Microsoft don’t allow you to run multiple versions side by side like firefox or opera. It’s just frustrating for us developers who Microsoft don’t seem to care enough about.”

Oh, please. Take a look at the myriad of developer resources Microsoft offers for free and then see if they care about developers. And if you can’t understand why you can’t run both of them side by side, you obviously know very little about IE. It’s tied deep in the operating system. It functions as much more than just a browser.

It’s not a matter of Microsoft ‘allowing’ you to do something. It’s a matter of something simply not being possible. If you were one of ‘us developers’, you would’ve understood that.

#12 On October 23rd, 2006 5:36 pm Alex replied:

That’s exactly the problem – a browser should not be tied into an OS. The legal fees MS has had to pay over the years defending their bundling of IE with Windows should keep them from repeating the same mistake. Just look at the heated debate over having their search engine as the default.

I also think it’s unfortunate that non-Windows developers (operating purely in Linux environments, for example) are forced to purchase a copy of Windows merely so they can test their sites and applications in IE.

The primary reason the majority of Internet users use the less well designed, less secure, and less stable IE over far more sophisticated alternatives based on the Gecko and KTHML engines is because historically IE was bundled with Windows. That marketing induced differential aside, the best performing, most secure, and standards compliant browsers would be dominating the market today and making a web developer’s life (and a user’s) a whole lot easier.

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