Web Development in Multiple Versions of IE w/ Virtual PC 2007
The latest issue of the SitePoint e-mail newsletter has an informative article about how web developers can now use the free Virtual PC application provided by Microsoft to test in IE6 and potentially other versions. The benefit and interesting point made in the article though is that Microsoft is also providing a pre-activated copy of Windows XP with the software.
Thankfully, this time Microsoft has also handed us a free, practical tool for side-by-side testing in IE6 and IE7: Virtual PC 2007. Download and install this free software on your Windows XP or Windows Vista system, then grab Microsoft’s free virtual machine image containing Internet Explorer 6 (complete with the IE Developer Toolbar) running on a pre-activated copy of Windows XP. Now you can have IE7 installed for your primary development and testing work, and then when it comes time to test in IE6, just fire up Virtual PC and type in the URL!
I think this is the type of functionality that should be a default in a Virtual PC installation. I would think it should be developed in a way that a single Virtual Machine could be installed with and run multiple, previous versions of an application and SitePoint agrees with this as well.
I’d really like to see Microsoft release a free virtual machine containing IE5.5 for those of us still interested in providing some support for that browser. But this solution for IE6 testing alone is a huge weight off the shoulders of web designers, who would previously have to keep a spare machine around (with an extra Windows license) to test that browser.
Are you a developer? How do you manage testing across multiple environments? I’m sure larger firms have plenty of resources to do this, but independent folks like myself can’t afford to have multiple machines and licenses sitting around the house for testing.
Tags: development, IE5.5, IE6, IE7, testing, virtual-machines, Virtual-PC-2007, websitesRelated Stories
POSTED IN: Business Users, Hardware, Internet Explorer, New Products, Software, Windows OS's
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