Recipe 11.10. Installing More Than One Version of Internet Explorer for Windows on a Computer


Problem

You want to run more than one version of Internet Explorer for Windows on your Windows XP operating system.

Solution

Start with a machine that runs Windows XP operating system and already has Internet Explorer 6 for Windows installed.

Download previous versions of Internet Explorer at evolt.org browser archive (http://browsers.evolt.org/?ie/32bit/standalone):

  • Internet Explorer for Windows 5.5 Service Pack 2 http://browsers.evolt.org/download.php?/ie/32bit/standalone/ie55sp2_nt.zip

  • Internet Explorer for Windows 5.01 Service Pack 2 http://browsers.evolt.org/download.php?/ie/32bit/standalone/ie501sp2_nt.zip

  • Internet Explorer for Windows 4 http://browsers.evolt.org/download.php?/ie/32bit/standalone/ie401_nt.zip

  • Internet Explorer for Windows 3 http://browsers.evolt.org/download.php?/ie/32bit/standalone/ie3_nt.zip

Once downloaded, install the browsers in their own directory.

Then execute each browser by clicking on IEXPLORE.EXE within each browser's folder.

Discussion

Since Internet Explorer for Windows is the most popular browser, testing web page designs in this browser is crucial for almost all projects. However, up until this technique was discovered by Insert Title Web Design (see http://labs.insert-title.com/labs/Multiple-IEs-in-Windows_article795.aspx) web developers had to use operating system emulators or several physical workstations for testing.

By modifying some files for each browser version, multiple versions are now able to run on one Windows operating system.

Note that the files mentioned in the solution have been pretreated and no longer need modification. However, as a precaution, with any software install, make sure to back up your work before installing and running the files.


If you run numerous Internet Explorers for Windows on one machine, some problems arise:

  • The version of Internet Explorer 4 does not accept any URI entered in the location bar. To enter a URI, go through the menu system. The shortcut is to press control+0 to bring up the dialog box.

  • Conditional comments (see Recipe 11.5) do not work across these browsers. Browsers like Internet Explorer 4 register as Internet Explorer 6 for Windows.

  • Versions 5 and 5.5 have been known to crash if an attempt is made to view Favorites.

  • Multiple installations of Internet Explorer may not support cookies.

Conditional comments can be repaired, however, one must edit the computer's registry, which can be tricky. For more information, see http://www.positioniseverything.net/articles/multiIE.html.


See Also

For more information on this technique, see http://www.quirksmode.org/browsers/multipleie.html.




CSS Cookbook
CSS Cookbook, 2nd Edition
ISBN: 0596527411
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2006
Pages: 235

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