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i worked on a website in the latest firefox and then presented it on a machine that just had ie6 (and it looked horrible). is there anyway i can test what it will look like in IE6 without having to actually download. I see that ie8 has a compatibility mode (to show what it would look like in ie7), is there a similar thing for ie 6?

Chet
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leora
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10 Answers10

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Get Microsoft Virtual PC (it's free). You can download images with IE6, IE7, and IE8 for all your wtf-microsoft! debugging needs.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/

Also, don't trust IE8 compatibility mode.

Rob
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  • Yea, I too have a VPC running XP with IE6 and FF2. – o.k.w Dec 02 '09 at 04:48
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    If you development machine is linux you can use virtualBox on linux which is again a free virtualization software where you can install windows XP with IE6. – K Singh Dec 02 '09 at 05:08
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Here is the link to the VPC images from MS for testing in many OS and browser combinations

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=21eabb90-958f-4b64-b5f1-73d0a413c8ef&displaylang=en

Scott Wylie
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You can upload your website to some free hosting provider. Then use http://browsershots.org/ to test your website in almost all the available browsers (incl IE6).

The website will take screen shots of your website.

A G
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you can try

http://browsershots.org/

http://crossbrowsertesting.com/

and the one i like most 'https://browserlab.adobe.com/index.html#'

Rakesh Juyal
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Web based alternatives: (by providing screenshots) http://netrenderer.com/index.php

ang
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I have a testing PC in which i have IE6 installed. And i check the pages on that. I recommend that this approach is the best as testing on IE6 itself is the best.

Gurpreet Singh
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I use Microsoft Virtual PC, and IETester. But when I need a quick preview (or am traveling with my MacBook Pro) Adobe Browser Lab is Awesome! You can't test interactivity, but display bugs you can test very quickly.

Doug Neiner
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Online service:

Browser Shots

Locally on your machine:

VirtualBox

Phil
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Adobe's BrowserLab is a great service if all you need is a screenshot. However, if you need to test the interaction with the site, MultipleIE can install IE6 as well as previous versions (not really necessary, though).

If you're looking for tons of browsers and just screenshot functionality, BrowserShots is another great tool.

S Pangborn
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Evolt's browser archive has legacy IE installs, including standalone versions: http://browsers.evolt.org/?ie/

findzen
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  • IE Developer Toolbar is also handy (it's like a buggy, feature-stripped version of Firebug): http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?familyid=95E06CBE-4940-4218-B75D-B8856FCED535&displaylang=en – findzen Oct 06 '10 at 21:23