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I am developing a site & it all looks good on Safari, Chrome, Firefox, even IE7 but my client keeps telling me that IE8 is screwed up. I can only recreate the errors that he is getting by using IETester on my Windows 7 machine.

My testing environment:

I have 3 different versions of IE8 to test with & am getting completely different in the 3 versions I have to test with. I use a mac, so all tests are done on 2 virtual machines using VirtualBox - Vista with IE8 installed & Windows 7 with IE9 & IETester installed.

Vista: IE8 on vista seems to run the site perfectly, albeit with a few minor bugs that I'm happy with.

Windows 7: Using IE9 I can change the browser & document modes, I have tried IE7, IE8 & IE9 for that matter all look totally fine. The only time I ever come close to what my client has seen is when I have used IETester - it looks almost identical to what my client has shown me from his non-IETester-using machine (by that, I have seen screengrabs of the pages he's seen).

One of the worst affected pages is the Facts page, there should only be one image at the top but instead I sometimes get 3! Could anyone point me in the right direction here? What is causing this random display bug on some versions of IE8 & why can I not replicate it on others.

EXAMPLES:

1: Facts page

2: Benefits page intro

3: Benefits page images

I'd like to think that I have a good handle on IE bugfixing etc but this one is really baffling me - I really need the help.

Zander
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  • +1 - for the design, btw on my IE8 it looks great, could it be the customer is running in compatibility view ? – JonH Aug 03 '11 at 15:03
  • I think I worked out what it was. It seems that the clearfix technique I was using, I think it is the Magnificent Clearfix, used :before & :after psuedo elements to clear floats & so the background images were being applied to them. Removing the clearfix class fixed the problem. This was really strange & nearly drove me to distraction - I'm pretty sure I wasn't doing anything out of the ordinary.. – Zander Aug 16 '11 at 09:27

2 Answers2

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The ONLY reliable way to test a browser version is within that browser version. The various testing applications (IETester), browser "modes" (IE7 mode in IE9, etc.), etc. are only simulations, each with their own unique problems.

I too am on a Mac but I also have a real Windows machine and I use the free VPC and hard drive images provided by MS specifically for this purpose.

I don't see why you couldn't run MS VPC within a Windows Virtualization on the Mac.

EDIT:

Essentially, you already answer your own question in your title: "I am getting completely different results in different versions of the same browser"

Except the "different versions" are the various testing applications (IETester) and browser "modes". Your own experience is showing you that these behave differently than the real thing.

Sparky
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  • As I said above, that is exactly what I have done. I have a 'real' version of IE8 running on Vista & IE8 using IETester on Vista & Windows 7. – Zander Aug 03 '11 at 07:38
  • @Zander: That is **not** exactly what you have done. IE8 within "IETester" is **not** a real version... "IE7 or IE8 mode" within IE9 is also **not** the same as the real IE7 or IE8.... that is my point. From what I read above, IE8 in Vista and IE9 in Win7 are the only two _real_ IE's you're using. – Sparky Aug 03 '11 at 14:30
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    Correct. Using IETester is a sure way to confuse yourself. It's a hack. – EricLaw Aug 03 '11 at 17:33
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Document Mode does not change the Agent string, Browser Mode does -- if you are using something like modernizr it will impact your code. You also need to check if you are running on a forced Browser Mode: IExx Compatibility View because it by defaults on Compatibility View Settings for intranet sites.

Francisco Aquino
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