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Internet Exploder Standalones

Mintsauce's picture

IE iconDeveloping and testing CSS based websites are often a challenge when it comes to Microsoft Products. Developers can spend up to 20% of development time providing alternative CSS for Microsoft's collection of broken browsers. The worst part is Microsoft browser installations only allow you to install 1 browser at a time. So once you've got IE7 installed, IE6 is gone and 7 needs to be uninstalled if you want 6 back.

Along comes Evolt, Joe Maddalone, Manfred Staudinger and Tredosoft. With a combination of their skills we can install multiple versions of IE on a single machine without running virtual PC or parallel installations of Windows (On your windows machine of course. Mac users will still need to install Parallels or Bootcamp and a version of Windows.)

The Mutliple IE installer is available (FREE) from Tredosoft. I suggest you read the article and follow the instructions to a T, including the links to Joe Maddalone, Manfred Staudinger to get a better understanding of the limitations - There are some.

I've been running these versions and find some crashes, but running these are better than Install/Uninstall sequence that we've previously had to battle with.

And here's the good news: If you're running an Intel Mac, you can do all your testing on 1 machine.

For those who have a Mac and no PC access, there's always Browsershots.org which usually offers a full list of browsers to test in - albeit screenshots only. This is a free service.

Having to say you're thinking out of the box proves you're not.

Ivan's picture

wow, thanks

Can't wait to try it out. Although I have to argue with you on the 20%. For me it can exceed 100%.

Flub-Dub's picture

good tip. but i have to say

good tip.

but i have to say that according to this statistics
http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp

currently 87.4 % of the users browse with either IE6, IE7 or Firefox.
if you add the other gecko engine browsers, i think you can safely say that over 90% of the audience gets it.

of course, it all depends on the area, target, etc.
but my point is that we as designers can not push things forward if we keep on banging our heads with every backward browser out there.
so, sometimes its better to explain to the client that a product is deliverable and good if it meets 90% of the specs.

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always outnumbered, never outgunned

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always outnumbered, never outgunned
http://www.behance.net/mimimi

Flub-Dub's picture

also, windows users check

also, windows users check this Firefox addon called IE Tab
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1419/

as the name says it, you can switch anytime the rendering engine for a certain tab by right clicking on it -> "switch rendering engine".

its great for checking things that shift just a couple of pixels, since you dont have height differences between the toolbars of IE and firefox.

--------------------------------------------------
always outnumbered, never outgunned

--------------------------------------------------
always outnumbered, never outgunned
http://www.behance.net/mimimi

Flub-Dub's picture

forgot to mention this

forgot to mention this little gem

https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/3649/

you can switch between different flash versions on the fly, without any browser restarts or anything.
unfortunately, i see is only for windows.

--------------------------------------------------
always outnumbered, never outgunned

--------------------------------------------------
always outnumbered, never outgunned
http://www.behance.net/mimimi

hrdn's picture

Hey Mintsauce, Thanks for

Hey Mintsauce,
Thanks for share. cheers
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