I finally allowed the automatic upgrade to IE7 in my Parallels installation of Windows XP. Up to this point I had been testing my site in IE6 using Parallels and then booting (via Boot Camp) into Windows XP to test it in IE7. Thankfully there is an easier way. Much easier.
As discussed on Position Is Everything, using multiple standalone installations of IE to debug your CSS can be problematic. Furthermore feeding different CSS to various IE versions using conditional comments is a royal pain when testing their effectiveness requires rebooting. The ideal solution would be to install and run clearly identified multiple versions of IE without having to do any hacking to make things work. Enter TredoSoft's "click and go" installer which does just that. I'm now running IE7 and IE6 at the same time (other IE versions are <1% each according to my Mint stats).
Internet Explorer 6 and 7 running side-by-side
Beware, not everything in the standalone versions of IE will work properly.
For example: some CSS won't work in the standalone version, but do work in the original IE version, e.g. opacity (the IE CSS property filter:alpha)
Another thing, you should only use MultipleIE to check your design, allthough it doesn't work exactly as it should.
For professional webdevelopers: forget it, don't even try. Sessions won't work. The standalone versions accept sessions, but when you leave the page where the session is created, the created session will be destroyed. The same for cookies.
There's more that doesn't work properly, but hey, I'm not a writer.
It's nice that someone made this installer, but only use it when you don't have any other option.
I would advise buying VMWare Workstation, install Windows XP on it and turn off the automatic updates, so you won't install IE7.
Install some bugfixes etc, and be sure to install the updates for IE6, NOT IE7!
Search a little on eBay, and you'll even find Windows 98 SE discs to buy for only 10$.
Voila: You got IE7 (Vista or XP) on your hosting machine, IE6 (WinXP), IE5.5 (Win98SE), IE4.0 - IE5.5 (Win95), any version of Konqueror (Linux), ...
You can also install Linux distributions to test your website in Konqueror.
You can even install Mac OS X 10.4.8 on it, if you're up to it.
This way you can even test your website in Safari and Shiiba!
Google for a while, and maybe you'll find an OS x86 project on how to do this.
One thing about this: KEEP IT LEGAL!
Thanks Vince for the CSS warning and alternative suggestion—although at nearly $US200 VMWare Workstation is definitely more expensive than free. Another idea would be to run more than one instance of Parallels, one with IE6 and the other IE7.
Sure, it's more expensive than free :)
But it works, and you can even install Mac OS X, that saves you aprox. 370$.
I haven't found anything on Parallels yet to run Mac OS X as a virtual machine.
If I were a webdeveloper with a budget, I would opt for my solution.
You need to keep it legal in your company, right?
Let's use WinXP Home Retail, cheapest for testing purposes.
My solution costs:
Windows XP Home (retail): 129$ (1 license = 1 actual pc (virtual machine on that pc!))
Mac OS X Tiger (single user): 129$
VMWare Workstation: 189$ (lets you create virtual machines)
Gives: 447$
Your solution costs:
Windows XP Home (retail): 129$ (1 license = 1 actual pc (virtual machine on that pc!))
Parallels Workstation: 49.99$
Mac Mini (cheapest mac on the market including OS): 599$
Gives: 777.99$
What the heck, you can even download a trial of VMWare Workstation, install your virtual machines and copy them to another hard disk to make sure you got a backup.
And then download the free VMWare Player to run your virtual machines!
Or you can use the free VMWare Converter, that's a little more time robbing workaround, but hey, it's free, what do you want!
That should save you another 189$, coming to 258$ for my solution, which is fully legal.
So, this is how you do it:
1. Download the trial of VMWare Workstation 5.5
2. Make, install and backup your virtual machines
3. Uninstall VMWare Workstation
4. Install VMWare Player
5. Run the virtual machine and have fun with it
-"Mmmm, let's see... Give me a McMacOSX, a VMWare Player with fries, and eeuhm... Can I get a free Linux distribution with that?"
-"Sure, here you go. What do you like to drink, sir?"
-"The WinExPee with ice."
-"That'll be 258$, and here's your VMWare Workstation trial"
-"Ow, thanks. Keep the change"
Bruce, you're alright mate ;o)
I'm going to look for a solution to run Mac OS X on Parallels, maybe you're right after all...
Grtz, Vince