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Today Internet Explorer 8 was released by Microsoft. This is of course great news for any frontend developer, but as always there is a downside to any new browser release – it’s one more browser you need to test your work in. Actually it’s more of a problem with Internet Explorer than any other browser – primarily because of Windows inability to have multiple versions of it installed at the same time.

Even though every other website is running a campaign to make people upgrade from IE6, most frontend developers know it can take at least a couple of months – or in worst case – till the end of 2009, before we’re able to completely justify not testing in IE6. Some customers might even continue to demand support for it for whatever reason.

Luckily, there’s a way you can have IE6, IE7 and IE8 installed at the same time (actually all versions of IE from version 3 up to 8, if that rocks your boat).

Screenshot of IE6, IE7 and IE8 running side by side

First of, I did this on an English version of Windows XP Pro SP3 – on a VMWare Fusion installation no less. I wasn’t able to make it work on Windows Vista or Windows 7, so your milage may vary.

(This is the order I installed stuff, although it might work in any order)

1. Download Multiple IE Installer and install IE6
   (and any pre-IE6 version you might like)
2. Download and install Internet Explorer 8
   (This will replace your current default IE installation on Windows – mine was IE7)
3. Download and install Internet Explorer 7 Standalone Installer
   (It must be the installer – it dosen’t work with the “Program only”-version)

And there you have it – IE6, IE7 and IE8 running side by side.

Enjoy your final days with IE6

Update: There might be an issue with entering text in input-fields and selecting text in IE6 and IE7

Der er nu kun få dage til at Microsoft officielt trækker Windows XP fra markedet. OEM-versionen kan dog købes frem til januar 2009. Jeg har besluttet at købe Windows XP Professional, da den nu er kommet i en SP3-udgave. Det har jeg fordi, jeg har en lang række spil og programmer, der kun kører på XP og ikke fungerer på Vista og derfor højst sandsynligt heller ikke vil virke på fremtidige udgaver af Windows.

Jeg kører allerede Windows XP, men den licens ejer det firma, jeg arbejder for og den vil følge min gamle bærbar, når jeg på et tidspunkt får en ny – der efter planen nok kommer til at køre OS X, så hurra for Parallels

Så nu har jeg da sikret de spil og programmers levetid frem til i hvert fald 8. april 2014, hvor Microsoft’s officielle Extended Support ender. Så det er i ca. 6 år endnu…