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Want to test apps against IE6, IE7, IE8 on XP SP2, XP SP3, Vista ? - Microsoft has VMs for you

Reading Virtual PC Guys' blog, http://blogs.msdn.com/virtual_pc_guy/default.aspx, and discovered that Microsoft has made available Virtual PC hard drive images (VHDs) for various version of IE and various operating systems, all enabled until January 2009.

They are available here,

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=21eabb90-958f-4b64-b5f1-73d0a413c8ef&DisplayLang=en
Print | posted on Wednesday, September 10, 2008 2:45 PM

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# re: Want to test apps against IE6, IE7, IE8 on XP SP2, XP SP3, Vista ? - Microsoft has VMs for you

left by Lee Jones at 9/10/2008 3:10 PM Gravatar
What do we do after Jan 09 though?

# re: Want to test apps against IE6, IE7, IE8 on XP SP2, XP SP3, Vista ? - Microsoft has VMs for you

left by Liam Westley at 9/10/2008 3:16 PM Gravatar
I believe they regularly update them with new expiry dates.

I realise that Microsoft will likely 'remove' no longer supported browsers which I guess is not ideal.

For those on MSDN or similar subscriptions, you can always create your own VHDs containing the various browser versions.

Sometimes, it's just nice to have pre-canned versions so you don't have to do the donkey work yourself.

# re: Want to test apps against IE6, IE7, IE8 on XP SP2, XP SP3, Vista ? - Microsoft has VMs for you

left by Toby Henderson at 9/10/2008 3:24 PM Gravatar
They been doing this for a few years now, they update them a month before they expire. You can also get a how bunch of pre-configured servers for testing http://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/bb738372.aspx



# What tosh!

left by David King at 10/20/2008 5:46 AM Gravatar
I know it's very nice of them to give us the option to test in these other browsers, but they're taking the pish quite a lot here:

Download Size: 421.7 MB - 3298.8 MB?!

I dont have the time nor the patience to constantly switch images just to do the odd tweak - shame really :-(

# re: Want to test apps against IE6, IE7, IE8 on XP SP2, XP SP3, Vista ? - Microsoft has VMs for you

left by Liam Westley at 10/20/2008 8:29 AM Gravatar
David,

I do appreciate, these are huge files, as they contain a full operating system in which the browser is running.

However, you only need to download the VHD images once every 12 months or so, you can keep them around in the meantime. If you enable 'undo' discs on Virtual PC 2007 when you finish testing you can delete all your changes and guarantee that you return to the clean image from Microsoft.

Alternatively check out my earlier blog about running multiple IE browsers on the same PC.

http://geekswithblogs.net/twickers/archive/2007/05/29/112840.aspx

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