Test environment for supported browsers using Microsoft’s free virtual pc’s

With the release of IE8 RC1, I’ve realized that my supported browser testing environment is sadly lacking. The best way to create a testing environment with all the supported versions of Internet Explorer is to use the free virtual machines supplied by Microsoft themselves. In order get full use out of the virtual machines, I’ve decided to install the browsers that I don’t use on a regular basis (Safari, Opera, etc.) on one of them. No need to clog up my physical machine with extra applications if it can be avoided. One drawback is that the Virtual PC’s are time-bombed, but it doesn’t take much time to re-install the four or so browsers needed.

Here is my setup:

Physical PC

• IE8 RC1
• FireFox 3

Physical Mac

• FireFox 3
• FireFox 2 (to run multiple versions of FireFox on OSX)
• Safari 3

IE6 Virtual machine

• IE6 (comes installed on Virtual Machine)
• Google Chrome
• Safari
• Opera
• FireFox 2 (be sure to install with DOM Inspector enabled)
• Flock

IE7 Virtual machine

• IE7 (comes installed on Virtual Machine)

Notes:

Why IE7 virtual machine? IE8 RC1 has both IE7 and IE8 rendering engines but some differences do exist between the way IE7 renders and the way the IE7 engine embedded in IE8 renders. Therefore, the IE7 Virtual Machine is necessitated.

Virtual machine hosts file. For the virtual machines, you’ll need to add any local development sites to the virtual machine’s hosts file.

192.168.1.103 dev.myblog.com
192.168.1.103 dev.favoriteclient.com
192.168.1.103 dev.someothersite.org

The physical machine’s IP can be found by running ipconfig /all at the command prompt.

IE7 server error. I also had to disable the IE7 add-on named Diagnose Connection Problems in order to hit certain sites in my development environment.

Tags: supported browsers, user interface design
Filed under: Development tools, Web Design by Erik Phipps