This is a Free and Legal method to test various versions of Internet Explorer on an Intel Based Mac. The software you will need is:
- Microsoft Windows Virtual PCs with Internet Explorer http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=11575
- Virtual Box: http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads
Extracting the Microsoft VHDs
The easiest way to this is to extract the VHD file on a Windows Machine. However, if you do not have access to a Windows machine, you can use http://www.cabextract.org.uk/ to extract the images.
Setting up Virtual Machine
- Create a new VirtualBox Machine by clicking on “New”. Select “Microsoft Windows” as the operating system and “Windows 7″ as the version.
Creating a New VM in VirtualBox
- Selecting 512MB to 1024MB of RAM should be enough for this virtual machine.
- Important: Choose “Use existing hard disk” and select the .vhd downloaded as it’s hard disk.
Selecting the .vhd file for VM
- Click “Continue” to finish setting up the Virtual Machine.
- Select the VM and click on “Settings”. Go the Storage Tab:
Default Storage Configuration Provided by VirtualBox
- Delete the Existing Win7_IE8.vhd, and under “IDE Controller” add the Win7_IE8.vhd. Your configuration should look like this:
Configuring Storage for Windows VirtualPC hard disk
- Start the Virtual Machine.
Windows 7 Login Screen
- The password for IEUser is: Password1
Happy testing previous versions of Internet Explorer! Leave any questions/comments in the comments section below.
August 23, 2011 at 5:11 pm
This is a great post but the images expire on November 17th 2011. Only about 2 and a half months from now. What good is that?
August 23, 2011 at 8:39 pm
Ah, yes- It was a good solution for a long while, but alas the images will be expiring. I am not sure if Microsoft will provide anymore images to test Internet Explorer with, but I will be sure to post again if I come across any news of additional images provided by Microsoft with a later expiry date.
August 23, 2011 at 6:57 pm
It’s worth mentioning that the VMs provided by Microsoft don’t contain activated Windows thus requiring you to faff about avoiding activation and not letting you save any changes (so no bookmarking the sites you need to test).
Further they expire every few months necessitating another multi gig download and setup.
They’re fine for one off testing, but for those of us testing regularly it’s a lot easier – and considerably more expensive to buy legit copies of Windows to install in our VMs.
August 23, 2011 at 8:46 pm
+1
You make an excellent point- anyone required to do dedicated testing on Internet Explorer are much better off with a copy of Windows (whether install on a VM or a separate computer).
September 16, 2011 at 6:23 pm
Regarding the activation I found this in another article.
“VM Snapshots Circumvent Microsofts 30 Day Limitation
The other great thing about this method is that it circumvents Microsofts 30 day limitation by utilizing snapshots, a feature built into VirtualBox. This preserves the original Windows VM state and allows you to continuously use the IE virtual machine without any time limitation simply by reverting to the original snapshot once the 30 day lock occurs.
To use a snapshot after the 30 day Windows expiration, just open VirtualBox, select the IE VM, and click on the “Snapshots” button. From here you can boot from the original snapshot that was created and use IE again for another 30 days. You can do this indefinitely, effectively having a clean IE test environment forever.”
source: http://osxdaily.com/2011/09/04/internet-explorer-for-mac-ie7-ie8-ie-9-free/
August 23, 2011 at 7:52 pm
I thought this article was about testing IE 7, 8 & 9… *not about installing Windows 7 on Virtualbox*
August 23, 2011 at 8:37 pm
I understand where you are coming from and I am interested to know what you initially thought the article would be about when you read the title “testing IE 7, 8 & 9″. Also, do you have any suggestions for the title? I will change it to something a little more appropriate then.
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November 3, 2011 at 4:00 am
Thank you for this post! Very helpful! I had one note: http://www.cabextract.org.uk/ didn’t work for me, but Rar Expander did: http://rar-expander.en.softonic.com/mac
Thanks!
**R
December 22, 2011 at 3:48 pm
I managed to get IE6 to run successfully. But I couldn’t get my internet connection working. The bridging doesn’t really work. Initial investigation points that my hardware drivers on XP is not installed. Remedies?
January 16, 2012 at 4:17 am
I would try testing with IE7 or later. I managed to get IE8 working after switching to bridged network mode. Also try restarting the virtual machine. Good luck!