Like many web designers and developers, Mac OS X is my platform of choice, and I typically develop using the latest versions of modern browsers. However, unlike many web designers and developers, chances are your clients, particularly the corporate ones, are running Windows. And if your corporate clients are running Windows, it’s likely they’re trapped in an IT-imposed Internet Explorer time-warp that distorts your beautiful CSS3-compliant site into a tangled mess.

At one point in time, I had a dedicated Dell box tasked with only running Internet Explorer. It was a nightmare to manage and terribly inefficient. I’d update markup on my Mac, then run over and refresh Internet Explorer. It was some sick version of platform pong. After a month the Dell’s cooling fan began making a disturbing whirrrrr whenever the unit was running, making my QC shuttle run even more ridiculous. Remember, this is all to view a fucking website!

The Dell went straight to our local e-cycling program as soon as Mac made the leap to Intel, replaced by a fresh VMware Fusion install. This solution worked great, but running different versions of Internet Explorer was still a hassle, and having to purchase Windows (XP and Vista) just to run a browser irked me. At least I could stay put during the testing.

Fortunately, I’ve finally found a decent solution for all this.1 One that runs on Oracle’s VirtualBox and doesn’t include purchasing Windows software, thanks to their handy VHD files. This free alternative allows you to test Internet Explorer (7-9, no support for 6) in OS X, with each version of IE running in a separate virtual machines.

Requirements

  1. VirtualBox
  2. Windows VirtualPC VHDs
  3. ievms installation script 2

Installation

Refer to the ievms repository for installation instructions, which requires a bit of Terminal knowledge.

  1. Until someone builds a native application that can emulate Internet Explorer, this is the solution I’m running with. Seriously though, someone build a CSSEdit style application that allows me to preview sites in all browsers while editing my markup. It’s a serious problem that currently has no elegant solution. ↩
  2. It’s always a good idea to review shell scripts before executing them. ↩
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