Test Internet Explorer 7 without installing it
I’ve heard lots about Internet Explorer 7 but never really bothered to check it out. So what if Microsoft makes another browser right? Plus, installing the IE7 beta would override my old IE6, which I still needed for browser testing.
But recently I had to test a site I’ve been developing in IE7, just to make sure that the site design doesn’t get messed up when IE7 eventually gets released. Plus, yesterday’s In-Tech article got me a little more curious. Luckily I found a way to run both IE7 and IE6 at the same time.
This article on the Google OS blog shows you how to do that. It explains a hack of how to copy the necessary IE7 beta files to the hard drive and create some files to patch IE7 so that it can run together with IE6. The results works as advertised and I’m able to open both versions of the browser at the same time.
First looks
IE7 looks shinier than its predecessor. It’s also been updated a lot in the CSS department. It’s also got tabs, support for RSS, built-in search, improved security (Thank God) and improved printing (wow).
It’s got one nice feature that I like called Quicktabs. Quicktabs allows you to see a thumbnail of all the tabs you have open at a go. (Firefox users can use Foxpose to get the same functionality.) Here’s a screenshot:
Quicktabs in Internet Explorer 7
Unfortunately it looks like the RSS features don’t work in this hacked install. Either that or they still don’t work in the beta at all.
So boys and girls, have fun playing around with IE7! Web developers, go test your sites out in IE7 because it’s not going to support lots of the hacks we’re used to applying. What I’d like to see is an Internet Explorer Web Developer toolbar to help in making sure websites work with it.
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This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 10th, 2006 at 1:24 am and is filed under Tech & Internet, Windows. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
May 12th, 2006 at 6:10 am
how difficult would it be to uninstall the IE7 beta when the official one comes out later..?
May 12th, 2006 at 8:48 am
I don’t know. But I don’t think most users would bother downgrading back to IE6, especially if Windows Update automatically upgrades to IE7. Also, I don’t know if you will be able to run both IE6 and IE7 at the same time for testing.