i thunk so

This is a question that plagues many web designers and developers who’ve had automatic Windows updates forced on them, either by scary network admins or by simply forgetting to disable automatic updates.

If you have IE7 installed, you DON’T have IE6 installed natively (because Microsoft won’t let you have both at the same time). That makes cross-browser testing a really annoying prospect. Now there’s a way to have both without having to use one of the buggy, hacked IE6 stand-alone versions out there.

I came across a Microsoft-distributed VHD (virtual hard disk for use with VirtualPC) with IE6 and some developer tools already pre-loaded. Follow this simple walk-through to get it working:

1. Go to the VirtualPC website and get the latest distribution of the free VirtualPC and install it.
2. Download the IE6-loaded Virtual Hard Disk for VirtualPC here.
3. Run the IE6_VPC executable and expand it to somewhere on your PC. You will point to it in the next step, so remember where you put it.
4. When you start up VirtualPC, just use the wizard to point to the VHD you just decompressed. Select Windows XP from the OS list. Name your instance of VirtualPC something (I named mine IE6 TestBox).
5. Once it boots up, adjust your VirtualPC Networking settings and point Adapter 1 to “Shared Networking.” This tells the VirtualPC to piggyback off your existing connecting rather than try to grab its own IP address from DHCP.

This has made my life a lot easier. Let me know if it helps you. If you think screen shots would be beneficial, let me know and I’ll take some extra time to make this tutoral worthwhile.

NOTE: Keep in mind that VirtualPC licensing may be time-limited. It’s possible you will need to download a new distribution in the future. Also, be sure not to set the RAM for your VirtualPC instance too high.

UPDATE: Arcane Code has a great walk-through for installing VirtualPC.

Filed by JP at 2:10 pm under Technology, Tutorial, Web Design, Development
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