Older Versions of IE for PC

[meztec]

Im trying to download older versions of IE for PC for beta testing.
I couldn't find any on the MS site....
Any Help?

Thanks

[westmich]

Follow this link - http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.asp?

They have a drop-down box with numerous downloads. They have IE 3 and up listed.

[Nicky]

I don't think that you can have multiple versions of Internet Explorer on the same hard drive!

[mjames]

Originally posted by Nicky
I don't think that you can have multiple versions of Internet Explorer on the same hard drive!

You may be right. And it could cause problems, too! To be honest, I recommend making sure your site works in IE 5+, Netscape 4.5+, and Opera 5+. It's not worth the risk and hassle of getting an older browser.

[BC]

Originally posted by Nicky
I don't think that you can have multiple versions of Internet Explorer on the same hard drive!

That's half correct. If you install IE5 over IE4 you can keep both running (the Installation procedure offers such an option when installing). However, IE5.5 and IE5 don't go together; IE3 and IE4 can be a bit fickle at times.

I haven't tested IE3 and IE5 yet

[Nicky]

To be honest, I recommend making sure your site works in IE 5+, Netscape 4.5+, and Opera 5+. It's not worth the risk and hassle of getting an older browser.

I disagree, you can have as many versions of Netscape on your machine as you want so it is worth making your test bed as wide as possible:

I have

Netscape 2
Netscape 3
Netscape 4.7
Netscape 6
Opera
IE 5.5
Amaya
SImply Web 2000
pwWebspeak


And of course all my kind friends and meembers of Sitepoint who will test sites on their machines if asked nicely enough!

[mjames]

Nicky, I try to make sure my site is accessible to the majority of my visitors, which doesn't consist of Netscape 2.0, for example. And when I'm on a slow dial-up connection, it's just not worth downloading browsers like Netscape 2.0.

[BC]

I agree with Marc. However, it's always an idea to analyse your logs to see who's surfing with what. If you're still getting a bunch of users with Netscape 2 or 3 by all means code for them as well. Otherwise if you don't have any of those users (and some of my company's sites are getting to that stage now) you could probably get away with less backwards-compatibility on your site.

[alexming]

Try Browserola http://www.codo.com/browserola/ ... I came across the "multiple IE in same machine problem" last year and was pointed to this utility.

Althouhg it is no longer "sold" I don't believe that the "evaluation version" ever expires.

It allows you to simulate browsing an html ( not a dinamically generated page) with IE1.0-4.0 and with Netscape 1.0 - 4.0.

Better than nothing and definitely better than downloading all of the different flavors of Netscape. At least IE won't choke on itself by having multiple versions of it.

PS. I was able to successfully run multiple versions of IE prior to this by partitioning the drive but I got tired of FDISK

Good LUCK

[Nicky]

I agree with Marc too I have had Netscape 2 since it was released though, used to be the latest browser on my machine at some stage I guess I just never got rid of it! As to Browserola, I have it but it is very flaky and keeps crashing on me!

[alexming]

Interesting Nicky,

Never had a single crash of Browserola. Software conflict perhaps?