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I'm doing web development on a Windows 8 system. I'm running the latest IE, but I need to test the app with older versions of IE as well (especially IE7 and IE8).

Is it possible to run these legacy versions of IE on Windows 8?

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8 Answers 8

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You use virtual machines to do this, it is the easiest way. You use Hyper V and the VHD images provided by microsoft (or use a third party tool like virtual box).

First off, setup Hyper V as per the instructions given by Kronos here.

enter image description here

You can then download the respective vhd images from Microsoft and create a virtual machine for each version of IE.

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=11575

Running the vhd

Open the Hyper V manager and create a new virtual machine. enter image description here

Enter the name, memory details etc, but then for the hard disk image, select use existing hard disk.

enter image description here

Click finish and you will have your VM that has the legacy versions of IE.

HowToGeek has a large tutorial of getting the individual VM's running here.

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    Not as easy as I was hoping for, but yeah, this solves the problem. Thanks!
    – jsalonen
    Nov 7, 2012 at 11:05
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    @jsalonen this is the same option that MS has provided for old versions of IE since Vista launched. The only major change since then has been that the more flexible activation in Vista/W7 allows you to recreate new test VMs from the same download when the old one expires while the XP/IE6 image needed redownloaded each time (Vista added an expires X days after first use option, XP only had expires on a specific date and MS needed to create new images to increment it.)
    – Dan Is Fiddling By Firelight
    Nov 7, 2012 at 13:59
  • When creating the virtual machine, if you see an option to choose "Generation 1" or "Generation 2", choose the first one, it support the 'vhd' file that Microsoft supply. The second option only supports 'vhdx' hard disk files.
    – Greg Woods
    Nov 29, 2013 at 9:59
  • Note that the password input expect a with QWERTY keyboard ! For exemple the Win7_IE8 password is "Password1" which should be typed in AZERTY as "Pqsszord1" (I used the '1' from my numeric pad..)
    – Donatello
    Dec 4, 2014 at 12:34
  • You will also need to first uninstall "VirtualPC integration" on the VM and upgrade the "Hyper-V Integration services" (insert virtual CD with CTRL+I or in Action menu)
    – Donatello
    Dec 4, 2014 at 12:43
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If you need a stand-alone testing tool you can try BrowseEmAll. It runs IE 7, 8, 9 and 10 alongside.

enter image description here

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  • Does that tool work in 8?
    – HaydnWVN
    Nov 7, 2012 at 11:13
  • @HaydnWVN: Yes: i.imgur.com/ZE1GS.png
    – Oliver Salzburg
    Nov 7, 2012 at 11:40
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    Its not free, just 30 day trial :(
    – avirk
    Nov 7, 2012 at 13:44
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    Yes, maybe you can get a free license? "If you are a do-gooder of any sort (non-profit, charity, educational organisation or open-source contributor) email me with a short message and I'll send you a license FREE of charge." from browseemall.com/Buy
    – megaperlz
    Nov 7, 2012 at 14:10
  • I assume this probably works by rendering your page on their servers(which then runs all the different browsers)?
    – Earlz
    Nov 7, 2012 at 15:36
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For simple testing purposes I find IETester works pretty well.

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  • I've also used IETester and it is ok, the tabs crash quite a lot, but usually when left alone and not while testing. And it's free.
    – Holger
    Nov 8, 2012 at 14:29
  • I've used IETester for years and I've been happy with it but I've lately found that it no longer works well enough (at least on Windows 7). Some IE versions crash every time, or clipboard doesn't work, or JavaScript doesn't run...
    – Álvaro González
    Apr 11, 2013 at 8:07
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Microsoft have now provided some Windows 8 / HyperV specific instances for various combinations of IE and Windows. You can download them from: http://www.modern.ie/virtualization-tools.

http://www.modern.ie also has some testing tools based on Browser Stack to simplify legacy IE testing.

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  • And it's free for 3 months :-)
    – NicoJuicy
    May 21, 2013 at 8:33
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You might be able to work around the problem with the Developer Tools. Open IE (desktop mode) and press F12 (or go to Tools > Developer Tools).

In the toolbar, you can select the Browser Mode and the Document Mode. There's an extensive explanation on how it works and what the difference is between these two mode.

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    They differ slightly from the actual legacy IE versions, though.
    – Joey
    Nov 7, 2012 at 9:02
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    Already tried this, but yeah, they don't work 100% exactly as old versions of IE. Thanks anyway!
    – jsalonen
    Nov 7, 2012 at 11:03
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You can use this site to test browser compatibility: http://browsershots.org/

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    Thanks, but I need to run the whole page, not just get screenshots.
    – jsalonen
    Nov 7, 2012 at 11:04
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What's wrong with just pressing F12 in IE9 and set compatibility mode to IE7/IE8 ? I have never noticed any differences between the real browser and IE9's built in browser simulator.

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    This is exactly what I'm doing, but I got feedback from customer the page is not working with old version of IE so I need to get exactly the same browser to replicate the problem -- the page works with emulator mode just fine.
    – jsalonen
    Nov 7, 2012 at 16:32
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VMWare Thin App, might be something you want to look at for not just the browser but any app that must be run in an environment that the host OS cannot support.

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