Search code examples
macosinternet-explorercross-browserwine

how to run IE on mac (for free)

In order to cross-platform test the websites I develop on my mac, I need to get versions of IE running. I've tried wine, and winebottler so far. I can get IE to run, but it cannot connect to the internet (or even localhost). So I only have IE5.2, which is total rubbish.
I don't have a copy of windows, so VirtualBox is out, unless it can help me get IE going on Linux or something. Also, I need more than just snapshots, so browsershots.org etc. is out. Idiot instructions anybody?

Solution

  • I just installed IE 7 8 and 9 with this tool: https://github.com/xdissent/ievms

    It works great but it requires the newest version of virtual box to be installed. The git project it self is only one shell script The script downloads the official microsoft internet explorer test images which will work for 30 days. After downloading the files it extracts and converts the files so all you have to do is starting the vm you need.

    if you have ssl and curl installed just run:

    curl -s https://raw.github.com/xdissent/ievms/master/ievms.sh | bash

    However this didn't work for me so I had to download the file manually.

    The password for ALL VMs is "Password1".

    enter image description here

    I haven't tested it yet but it looks like they provide snapshots to reset the 30 days testing time:

    A snapshot is automatically taken upon install, allowing rollback to the pristine virtual environment configuration. Anything can go wrong in Windows and rather than having to worry about maintaining a stable VM, you can simply revert to the clean snapshot to reset your VM to the initial state.