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Part of being a web developer is testing things that will inevitably break in insane and unexpected ways in Internet Explorer. Luckily, you can spin up a free Virtual Machine (VM) and run Internet Explorer in all its Windows XP (or Windows 7) glory using VirtualBox. Currently supported by this article: IE6, IE7, IE8, IE9, IE10, and IE11.
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Download and install VirtualBox
Visit the VirtualBox downloads page and download and install the latest VirtualBox version 'for OS X hosts'. If you already have VirtualBox installed, make sure it's running the latest version by comparing the version on the VirtualBox downloads page with your installed version's About information. As I found out when I was running 4.3.X, running the 'Check for Updates' menu item in VirtualBox doesn't always detect a new version (5.X as of when I wrote this guide).
In VM lingo, the computer you're on is the host machine, and the computer you're running inside of the VM is the guest machine.
2Open Terminal
3Download and install the Internet Explorer VM (disk) images
You have the option to install all available versions of Internet Explorer at once, or install only specific versions. To install specific versions, you'll need to run each command separately.
Copy and paste the command(s) below into Terminal and press Enter. Don't include the commented (#hash) portion. You'll be prompted for your OS X password.
Troubleshooting If you run into any permissions-related issues, you can run the command using sudo (super user) by prepending each command above with sudo.
If you have any issues running the 'Install all versions' command, check to make sure you have the latest version of VirtualBox and, if you still have issues, try installing each VM separately instead.
If you run into an error similar to VBoxManage: error: Appliance import failed or 'Win7/IE11 - Win7.vbox' already exists, try this solution.
A note on Windows 10 Internet Explorer Edge The 'Install all versions' command will also attempt to install the Internet Explorer Edge version -- this is the absolute latest release of IE. However, installation using this method is unreliable, so if you see an error at the end of the script you can safely ignore it (unless you want the Edge browser, of course). If you really want the Edge version, you'll need to do a bit of troubleshooting of your own.
This may take a while. The amount of time it takes to download and install each disk image will depend on how fast your internet connection is.
4Launch Internet Explorer from your Mac!
Open VirtualBox by navigating to Applications > VirtualBox.app. Then, select the VM containing the version of Internet Explorer that you'd like to launch, and click Start. The Virtual Machine will now spin up! All hail the nostalgic Windows XP startup sound.
5Local development (modifying your VM hosts files)
If you do local development (like a local MAMP/WAMP server) or you need to route traffic through a VPN, you'll need to edit each VM's hosts file (inside of Windows) and modify the values there to match your local OS X hosts file configuration.
6Create snapshots to refresh your licenses
The Windows images you're using inside of the VM are completely legal and free -- however, their licenses expire every 30 days and must be refreshed by loading an older 'snapshot' of the VM. I recommend you create a snapshot of each VM right now (or maybe after you've configured your hosts files for local development). When your license for each VM expires in 30 days, you can simply restore your VM to this snapshot, effectively resetting your 30-day license to day 1.
7To take a snapshot
Open VirtualBox, select the VM you'd like to refresh, and click the Snapshots tab. Then, click the 'Take Snapshot' icon. Then, select the 'original' snapshot (should be named 'Clean', and click the 'Restore Snapshot' icon. This will preserve the snapshot you just took, and switch you back to the original one so that you can use your new snapshot (which I've named 'Day 1' after your license expires.
8To restore a snapshot
Open VirtualBox, select the VM you'd like to restore to, and click the Snapshots tab. Then, click the 'Restore Snapshot' icon. You've just turned back your license clock! You're basically a time traveller. Good work.
9Windows VM login info
Should you need the login info for any of your Windows VMs to do administrator things, the password for all of them is set to: Password1
10Questions? Problems?
Have you ever built a website or written some code and thought it looked perfect until, after the fact, you caught that same page looking horrible and wonky in another browser? I definitely have.
And even though my version of writing code really means messing around in the WordPress back-end, the scenario still holds up. Any web developer worth their salt tests in multiple browsers—including the much-maligned Internet Explorer.
Here’s the thing, though: if you’re a web developer, it’s very likely that you own a Mac, which also means that you don’t have easy access to Windows or Linux-only browsers.
Enter Parallels Desktop, the best way to run Internet Explorer on Mac. (As well as a multitude of other browsers and OSes—including Microsoft’s all-new Microsoft Edge.)
Parallels Desktop, and specifically the new Pro Edition designed for developers and power users, is ideal for testing because of its usability. For instance, it’s incredibly easy to switch back and forth between Mac and Windows:
And you can even tune your VM performance for development or testing:
Since joining the Parallels team, I can fiddle around with my website and check how it looks in Internet Explorer without issue:
If I use Parallels Desktop in Window or Coherence Mode, I can even compare my site in Internet Explorer to how it displays in other browsers. In this case, it looks like there may be an issue with my fonts across browsers:
An even bigger bonus: a subscription to Parallels Desktop for Mac Pro Edition is less than your Adobe subscription, and you can try it free for 14 days.
Even if you don’t need IE for testing purposes, Parallels Desktop is a great go-to for all Windows applications you can’t run on your Mac—though believe it or not, Internet Explorer is one of the most-opened programs of Parallels Desktop users.
Have you tried running Internet Explorer on Mac using Parallels Desktop? Share your story in a comment, or reach out to us on Facebook or Twitter.
Try Parallels Desktop for free for 14 days!