Installing IE6/IE7 on win7

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  1.    #1

    Installing IE6/IE7 on win7


    Hi, I realize there is another similar thread here but it was simply full of "you shouldn't" answers so I decided maybe it was better to create a new thread.

    I need IE6 because I'm a website developer and it's very important for me to make websites that look at least okay with IE6, since it has well over 10% market share. Same thing for IE7.

    Considering how much they ignore web standards it's usually needed to heavily modify the HTML based on the user-agent to make it work. And this of course cannot be done without them installed.

    So, is there any way to install them, excluding virtualization which is very annoying? (Uses a lot of ram, alt tab doesn't work as expected, copy & paste doesn't work or is more complicated, etc)

    Before switching to windows 7 I used windows XP and had IE6, IE7 and IE8 installed without problems (Final Builds Site - Internet Explorer Collection). On windows 7 they don't seem to work, if I don't find a way that is not virtualization I guess i'll go back to XP.
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  2. Posts : 4,925
    Windows 7 Professional 64-bit
       #2

    They seem to install and run ok for me.
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  3.    #3

    swarfega said:
    They seem to install and run ok for me.
    32 or 64 bit? I have 64 bit and IE7 doesn't install at all, IE6 installs but then when I run it it doesn't have an URL bar and keeps crashing
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  4. Posts : 1,074
    Windows 7 Profession 64-bit
       #4

    I need IE6 because I'm a website developer and it's very important for me to make websites that look at least okay with IE6, since it has well over 10% market share. Same thing for IE7.

    Considering how much they ignore web standards it's usually needed to heavily modify the HTML based on the user-agent to make it work.
    I think your logic is flawed. Security trumps all and you are catering to those who put the rest of us at risk by them not keeping their systems updated and secure. IE6 is almost 7 years old. Those who still use it are at greater risk of compromise, and therefore, their machines are more susceptible to be put into service by a badguy and used to attack the rest of us to distribute spam or malicious code, or as part of a DDoS attack. Sadly, many who have failed to update, do so for fear their illegal copy of Windows will be detected, and perhaps disabled. Or maybe they fear the "Software Police" will come pounding on their door. Oh well.

    IE7 and IE8 have compatibility modes but I have had no need to used them in some time - but they do work.
    there is another similar thread here but it was simply full of "you shouldn't" answers
    Well, sorry, but I think you should heed the roar, and do not reward those who care little for others.

    10% of the market? Understand, that leaves 900,000,000 Windows machines out there not using IE6. That's a lot of potential customers, no?

    While not a developer, I was a hardware guy at a major software company for many years. There is little business sense in keeping a development staff or expending manhours on development of multiple versions of the same product for multiple platforms, when a single product will do. And there is no sound logic to make a produce less secure to cater to those who refuse to upgrade to current, more secure technologies.

    Users keeping their systems current is just one of the costs of computing. The tires on my vehicle still work, but the tread is getting thin, and the rain and snow season is upon us. I don't want to spend $100s on new tires. So, do I risk the safety of my family and others just to put off the inevitable? Or accept my responsibility as a car owner and buy new, safe tires, even though I'm a good driver. The answer is obvious.

    I sympathize with those who have limited funds. But no one said life was fair. If a site cannot be viewed properly except with IE6, the site needs to get current.
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  5. Posts : 5,941
    Linux CENTOS 7 / various Windows OS'es and servers
       #5

    Hi all
    Older systems can always install firefox etc which will access newer sites without too many problems

    OK if you start adding too many things like multi-media etc then you are going to have problems -- and don't forget a lot of people DON'T WANT all that extra stuff when they are simply browsing the web.

    We aren't all 15 - 20 year olds who can't do anything unless their ears have those "white bud earphones" in them with some type of cacophony which sounds like you are encased in a metal cage with a bunch of road drills hammering away on the outside - PLEASE WEB DESIGNERS - make the audio stuff OPTIONAL - If I have to listen to "music" I don't want over compressed hideously "artifacted" stuff from no-hope bands etc.

    I know several users still with W98 on a P3 machine - its fine for their needs - simple surfing, email and basic office apps - word and excel.

    A lot of security issues are overblown anyway - hackers trying to create a Dos for say the London Stock exchange is one thing but if you don't use online banking, buy anything over the net, or use social networking sites then as in the case of these W98 users there's nothing to be scared of - and if they get infected it only takes 10 mins to re-create their W98 system on newer hardware and load it back again for them.

    (Note I'm not saying this is true for everybody - but the OP shouldn't have to design his sites with IE6 in mind - people using really old equipment etc probably wouldn't want to access those anyway).

    Cheers
    jimbo
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  6.    #6

    I'm not losing over 20% of my income just to convince people to upgrade. If they don't want to it's their problem and virtually no business follows your "logic".

    Maybe you misinterpreted what I said but I - of course - don't want to make it work only on IE6. I want it to work on all browsers that have a considerable market share (and that includes by a large margin IE6). You can send workarounds, fixes or completely different HTML based on the browser version.
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  7. Posts : 833
    Windows 7 x64 HP, Windows 7 HP, Windows 7 Ult
       #7

    Koper said:
    ... Maybe you misinterpreted what I said but I - of course - don't want to make it work only on IE6. I want it to work on all browsers that have a considerable market share (and that includes by a large margin IE6). You can send workarounds, fixes or completely different HTML based on the browser version.
    You might want to check your websites with something like this - Check Browser Compatibility, Cross Platform Browser Test - Browsershots It has all the MSIE browsers and a load more.
    Last edited by TheSchaft; 06 Oct 2009 at 10:56.
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  8. Posts : 1,377
    Win7x64
       #8

    Koper said:
    I'm not losing over 20% of my income just to convince people to upgrade. If they don't want to it's their problem and virtually no business follows your "logic".

    Maybe you misinterpreted what I said but I - of course - don't want to make it work only on IE6. I want it to work on all browsers that have a considerable market share (and that includes by a large margin IE6). You can send workarounds, fixes or completely different HTML based on the browser version.
    I for one understand your requirement to test your stuff on different end-user platforms.

    Having said that, I think there are technical obstacles to running older versions of IE under Win 7 that are going to be difficult or impractical to overcome. The first issue that springs to mind is the "core" DLLs used by IE such as Wininet.dll and Urlmon.dll. The former exposes the WinInet API (built on top of Winsock), and the latter is responsible for much of the proxy and security zones architecture. The current versions of those DLLs are way different to what IE6 and IE7 required, and while it's possible to rig some sort of "frankenbuild" that would defeat the whole purpose - you'd never be sure whether problems encountered were the result of the unsupported configuration or a basic browser issue.

    Short of using multiple client machines with different OSs, my suggestion would be to learn to love virtualisation.
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  9. Posts : 1,074
    Windows 7 Profession 64-bit
       #9

    virtually no business follows your "logic".
    I disagree. Big government networks, and in turn, big defense industry companies do. That trickles down. If only 10% of users out there still use IE6, I don't see how that accounts for 20% of your income. But nevertheless, unless they are contracting you to create specifically IE6 compatible sites, you are "enabling" your clients unsafe behavior. Beyond that, IE8 complies with "Web" standards. Sites that were tweaked for MS standards and IE6 NEED to go away.
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  10.    #10

    Digerati said:
    virtually no business follows your "logic".
    I disagree. Big government networks, and in turn, big defense industry companies do. That trickles down. If only 10% of users out there still use IE6, I don't see how that accounts for 20% of your income. But nevertheless, unless they are contracting you to create specifically IE6 compatible sites, you are "enabling" your clients unsafe behavior. Beyond that, IE8 complies with "Web" standards. Sites that were tweaked for MS standards and IE6 NEED to go away.
    IE6 + IE7 is well over 20%. IE6 alone is also above 10%. Additionally an IE6 user is worth more than a Firefox user considering how many people are using extensions like AdBlock.

    Please post a few examples of "big government networks" or "big defense industry companies" that don't support IE6. I'll make a list of the ones who went out of their way to support it:

    • Google
    • Facebook
    • Yahoo
    • Youtube
    • msn
    • Wikipedia
    • Blogger
    • Myspace
    • Twitter
    • Wordpress
    • Rapidshare
    • bing
    • eBay
    • Amazon
    • Flickr
    • AOL
    • imdb
    • Photobucket
    • Blogspot
    • Ask.com
    • Apple
    • Adobe

    And btw no while IE8 is definitely better than IE6 and IE7 it doesn't comply with anything and it still has a lot of problems that need specific work-arounds. For example IE8 scores 20/100 on Acid3 (a test that checks how well a browser complies with standards) while chrome scores 100/100, firefox 94/100, safari 100/100, opera 100/100
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