IE 6 testing...

3dcandy · 13 Apr 2011 at 10:03

How do you guys and gals do real world IE 6 compatability testing? I have a site that needs IE 6 to work pretty well, and I've tried loads of ways and not really succeeded in getting a definitive way. Once my new home server setup is running I might just go and install a vm with xp and ie 6, any better ideas? Free please, not got a great deal of cash at this moment...

PiKe · 13 Apr 2011 at 10:10

VM with IE6 is really the only way.

Hutchy · 13 Apr 2011 at 10:12

If you have Windows 7 Professional you can use "XP mode" which as Pike said is MS's VM software.

Tripnologist · 13 Apr 2011 at 10:14

IE Tester is decent enough for me.
http://www.my-debugbar.com/wiki/IETester/HomePage

Izi · 13 Apr 2011 at 10:17

Tripnologist said:
IE Tester is decent enough for me.
http://www.my-debugbar.com/wiki/IETester/HomePage

this

3dcandy · 13 Apr 2011 at 10:28

downloaded ietester and it seems pretty good...cheers all! Any more tips?

PiKe · 13 Apr 2011 at 10:28

Izi said:
this

You don't get nuances of other OS's though, I had to test IE6 on win98 because for some unknown reason, my site generated an error (navigation cancelled due to some js) only on that platform but not on XP with the same IE6 build.

3dcandy · 13 Apr 2011 at 10:33

of course....but I'm not going to worry about 100% of all the configs out there...this site is a pain because I actually get people accessing it on ie3 with win95, but then they deserve to not actually have internet access...

Tripnologist · 13 Apr 2011 at 10:42

We go by percentages and our IE6 usage is down to like 2% anyway which is low enough for us to only make sure the site's basic functionality is there, nothing more. For that, IEtester is more than enough.

3dcandy · 13 Apr 2011 at 10:42

Tripnologist said:
We go by percentages and our IE6 usage is down to like 2% anyway which is low enough for us to only make sure the site's basic functionality is there, nothing more. For that, IEtester is more than enough.

I wish...48% last month...

Tripnologist · 13 Apr 2011 at 10:59

Ouch. You must have a rather specific business clientèle. Average UK usage of IE6 is down to 3.3%.

3dcandy · 13 Apr 2011 at 11:03

nope...old people, old pc's, no clue on how the web really works. average age of the concern (christian fellowship) is 52!!!

GravyMonster · 13 Apr 2011 at 11:14

IE Tester is good, but only for general layout.

When it comes to testing IE6s javascript or flash implementations there really is no substiture for native unfortunately.

Thankfully the end is in sight for IE6 testing.

3dcandy · 13 Apr 2011 at 11:25

I thought that, but with a quick play, running in administrator mode was good enough for me to see the issues that could arise

gord · 13 Apr 2011 at 11:45

I use Microsofts free VM and their various builds.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...90-958f-4b64-b5f1-73d0a413c8ef&displaylang=en

UncleRuckus · 13 Apr 2011 at 13:13

I use the internet explorer collection, even has v1.0 bundled in there too.

3dcandy · 13 Apr 2011 at 13:37

tried that, was flaky as hell on this x64 machine

lookitsjonno · 13 Apr 2011 at 15:55

i've just stopped supporting IE6 in my projects

http://www.ie6nomore.com/

Tripnologist · 13 Apr 2011 at 16:55

haha, even Microsoft has their own anti-IE6 campaign.

http://ie6countdown.com/

3dcandy · 13 Apr 2011 at 16:57

I 100% agree, but I know who's visiting and they've said they won't be upgrading...so I've got to make sure it at least is visible. It's a Wordpress based site and has a plugin informing them to upgrade etc. and whilst it's not perfect it's acceptable