Most users still use Internet Explorer 6, while most developers have upgraded to ie7. So how do you test in ie6? Most people designate another machine as an ie6 box, and then turnoff automatic updates. Oops, it was upgraded by the new guy. Nice. Anyway, for one reason or another it would be sweet to run both ie6 and ie7 on the same computer. After a lot of googling "ie6 side by side install" and "ie standalone" etc., and reading a bunch of crap, I found a nice standalone version at browsers.evolt.org and a nice added dll from positioniseverything. So I zipped everything (link at bottom) and wrote these instructions. Enjoy!

Introducing the Standalone Internet Explorer 6

The standalone ie6 looks exactly like ie7 when you run it on a system with ie7. So I've added a DLL (browselc.dll) to the zip file that will change the titlebar to indicate ie6.

First I should say that I am running Windows XP. I do not know if this will work on Vista or any other version of Windows. This standalone version comes from Microsoft originally, but you can't find it for download anymore on their site.

Now, let's see how easy this is. Actually, there is no "installing." It's just unzipping. Seriously, I should mention that I've seen instructions elsewhere involving editing your registry, etc. that can hose your system. So just follow the instructions I have here and be happy ;)

Download

1. Download IE6Eolas.zip.
2. Extract to a directory of your choice.
3. Then switch to the extracted directory and run iexplore.exe.