Since Internet Explorer 7 is on Windows Update and installed as a high-priority update a lot of users have Internet Explorer 7 installed or you are using the brand new Windows Vista, but how do you do when you are a web application developer and have to test it on Internet Explorer 6. Yes, Internet Explorer 6 will be with us for a long time.

You have three options:

  1. Have a secondary machine stand by with Internet Explorer 6. An easy but expensive solution.

  2. Install IE7 and IE6 side-by-side. Not that easy and not recommended but it can be done.

  3. Use Virtual PC to set up a virtual machine with Internet Explorer 6.

Fortunatley Microsoft has released another VPC image with a hard disk containing a pre-activated Windows XP SP2 and Internet Explorer 6. Download it here.

Microsoft is doing a great job with all these new VPC images for us developers and testers so we can test new software, betas and now older software in our own sandbox.