IE6 Testing

[DesignerNick]

Hi,

How do you guys test for IE6? I used to have an old laptop which had it on which has now bitten the bullet.

I have used a website which renders how it looks but it isn't the same as browsing.

I have downloaded a VHU from Microsoft but it only lasts 2 weeks.

Thanks

 

[Paul Norman]

IE6 is redundant. I would not test for it. Apart from local authorities, it has only a tiny usage.

 

[DotNetWebs]

I have a full Microsoft Expression Studio licence but about the only thing I use it for the SuperPreview tool which is great for comparing different browsers side my side.

I have not tried it but I believe you can get a free IE only version of this here:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...06-525d-45d0-84db-dccff3fae677&displaylang=en

Regards

Dotty

 

[DotNetWebs]

... Apart from local authorities, it has only a tiny usage.

We get a lot of good traffic from local authorities using IE6!

There are also some large companies that still use IE6 and provide useful traffic to us.

Regards

Dotty

 

[Employment Law Clinic]

Some visitors still use it, so if no effort in coding (which I find it normally isn't), I accommodate for it.

I still have IE6 on the XP virtual machine that comes with Windows 7 (I think it might only be available on the higher versions, as it doesn't appear to be available on this laptop).

If you have the address SW, I'll try to get run a test for you & provide a screenshot.



Karl Limpert

 

[DesignerNick]

I checked the stats on one of my sites and on average 6% of users use this. That is about 80 - 100 users per day that use IE6 so I want to go through all of my sites to double check they work ok.

Plus for clients sites I always make sure they are viewable in Ie6 with PNGfix etc.

 

[akirk]

We ensure that all sites work (unless we miss something ) on IE 6 / 7 / 8 (9 soon) / FF3 (4 soon) / Safari / Chrome / ipad / iphone / etc.
we run a range of testing machines - from Macs to PCs / XP with windows 6 & 7 / Unix / virtual machines / iOS kit / etc. we prob. have c. 10 machines for testing at any one time...

The level of testing varies depending on the client - for some the website is simple and no issues - for others it is complex and the client might have a specific browser requirement, or indeed not care about certain browsers e.g. IE6 - we have clients on PCs / Macs / thin clients / blackberrys / iOS / UNIX / etc.

lots of testing...

so for IE6 specifically - a machine which runs that (it also doubles up as music server ) and we have standard code includes which handles most bits...

Alasdair

 

[MASSEY]

My sites look messed up in ie6 but according to analytics i have 0 visits from ie6.

How would you make your site so it rendered correctly in ie6? is it hassle?

 

[H22SolutionsLtd]

My sites look messed up in ie6 but according to analytics i have 0 visits from ie6.

How would you make your site so it rendered correctly in ie6? is it hassle?

You add a few css hacks to make a modern site look 'presentable' on ie6.

I use Adobe BrowserLab https://browserlab.adobe.com/en-us/index.html so i can test sites in and out of the office.

In the office we have a couple of vm/test machines to check cross browser compatibility.

 

[mit74]

great bit of software. Allows you to test all versions of IE from 5.5

http://www.my-debugbar.com/wiki/IETester/HomePage

 

[cmcp]

Virtual PC.

I do contract work, at the moment I've got a testing lab for debugging which is pretty handy.

As well as IE6, another usual suspect to watch is Firefox on the mac.

 

[hackeron]

1) Google stopped supporting IE6 for a lot of their products
2) websites like these are made to explain how to handle IE6: http://www.ie6nomore.com/
3) Hell, even Homeland Security said stop using IE6 already! < http://www.infopackets.com/news/sec...rity_warns_stop_using_internet_explorer_6.htm

That being said, if you absolutely must support it, this is a useful site that will open whatever website you want with IE6 and show you a screenshot of what it looks like: http://browsershots.org

 

[sidera]

Why not serve IE6 users the universal IE stylesheet?
http://forabeautifulweb.com/blog/about/universal_internet_explorer_6_css/

 

[dave_n]

a shout for IETester...small program and works like a charm