Testing CSS in IE^

[Mike Mason]

I'm building some css drop down menus. They are OK in IE7, Mozilla, Opera etc but don't work at all in IE6. There are hacks on Stu Nichols excellent site cssPlay to solve this but how can I test my menus on IE6 without installing it? Or how can I get IE6 to run on a PC with IE7 installed? Does anyone know of any websites that will check css on IE6 for me - for free hopefully.

[Albert Wiersch]

Hi Mike,

One thing you might consider is using a virtual machine. This is great for testing.

Microsoft VirtualPC is free:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/produc ... fault.mspx

Then you can install Windows 2000 or XP or even Vista in a virtual machine and use it for testing. Be sure not to update to IE 7 though in the virtual machine!

[Luckychair]

You should also consider installing multiple versions of IE. Check out this article: http://tredosoft.com/Multiple_IE and download the free Multiple IE installer.

[John_raf]

I would read the Microsoft (and others) data first before considering installing other software on your computer that enables installation of other versions of explorer,, I did go into this quite a lot and remember coming to the conclusion that the "only safe way" is to use the "free" virtual computer that ms offer,, hope this also helps.

[Mike Mason]

Many thanks for that - a great help

[havank]

To get it working in ie5 and ie6 take a look at dean.edwards.name/IE7/

It will allow you to use standards compliant css without further hacks.

[Mike Mason]

I loaded down the multiple IE browser pack from Microsoft and it installed fine on XP Pro. I got css slide menu dropdowns working (and W3C validating) in Mozilla, IE7 and IE6. Took hours of coding and it still doesn't work in IE5.5 but that browser is just bag of old spanners anyway.