Screencast: Install Internet Explorer on OSX using VirtualBox (updated X3)
UPDATE #3: Microsoft, for reasons only they seem to understand, have removed the VPC files I originally used in this screencast, and replaced them with totally useless VPCs that now require activation just like a full Windows installation. This screencast will still help you install VirtualBox and VPC files, but without Windows activation keys you won’t have the VPC’s running for long at all. Gee thanks Microsoft.
Until/unless I find a workaround, we’re stuck. If you have suggestions or find a fix, please send them along and I’ll make a new screencast with current instructions.
Cross-platform browser testing shouldn’t be a pain in the ass. If, like me, you’re one of the growing number of designers and developers using an OS other than Windows, you need an IE testing environment. In this screencast
I’ll show you how to set up a virtual machine for Internet Explorer 7 on OSX in about 15 minutes without spending a penny.
Since Internet Explorer is only available for Windows you either need a totally separate machine with a full install of Windows, or you need to dual-boot your current computer with a Windows install. I’ve run both of these setups in the past, and rebooting just to do a little browser testing seems insanely over-complicated. Likewise with having to setup and maintain another complete system just for browser testing.
So what about Parallels? It’s expensive, slow, bulky and you still have to sit around while it installs a full version of Windows. Don’t have a Windows install CD laying around? Too bad, you have to buy one. Then every time you fire it up your Mac will come to a crawl and it’ll pretty much ruin your day.
Both options are overkill, and thankfully no longer necessary.
Virtual Machines
To keep things short, I won’t get into what a virtual machine is or how they work – you can get that here. On OSX I highly recommend Sun’s VirtualBox . It’s free for starters, it’s small, fast, cross-platform and very easy to use. The images you’ll be setting up are ready to run – you don’t have to install Windows and you don’t need a Windows CD.
You’ll hear the hardcore VM fanatics talk about VMware but it’s a clunky, not to mention expensive, beast. For cross-platform browser testing, VirtualBox is the way to go.
Get Your Materials
To follow along with my screencast, you’ll need a few files. Nothing major, but you’ll want to download them beforehand.
- VirtualBox version 2.0.6 (free) – about 35mb
UPDATE #1: be sure to use version 2.0.6 only. The recently released 2.1.0 has a problem running these VHD’s. I’ll post more details on this as they come.
- IE VPC files from Microsoft (free). For this video, I used “IE7-XPSP3_VPC.EXE” – about 422mb
- 7zip, pre-compiled and ready to run on OSX (free). Also available from http://homepage.mac.com/krmathis/ – about 1mb.
Zipeg (see update below)
UPDATE #2: Microsoft has changed their VPC files since this screencast was recorded. Rather than using 7zip to extract them, you’ll now need to:
- change the VPC file’s extension from .exe to .zip
- download and install Zipeg
- drag the VPC into Zipeg
- select the .vhd file inside the Zipeg window, and click Extract. Be sure to wait for Zipeg to finish – look for the green bulb in the bottom right of the Zipeg window.
Thanks to yadmat for this tip.
Be sure to stick around to the end of the video. While I’ve tried to make this as simple as possible, the VPC images from Microsoft are not perfect. In fact, they like to blue-screen the first time you start them up. Keep watching and I’ll show you how to quickly solve that problem.
Ready? Let’s go.
How-To: install IE for testing on OSX using VirtualBox from Jeff Couturier on Vimeo.
To summarize:
- extract VPC file w/ 7zip Zipeg
- create new virtual machine
- start it, fn-F8 right away
- safe mode w/ command prompt
- cd to /WINDOWS/system32/drivers
- ren processr.sys processr.old [enter]
- reboot the machine
- Devices -> Install Guest Additions, restart vm
- new hardware install drivers (auto)
- disable battery in device manager
- save machine state for later
Now what?
Repeat these steps with the IE6 and IE8 beta VPC files and you’ll have a full IE testing environment. If you really want some browser testing kung-fu, install Ubuntu in VirtualBox so that you can test with Firefox on linux. Here’s how.
Thanks
Thanks to krmathis for posting a pre-compiled and ready to run version of 7zip. And thanks to The Mozmonkey Blog for a good outline of most of these steps.
…But No Thanks
Thanks, but no thanks to whomever is in charge of VPC files at Microsoft. For a while there you were doing a great job of making our lives easier and allowing us to design, develop and test for Windows and IE. But you changed your mind for some reason, and now we’re back to cursing your name with every keystroke because you are once again fighting us every step of the way.
thanks for taking the time to make this video!
unfortunately, i can’t seem to get virtual box to open the XP SP3 IE7.vhd file.
it gives me the following errors
Could not open the hard disk ‘/Users/hsukenooi/Desktop/IE7-XPSP3_VPC.exe/XP SP3 with IE7.vhd’.
VDI: invalid pre-header in ‘/Users/hsukenooi/Desktop/IE7-XPSP3_VPC.exe/XP SP3 with IE7.vhd’ (VERR_VD_VDI_INVALID_SIGNATURE).
VD: error opening image file ‘/Users/hsukenooi/Desktop/IE7-XPSP3_VPC.exe/XP SP3 with IE7.vhd’ (VERR_VD_VDI_INVALID_SIGNATURE).
Result Code:
NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0×80004005)
Component:
HardDisk2
Interface:
IHardDisk2 {ed6e2525-c2fd-42a4-917a-7a9045ac9e15}
Callee:
IVirtualBox {339abca2-f47a-4302-87f5-7bc324e6bbde}
any ideas? thanks again!
Really not sure what would be causing that other than a corrupt download. Have you tried deleting the VPC file and downloading it once more?
Also, do any of the other VPC files work for you?
to follow up on the error i was getting before, there is a new version of Virtual Box that recently came out that doesn’t open the Microsoft vhd files properly.
you have to download the earlier version 2.0.6 (i think, the previous version). it will read it properly.
hope this helps!
very cool blog post. Worked like a charm with 2.0.6 of Virtual Box. So much faster than firing up VMWare Fusion. Thanks a bunch.
Thanks for the update hsukenooi. VirtualBox released v2.1.0 about a day after I posted this article and it seems v2.1.0 is broken.
I did a little testing and found that if you already have v2.0.6 installed and VHD’s installed into it, you can safely upgrade to v2.1.0. VirtualBox will then “upgrade” your existing VHD’s to work properly. It won’t, however, do this when installing new VHD’s.
So there are two options:
1. use v2.0.6 only (recommended until Sun releases a fixed version)
or…
2. start with v2.0.6, install all of the desired VHD’s and then upgrade VirtualBox to 2.1.0. Obviously with this option, if you need to re-install any of your VHD’s later on you’ll be in for some headaches.
Just checked the VirtualBox community forums, and there are multiple reports (1, 2, 3, 4) of this same problem with v2.1.0 and the issue is in their bugtracker.
Check this post at the VirtualBox community forums to see a fix for the 2.1.0 issue.
Thanks for this post. I love this solution!
Thanks for the post. What happens when the VPC image expires? Is it necessary to go through the whole setup process again?
Awesome! Awesome! A thousand times awesome!
While this is still really useful, I don’t seem to be able to use both the IE6 and IE7 images. When I go to add the second disk to VirtualBox it complains that the UUIDs are the same and fails. Did anyone else have this problem, or am I doing something wrong?
Thanks again for the post.
@Richard. Yeah.. I am getting the same thing, using the newest VM images from the Microsoft site. Havent found a workaround yet.
This is exactly what I needed, and very clearly explained. Thanks Jeff. The 7zip step didn’t work for me; the latest .exe files from Microsoft for IE7-WinXP-SP3 have been changed since you wrote. But there’s another way: change the .exe extension of the compressed VPC file to .zip and use Zipeg to extract the VPC file.
@richard & @screwlewse – The directions at this link will get you around the UUID issue.
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/55577/how-can-i-test-my-web-pages-in-microsoft-internet-explorer-on-a-mac
Run IE in VirtualBox « Kofno
[...] IE in VirtualBox 20 01 2009 I tweeted this earlier today, but decided to blog it too. Here is an excellent screen cast on running IE (well, Windows too) in VirtualBox. Since the vhd’s [...]
Grr, 7za reports “Error: Can not open file as archive” – I was trying to unzip IE6-XPSP3.exe
# /Applications/7za x IE6-XPSP3.exe
@Stephen – I’ve updated the post with info to solve your problem. You’ll need to use Zipeg instead of 7zip now, thanks to Microsoft “updating” their VPC files after this screencast was created.
Nice and useful screencast, thanks!
Although it seems like the new VPC files need yet another extraction tool. Install unrar using “sudo port install cabextract” (you need http://www.macports.org/), then simply use it like this: “unrar e IE7-XPSP3.exe”
Something else that might be helpful: I experienced browser crashes with IE7 when testing my own project (http://www.soup.io/), looks like these were caused by the already installed Flash plugin. After upgrading to the newest Adobe Flash plugin, everything is working fine.
Err. That should have been “sudo port install unrar”, obviously.
Perfect! Only when I try to install IE6 (right after IE7) on Adding the VHD file the notice; ‘Failed to register hard disk’ appears. Any thoughts?
@Steven – that sounds like the issue with the latest version of VirtualBox. Are you sure you’re using 2.0.6? If that doesn’t do the trick, I’ll do a little testing to see what’s up.
@Jeff I’m sure it version 2.0.6 that I’m using
@Jeff I’ve tried installing IE6 first, IE7 second. Same result. Got IE7 XP running perfectly now. No IE6 because of notice
@Stephen – Thanks. I’ll do run through from scratch and see if I get the same error. I know that Microsoft changed their VPC files not long after I posted this screencast, and I’m thinking that may have something to do with it.
I’ll post my results (and hopefully a fix) as soon as possible.
@Jeff great! Keep me (us) posted. Thanks for the post. FYI used Zipeg and the screencast steps
@Jeff any thoughs on howto fix this issue
@Steven I’m getting the same error now with Microsoft’s currently posted VPC files. The files I used when creating this screencast worked just fine.
It’s an issue with the UUID of the IE6 .vhd file, and there is currently no way (that I’m able to find) to manually change the UUID without modifying the .vhd with a hex editor. VirtualBox has a command line option to modify the UUID of a vdi, but not vhd. Until we can change the UUID, it looks like you’ll have to unregister (not delete) the IE7/8 .vhd before registering the IE6 .vhd in VirtualBox.
To unregister a .vhd go to File -> Virtual Disk Manager. Select the .vhd and click the Remove icon. Note that this only removes (unregisters) the .vhd and doesn’t delete your file so you can re-register it at any time.
I’ll keep digging for a workaround so that we can have multiple IE .vhd’s registered at the same time again.
Everything went smooth except for the Ethernet installation. It prompts for the XP Pro CD and is looking for pcntpci5.sys (like in your screencast) but can’t find it. So, I have Internet Explorer, just no Internet to explore
Hi Jeff, thanks for this! I got it all working, but IE won’t connect to the internet. I’m connected via wifi at the moment, not ethernet. Would that be the problem?
I also tried connecting to a local test site I set up running MAMP, which didn’t work. Is it possible to connect to a local server on your mac, for testing in IE using Virtual Box?
In regards to the networking issues: set the network adapter in the virtual machine to the Intel Server model, which is recognised by XP automatically. For Vista you’ll need to check the manual, http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads.
Jeff, as everyone else has said, thanks for the screencast. It worked beautifully. I corrupted my virtual machine…my own fault. I updated to VirtualBox 2.1.2 and created a new XP. Someone earlier mentioned an issue with the Ethernet drivers. The reason this occurs is that the VirtualBox Guest Additions has changed. To get to the proper driver, after you install Guest additions, you have to go to the command prompt and run: “D:VBoxWindowsAdditions-amd64 /extract /D=C:\Drivers” to extract the proper drivers. After that it’s just a matter of pointing the C:\Drivers folder for installing the network drivers.
Also, just so people know, the XP instances from Microsoft have a built in timeout of an hour.
@Rick – thank you thank you!
networking working like a charm now.
@Jeff – triple thank you
Hi Jeff, this screencast is AWESOME, thanks so much for putting this together.
I’ve run into the “failed to register the hard disk” error as well (the UUID with same properties is already registered).
I installed IE7 first (works like a charm!) I tried installing both IE8b2 and IE6, but get the UUID errors for both. You mention above to unregister (not delete) the IE7 .vhd before registering the other .vhd in VirtualBox. What does unregistering the IE7 .vhd do? Will it still run?
Also, I noticed when I do the File -> Virtual Disk Manager, my “remove” icon is grayed out for my IE7 .vhd. If I right click on it, that contextual menu (with “remove” in it as well) is also grayed out. So I can’t seem to disable it.
I’m looking to run IE6, IE7 and IE8b2 on my Mac.
@matt – Unregistering a .vhd effectively “uninstalls” the .vhd from VirtualBox without deleting your vhd image. It unregisters the UUID for the .vhd, which is why you can then install the other vhds without a UUID conflict.
Sadly, this means that you can no longer have all of the Internet Explorer vhds installed at once. Until/unless Microsoft changes their UUIDs you’ll have to unregister and re-register each time you want to switch vhds.
Not sure why your “remove” icon is disabled. So long as you have selected a vhd the button should be available. Are you sure you’re not referring to the “release” button? That one is grayed out for me as well.
@everyone else – I’m really glad this screencast was helpful. Thanks for all the feedback. I’m still looking for a workaround to keep multiple IE vhds installed and registered at the same time (which is how it used to work). Hopefully Microsoft will get serious about this and post properly formatted and UUID’d images.
Hey Jeff, thanks for the prompt reply and explanation re: unregistering the .vhd.
Yep, my “remove” is grayed out (available via right click/contextual menu on the .vhd file), perhaps because I haven’t powered off the machine? I just “save the machine state”. Oh well, since right now, I can’t easily have multiple .vhd’s I guess it doesn’t matter that much.
I’ll probably install IETester (http://www.my-debugbar.com/wiki/IETester/HomePage) that should give me IE6 and IE8b2.
@matt – Yes, you have to shut down the virtual machine before you can unregister it. Think of it like un-mounting a hard drive.
If you’re planning to install IETester on one of the vhds, keep in mind that the vhds should not be treated and used as though they are complete Windows installs. They will eventually expire and you’ll need to re-download them and drop new ones into VirtualBox.
Is Microsoft good at always having vhds available for download? It looks like this set is good until April 2009. Do you know if Microsoft has a history of having replacement vhd’s before that expiration time or very soon after they expire?
If anyone else is wondering, IETester seems to be working great in my IE7 vhd (IETester will give you IE 5.5, 6, 7 and 8b2).
quick note on the Ethernet drivers with VirtualBox 2.1.2 that Rick commented on:
for a MacIntel host machine extract the x86 drivers, not the amd64 ones:
“D:VBoxWindowsAdditions-x86 /extract /D=C:\Drivers”
(note – this worked for me over the amd64 ones, but I might have had something else configured wrong and maybe it makes no difference)
Also, to access network resources and the web, I had to change the virtual machine settings for the Network adapter for “Attached To” from “NAT” to “host-interface” and then selecting “Airport” from the Host Interfaces list.
(Not sure why I couldn’t access the ‘net with the network adapter attached to “NAT”, but this did the trick)
not sure if that is something i had to do for my particular setup or what, but thought I’d drop the k-nowledge from my experience!
Hi all,
I ran into the UUID problem when trying to install two virtual machines (ie6 and 7), and here is a proposed fix which worked for me. It involves converting your VHD to VDI, see below for how to do it.
(By the way, the following does not work: installing Virtual PC on your existing virtual xp machine, thereby installing IE6 on a virtual machine on your IE7 virtual machine on your mac)
OK. Here goes:
(1) download Q from http://www.kju-app.org/
(2) in terminal type /Applications/Q.app/Contents/MacOS/qemu-img convert -O raw -f vpc YOUR_VHD_FILE.vhd NEW_RAW_FILE.raw
(3) wait 15 minutes
(4) in terminal type VBoxManage convertdd NEW_RAW_FILE.raw NEW_VDI_FILE.vdi
(5) wait 15 minutes
(6) in terminal type VBoxManage modifyvdi NEW_VDI_FILE.vdi compact
(7) Create your second virtual machine in virtualbox (it won’t give you the UUID error)
(In my case this process, or maybe something unrelated, corrupted my existing VM, so I had to re-install it, but in the end everything works)
That’s it! You will have to follow Jeff’s tutorial from the point where you start the new machine in safe mode, etc.
(this is not my idea, by the way, thanks to the posters at http://blog.mozmonkey.com/2008/vpc-ie6-ie7-ie8-on-mac-os-x/)
I have now reached the Holy Grail of web compatibility development: IE6, IE7, FF and Safari on my Mac!
Cheers,
Albert
That’s awesome Albert – thank you!
Sometime over the next week or so I’ll be writing a new post with an updated screencast, including instructions from all of your comments.
Thank you so much Jeff. These VPC on VirtualBox are much lighter than anything else I’ve tested, it makes it really easy to test websites.
Waiting for your updated post – I’d love to find some easier fix for the UUID issue.
cheers and thanks again!
– Thibaut
WOW! Love this! Simple and works like a dream!
Set up the perfect OS X browser testing environment « Devthought
[...] watching the screencast by Jeff Couturier I finally achieved the cross-browser, cross-platform testing Nirvana. Here’s [...]
Gathering of Thoughts » Blog Archive » Set up the perfect OS X browser testing environment
[...] watching the screencast by Jeff Couturier I finally achieved the cross-browser, cross-platform testing Nirvana. Here’s [...]
Wow, thanks for this little tutorial and screencast. The bluescreen thing drove me nuts …
I switched from “MultipleIE”/“IETester” to individual virtual boxes to guarantee a clean system with no problems on JavaScript. Hope IETester will be fixed that way. Three boxes for the major IE versions is overkill …
Jeff, I absolutely agree with you that Parallels is bulky and causes frustration. Glad to hear someone agree. At first I thought it was just my Mac, but I’ve learned with time it’s the software. Parallels is fine if you’re only working in Parallels, but switch back to the Mac environment and you’ve immediately got the pizza of pain.
Anyway, your screencast is easy to follow and I think a VM will be an excellent solution for my needs (I’m not a programmer, just a Mac user who occasionally needs a Windows platform)…if I can get it going. My problem is that the voodoo doesn’t seem to prevent the blue screen from coming up. Thinking that the problem could be with ie7, I also got ie6 and tried that. I am able to follow everything you do almost to the letter (one exception is that your safe mode shows a colorful background while mine is black). When I allow XP to reboot after installing the additional tools from Virtual Box it goes to a blue screen–so fast I can’t read it, says something about drivers–then reboots and reboots and reboots again till I quit the program.
Is there anything I can try that isn’t on your screencast? Thanks much. –Dan
@Dan – Sorry to hear that you’re getting so close, but not all the way.
Is the VM going into that reboot cycle before or after leaving the Safe Mode menu (at 7:00 in the video)? If before, then fn F8 is not being pressed in time.
If it’s happening after then I’m not sure what the problem would be. Double check that you’re running VirtualBox version 2.0.6 and not a later build. Also, how recently did you download the VPC files from Microsoft? I’m hoping they haven’t changed them yet again…
Jeff, the VM is going into the reboot cycle after leaving Safe Mode. Prior to my post yesterday, I had only tried it with VirtualBox 2.0.6, but I then tried an earlier version and a latter version just for good measure, but with the same result. I downloaded both the ie6 and ie7 VPCs yesterday, so your idea that Microsoft has changed them seems a logical explanation. The promise of Virtual Machine has me hooked, but other suggestions I’ve found to get a VM going involve using Terminal and worry me. I look forward to your next update and succeed with this someday as Parallels is almost as big a pain as not being able to run the occasional Windows piece of software when I need to.
Wow this is great! Jeff you are the man! Thank you so much for including the video screen grab, I would have lost with out it. I have IE7 installed and want to get IE6 & IE8 on there as well. I’m thinking of trying Albert’s solutions from above, but also wonder if it’s really worth going through all that, couldn’t I just install http://tredosoft.com/Multiple_IE or http://www.my-debugbar.com/wiki/IETester/HomePage on the IE7 image I have that’s working fine.
Can somebody please explain the pro and cons of using the IE6 & IE8 images over the 2 other solutions above? I would think it’s also easier to have them all in 1 image so you wouldn’t have to save state then open another image just to test in other ver. of IE.
Just my 2cents though, someone please enlighten me to the pro and cons.
Big Thanks again Jeff,
Curtis
@ PureDezigner – Keep in mind that these VHD images are not meant to be treated as full Windows installations, and definitely not permanent installations. The VHD’s will expire sooner rather than later, which means you’ll need to re-download new ones (which will have updated expiration dates) and re-install them into VitualBox.
You can defintely install Multipe IE or IETester once you have one of these images up and running. Personally, I prefer to have a clean environment for each browser version I’m testing and have found that things like IE4OSX, Multiple IE and IETester have some quirks that make them less than 100% accurate for testing.
@ Jeff, thanks for the explanation. I have IE7 up and running with all the fixes, is there any way to get the audio enabled? I can’t figure this out.
Also have you or anyone else tried Albert Albala’s solution to get all them working. I agree with you that a clean environment is better, and after reading some comments about Multiple IE and IETester I think I’d rather give Albert Albala’s solution a shot if it works.
Thanks again.
免費在 Mac 上使用原生的 Internet Explorer 6.0 « 不厭其煩
[...] 昨天看到一個方法，試用了一下還不錯，就簡單翻譯一下步驟，有興趣的人可以連回原本的頁面觀看 screencast （Screencast: Install Internet Explorer on OSX using VirtualBox (updated X2) | Low Voltage Blog: Do Mo…）。 [...]
@Jeff – Immensely helpful tutorial.
Thanks for taking the time to put this together.
Cheers!
This is great, but after following with the IE6-XPSP3 file, I can’t get past step 6. ren processr.sys processr.old [enter]
I input ren processr.sys processr.old [enter] – then get this response:
The system cannot find the file specified.
Can anybody help me please?
Thanks to you Jeff and others who gave feedback.
I didn’t realize IE7 on my Mac would be so easy and free.
Does anybody have the audio working?
Brilliant! I’d heard about people trying this with VMWare and failing but I can 100% confirm that this works following your exact instructions using VirtualBox 2.1.4 (latest at time of writing).
One thing that didn’t work for me was fixing the network driver. “Connect to internet” simply wouldn’t work because of the catch-22 fact that it’s the network driver itself that can’t be found. It wanted me to insert the XP CD to get the driver.
I downloaded the AMD PCNET driver from the AMD site and put it into a shared folder (configured in VirtualBox). I could then tell the Device Manager to look for the driver in that shared folder, which worked fine.
Thanks for the great video tutorial. Very well put together
@jeff Thanks for the screencast.
Worked for me with the IE8RC1 image and VirtualBox 2.1.4 on OSX 10.4.11
@Chris Thanks for the catch-22 tip. A real time-server
I have the same problem as Jay… Can Fire up windows and IE7 on XP SP3 but it can’t find the ethernet drivers to update them… keeps askingme for Windows XP professional CD-ROM…
I also can’t get it to share a folder with my mac… is this cos of the missing drivers?
help!!!! Its driving me insane!!!
s’ok… got it…. should’ve read the pervious comments… downloaded drivers and it worked fine…
thanks Jeff… you’re a star!!
HUGE thanks to Jeff and Chris in the comments for this. Beautiful, lightweight, and exactly what I needed in a pinch. Very well done.
@Tucs Change the network adpter to Intel PRO/1000 T Server (NAT), then download the driver from here: http://www.intel.com/support/network/sb/cs-006120.htm Make an iso you can mount as a cd and then install it. Reboot the vm. And now it will work.
Thanks for this, it worked for me as soon as I also downloaded that AMD driver for the network Catch-22 problem and put it in a VirtualBox shared folder as Chris advised.
Also, Unarchiver for OS X will open those Windows VPC .exe files without needing to change the extension of them to .zip.
Spoke to soon about Unarchiver. It did the IE7 one okay but choked on the IE8 one. (Now I have the UUID error, but I’ll follow Albert’s instructions about that and see how I go).
Wow. Worked, first try. Thanks a lot!
Still wondering if anyone has audio working in IE7?
Thank you for this! Worked for me the first time.
You’re the man!
Andrew Odri » Blog Archive » IE6, IE7 And IE8 On Mac OS X Step By Step
[...] serious browser testing. If you would like a little more information, I would suggest checking out Jeff Couturier’s article (he has a nice tutorial video on the site too), and Jeremy Gillick’s article. apple, [...]
Thanks for taking the trouble to make the video. It installed exactly as described.
However, I needed to look at Chinese language sites that would not render in Opera nor Firefox nor Safari and while it will display properly in IE in Virtualbox, I cannot install the Asian fonts.
Any advice on how to do this would be most welcomed. Please drop me a direct mail if possible.
Thanks again.
Fantastic! worked a treat. Thanks very much for posting.
Instead of using Multiple IE, use Xenocode Browser Sandbox (http://www.xenocode.com/browsers/. This only works in Windows for the moment, but it essentially runs a variety of browsers on the fly without having to do an install.
Excellent!
Worked for me with a fresh install of VirtualBox v2.2.0. Note, v2.2.0 allowed me to skip the “ren processr.sys processr.old” step without any blue screen issues.
Also, on the ethernet drivers. Any VirtualBox version greater than 2.0.6 forces you to manually extract the drivers of your choosing (which is supposed to help save on harddrive space). To extract the drivers you need open the command prompt (Start, Run, cmd) and enter “D:\VBoxWindowsAdditions-x86.exe /extract /D=C:\Drivers”. See the Readme.txt file buried in the D: drive for additional detail.
anybody else have the problem of not getting the prompt to restart after
typing “exit” and hitting enter?
nothing happens… run command line again, type all the commands,
hit enter, nothing. over and over.
is there a way to manually restart out of safe mode?
problem fixed.
next time i tried to enter the driver info, it said they couldn’t be found.
(took this to mean they loaded already)
so i finished the rest of the commands as usual, hit enter, nothing.
so went outside of the VM and resarted the VM from the desktop menu.
now running IE8, so far, so good. thanks!
Thank you so much! I followed the screencast but here’s what I did differently (thanks to a combination of comments)
After starting the virtual machine, I installed the drivers from the shared folder
1) Downloaded and Installed VirtualBox 2.2.0 for Mac OS X
2) Downloaded IE7-XPSP3.exe
3) Unzipped IE7-XPSP3.exe using Stuffit Expander (did not need to change the .exe to .zip)
4) Created new virtual machine in VirtualBox using the .vhd file created when unzipping the IE7-XPSP3.exe file.
5) Under “Settings>Network” I changed the network adpter to Intel PRO/1000 T Server (NAT)
6) Downloaded the drivers from here: http://www.intel.com/support/network/sb/cs-006120.htm
7) Created a shared folder and put the downloaded drivers in there
Note: I did not need to start the machine in safe mode, nor do any run commands and it seems to be working fine!
poso.dk - tekniske trends » Blog Archive » IE6, IE7 & IE8 på OSX med VirtualBox
[...] Someone earlier mentioned an issue with the Ethernet drivers. The reason this occurs is that the VirtualBox Guest Additions has changed. To get to the proper driver, after you install Guest additions, you have to go to the command prompt and run: “D:VBoxWindowsAdditions-x86.exe /extract /D=C:Drivers” to extract the proper drivers. After that it’s just a matter of pointing the C:Drivers folder for installing the network drivers. (Kilde) [...]
Thanks heaps for this, I have been struggling to get parallels and goodness knows what else working for browser testing. completely horrible.
Now i Have windows xp with ie7 runing in virtual box connecting to the internet. yay!
@seb I got ie7 to see my localhost on mamp by looking up my ip in system preferences->network and typing that in to the explorers url bar. hth.
will
Hi,
I’ve installed the Virtual Box 2.0.6 but, after installed I’m getting the following error msg:
Could not load the settings file ‘/Users/wgomes/Library/VirtualBox/VirtualBox.xml’.
Cannot convert settings from version ‘1.5-macosx’.
The source version is not supported.
Result Code:
NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0×80004005)
Component:
VirtualBox
Interface:
IVirtualBox {557a07bc-e6ae-4520-a361-4a8493199137}
I can’t run =(
Anybody saw this problem?
tks
Wils
If you are trying to install guest additions and nothing happens (a problem I ran into while trying to install IE8), you can go to the start menu > My computer, and you will see a CD image containing Guest additions. You can run it from there.
See http://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=13804
Cheers,
Albert.
Many thanks, a great tutorial which has saved me loads of time.
Hi I’ve accidently logged out and it requires a password. What is the password?
Thank you all. I installed both IE6 and IE7 with XP.
Both the network hack with D:\VBoxWindowsAdditions-x86.exe /extract /D=C:\Drivers worked as well as converting the IE7 to a vdi described above!
VirtualBox v.2.1.4
I have used this and successfully run multiple virtual machine for a while now, but I’ve noticed that an hour ago I got a warning saying that they were expired. Is anyone aware of a way around this or where I can get virtual machines that won’t expire?
MItch – All of the Windows images will expire. There is no way around this, as they are meant for testing purposes only and this is how Microsoft is able to put them up for free. Once they expire, you need to download new ones.
Will Microsoft provide new links to the new ones or do you possibly know where I can find the newer ones?
I thought MS would have made new VPC images available by now, but no dice. All of the XP images on Microsoft’s page expire today, which is obviously useless. I can’t imagine what the reason is for this other than just plain neglect.
I asked about the images on the IE blog and the official response was that new image were coming. However my image still work, so I guess they may have changed the expiry date somehow.
This is off topic, but what utility you are using to drag and resize windows in the screen cast?
@ erik: I use a great little app called Zooom2. On my linux box I got very used to a little Gnome app that let you move and resize any window, clicking anywhere – not just on the window titlebar – by holding down the control key. Zooom2 does the same thing, but for OSX. I’ve set it to use the control key for moving windows and control-command for resizing. Zooom is super handy and one of those Mac apps I can’t live without.
Thanks Jeff!
My Mac Life: Day 4 | Leo Newball, Jr.
[...] than Parellel or VMware. He also pointed me towards and a screen cast he created to demonstrate how to use VirtualBox to preview websites in Internet Explorer. For any Mac based web dev, this video is a great resource to [...]
install IE on osx using virtualbox — award tour
[...] Screencast: Install Internet Explorer on OSX using VirtualBox | 10 Volt Media Blog. awesome screencast for getting IE7 running on a Mac with VirtualBox and Microsoft VirtualPC images. All free, legal, and worked like a charm. [...]
I just used darwine to build the image from the IE8-Vista downloads and it seems to work. You could probably use it to build the XP images also.
I’ve downloaded the new VPC images, and I setup the Windown XP IE6 one fine, but impossible to add the XP IE7 or IE8. It gives a message about already existing UUIDs:
Screenshot of Virtualbox message here (source:Flickr)
very strange, so I’m using my old VPC image of IE8 to debug IE7/8, even though it will shut down every hour, because it has run out, and new image of IE6, along with Xenocode Browsers
@ Tom: There are several comments and solutions above for the UUID issue you’re referring to. Use find within your browser (command-F) and search for “UUID” on this page. Both Matt and myself have posted fixes.
Thanks Jeff for the screencast. It helped me get up in running in no time. Rather then install IE7, however, I found that installing IE8 with the developer tool bar worked just as well since it renders several browser and document modes including IE 7 and IE8 compatibility views.
worked !
running virtualbox 2.2.2
both ie6 and ie7,
converting vhd to vhi with Q worked !
thanks a lot all of you
I still can’t access my local server (MAMP) on leopard thou…
@Artur – just use the local IP address of your machine. My local IP is 10.0.0.5, so in IE inside of VirtualBox, I just use http://10.0.0.5 and it loads from MAMP perfectly.
@jeff – thanks for the reply ! for some reason I don’t know that won’t work on my machine… I’ll try and figure out something; my internet is USB-fed and my IP is unstable, could that be it ? (thanks again)
@Artur – Hm, that could be it but it’s hard to say.
Google around for “MAMP vhosts” and you’ll find some info about setting up custom virtual hosts for MAMP. That might help.
Also check out VirtualhostX. It lets you create virtual domains and URLs for your local web server, and might get around the issues VirtualBox is having with your IP.
And as a last resort, you can always use a dynamic DNS service (like http://www.dyndns.com/) to point a temp domain at your local machine. If VirtualBox can see the web, this will absolutely work.
Does anyone know if the new machines work with the latest VirtualBox version?
10 Volt Media Blog » Screencast: Install Internet Explorer on OSX using VirtualBox (updated X2) ~ Web and Print Design — Some Random Dude
[...] 10 Volt Media Blog » Screencast: Install Internet Explorer on OSX using VirtualBox (updated X2) ~ W… [...]
finally got it to work
in VB I can reach through my IP only the first website on VirtualHostX’s list
that’s more than ok
thank you for your help
uhm,
With Q in terminal for me this does not work:
‘(2) in terminal type /Applications/Q.app/Contents/MacOS/qemu-img convert -O raw -f vpc YOUR_VHD_FILE.vhd NEW_RAW_FILE.raw’
with YOUR_VHD_FILE.vhd replaced with XP SP3 with IE7 2009-Apr.vhd
I get:
qemu-img: Could not open ‘XP SP3 with IE7 2009-Apr.vhd’
Is this a path issue? Or…?
Thanks
Ok, it is a path issue. For Terminal newbies like me this might be good to know:
In terminal:
/Applications/Q.app/Contents/MacOS/qemu-img convert -O raw -f vpc /Users/YOUR_USER_NAME/desktop/XPSP3withIE72009-Apr.vhd /Users/YOUR_USER_NAME/desktop/XP_IE7.raw
This created the XP_IE7.raw file on my desktop. 16 GB!!!
Then I had to quit Terminal and rerun it to be able to run the next line:
VBoxManage convertdd /Users/YOUR_USER_NAME/desktop/XP_IE7.raw /Users/YOUR_USER_NAME/desktop/XP_IE7.vdi
This created the XP_IE7.vdi on my desktop, filesize 279.1 MB (odd?)
Now, I followed the rest of the screencast but with this VDI it does not work. Pressing fn F8 does not give me the option to start windows in safe mode, it gives me ‘a disk error occurred.’
Now what?
Internet Brain » 10 Volt Media Blog » Screencast: Install Internet Explorer on OSX using VirtualBox (updated X2) ~ Web and Print Design
[...] 10 Volt Media Blog » Screencast: Install Internet Explorer on OSX using VirtualBox (updated X2) ~ W… ross-platform browser testing shouldn’t be a pain in the ass. If, like me, you’re one of the growing number of designers and developers using an OS other than Windows, you need an IE testing environment. In this screencast I’ll show you how to set up a virtual machine for Internet Explorer 7 on OSX in about 15 minutes without spending a penny. [...]
Well, I feel a little late for the party, but:
Thank you Jeff for this great article and the screencast.
I also got stuck with the ethernet drivers; thanks @Rick, @Chris and @Ryan. After using the shared folders for further installs I came back here and recognized: Chris Corbyn mentioned this nice and easy method allready. Finally thanks to all that IE is now not so far away from me anymore.
Don’t know if I’m doing something wrong or something has changed in the latest vpc images, but IE7 XP thinks that the “hardware” has changed sufficiently enough to require reactivation (rendering the ms pre-activation useless). Any ideas??? really would love to get this working…
Creating an Internet Explorer Testing Environment on a Mac | bavotasan.com
[...] I discovered a better way of setting up a testing environment for IE thanks to Andrew Odri and Jeff Couturier and their great articles. (All credit goes to them in steering me in the right direction on this [...]
Just got hold of the latest images (expire Jan 2010) and it requires activation because of ’significant hardware changes’ when going through your setup process. Means you can’t reboot without activation. Anyone found a way around this?
Ditto, Neale….havent’ found a solution yet, but looking.
effin microsoft.
Same issues of activation with the latest builds of IE7 XP SP3. If we cannot activate, and do not wish to, then this tutorial is out of date. Please send a notification once you have resolved this issue.
So tantalizing… I just found this today – exactly what I’ve been seeking, just for testing Microsoft’s (noncompliant) browsers while doing web design and development on a Mac. I got all the way through extracting drivers and successfully connecting to the internet with the VM, only to get stuck at “Activate Windows.” Not sure I understand… Microsoft provides the disk images for download – expressly for browser testing – only for use in the case when you have a Windows [XP] CD folder with a valid product key sticker? But the images time out in an hour and expire within a few months?
Hmmm, more discussion of this issue here:
http://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=21712
Looks like the current disk images will not work without activation in VirtualBox – they’re configured specifically for Microsoft’s Virtual PC (which I believe is not available free for Mac?).
More on VPC and disk images here:
http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2009/05/06/ie-testing-vpc-images-updated.aspx
Activation issues for me too, wish I had scrolled down to the bottom of this page 2 hours ago – I guess it’s back down to the local internet cafe for me to test my sites in Windows.
Hi, i have a problem that i dont know how to solve.
The IE7 and 8 virtual Xp running in my mac, give me the serial key to validate the xp.
Well, when i saw the video tutorial for this, look like you don’t validated the XP, or you was validated before.
What is the corret way to solve that ? search the serial key ?
any way to hack this ?
I realy hate xp and Internet explorer, because always have a problem.
Thank you
*to ask me de serial
not give me.
sorry im from a spanish country.
see ya
@Emmanuel – Rad the big box at the very top of the article that says “UPDATE #3:…”
Some important info there.
o en español si así lo prefiere:
@Emmanuel – Leer la caja grande en la parte superior a partir de “UPDATE #3…”
Cuenta con información importante.
Um, I think I’m doing something wrong because I cannot connect to the internet and I cannot update any drivers.
Hi Jeff,
I am so happy to read this article. I really need to run IE in my mac.
I did as what you told, but I have the same problem with Emmanuel.
At step 8, after I restarted vm, IE7 requests me to activate the windows.
Do you think what is the problem?
By the way,when I installed Guest Additions, there were some warning about windows showed…
Do you think that’s why I need to activate the windows?
NOTE : You are able to run windows for whole three days. But you may not install guest additions and you may not restart windows!
This solution works fine for short IE Testing, even for a long period.
After installing and running windows first time -> Just close the virtual machine window and select “save the current execution state”. So you’re able to start from this point later and haven’t to restart windows.
-> You will have to install the ethernet adapter for internet connection. Go to the AMD website and download “NDIS5 Driver for Microsoft Windows”, make an iso-image from the extracted folder and include it for a virtual drive. You are now able to install the driver via Windows Hardware-Manager.
P.s. Just install latest “Virtual Box” and the free “IE VPC file” mentioned above, extract it and select it for boot device in virtual box. You even won’t have to press F8.
I’ve just installed Virtual Box 3.1.4-57640
Downloaded IE7 XP SP3
Created a new VM, pointed it to the image, and the whole system crashes!
(Grey/Black screen of apple death).
This happened twice in succession on a MacPro 8 Core OS 10.5.8.
Going to try it on a MacPro 4 Core OS 10.6.2 to see if it’s a Leopard bug.
…update – works fine on MacPro 4 Core OS 10.6.2 (Snow Leopard).