Running IE6, IE7 and IE8 standalone
If you are looking for an easy solution for running multiple IEs (IE6 standalone, IE7 standalone and IE8 standalone.) or any other popular browsers versions side by side AND all of that right from your browser, check out the Xenocode’s page or read on before jumping off.
Update!
Browser sandbox has been moved to this place.
Be patient the first time you use any of the browsers and it will pay off next time it runs 🙂
Quote from their site
The Xenocode Browser Sandbox allows all popular Windows browsers to be run simultaneously, directly from the web. Web designers, system administrators, and other users can now evaluate Internet Explorer 8, 7, and 6, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Opera, and Google Chrome directly from the web in a risk-free manner. Unlike traditional software applications, Xenocode WebApps do not require any software to be installed and allow multiple application versions to run side-by-side on any version of Windows.
If you want to use them on your desktop it’s free to download and use any time.
Upsides:
- Fast and lightweight
- No installation (online and desktop version)
- Multiple browsers
- Build your own app/browser
Downsides:
- Appart from occasionally Windows exlporer hick-ups…
- … no real downsides detected 🙂
Link to xenocode’s browsers page: Xenocode
UPDATE: Microsoft Strikes Again!
So, all you can do now is to wait for Microsoft to finish talks with the guys from Spoon and come to their senses.
43 comments
Looks like a good tool. Pitty IE is no longer available on it. Any follow up though?
The information is really helpfulful…thanks a million!
These are still available “unofficially” at http://goo.gl/8D4lz
Is anyone here able to provide feedback on these?
IE8 will run for me, but I run Comodo Defense+ on “Safe” Mode which will give me a bunch of warnings about attempting to modify protected registry keys.
No virus is detected in these files by Avira, so I think it is Comodo being paranoid (More likely than not).
Otherwise IE8 will run from the above source.
James.
I keep checking back regularly to see if there has been any movement in getting IE back on Spoon. Nothing yet. MS Expressions is a cool tool that affords developers like me an alternate (albeit limited) way to perform multi-ie version testing. While it is probably a clear EULA violation for Spoon to be virtualizing IE, I have to believe that at least part of the motive for MS putting their boot on the throat of Spoon over this is so that they can more effectively market their Expressions product. Just another example of the MS steamroller squashing out a smaller, but more effective, competitor.
Here’s a thought – why doesn’t MS just buy Spoon and implement their own virtualization engine so they are not violating their own EULA?
unfortunately this service is stopped by spoon.net alias xenocode by the request from microsoft….. bullshit!!!!!!
Well, I was recently at a Tech Ed conference where the presenter was talking about IE6 – IE9 and the differences (from a developer’s perspective). One tool he used heavily was Microsoft Expressions 4 – Web. This tool will allow you to set a base browser, then pull up another virtual browser to do side-by-side comparisons. It is a VERY cool tool and could be of GREAT benefit for developers.
HOWEVER, the free version only allows you to do this with IE browsers and the purchased version only allows you to add Firefox and Safari. When I asked the presenter as to whether or not they were going to include Opera, Chrome or any other popular browsers, he said he didn’t know.
Since I own an MSDN subscription, I was able to install the paid version of Expression. It is a cool tool. While I had the attention of the presenter at the conference, I asked him about the issue between MS and Spoon. Basically, he said that Spoon was in violation of the EULA since they were virtualizing the IE browser, which requires a piece of the OS to run. So, in effect, Spoon was downloading components of the OS with the virtualization.
I really hope they can get this resolved. Expressions is cool, but I would rather be Spoon fed.
I’m absolutely gutted. This site was wonderful. I so hope this can be resolved quickly.
Unbelievable – I only found out today that microsoft have pulled IE from spoon.net
It’s like they’re going out of their way to make development for their own browsers more difficult (yet again).
It might be understandable if they offered their own solution, but they don’t (and running multiple virtual machines that expire and need to be re-installed just doesn’t cut it).
Since upgrading to windows 7 64 bit recently it looks like I can’t run multipleIE any more there, so it’s back to setting up an old XP box for that now. If I knew I wouldn’t be able to use spoon.net for testing – I would have stuck with XP and not bothered upgrading. Microsoft would have lost a sale for windows 7 if it wasn’t for this service stepping in to fill a massive gap microsoft has left for web developers, and if they’d done this just a couple of weeks earlier they would have lost my business.
They should think of how much they’re alienating their own customers before pulling a trick like this!
Will be interesting to see what dispute they have with spoon.net to pull IE. Surely it isn’t because they’re upset that they’re distributing crappy bug ridden old versions of their browser (a ton of other places have been doing that without any problems).
Or is it professional jealousy that spoon.net have achieved something they couldn’t dream of themselves (despite a service like spoon.net being something microsoft could have probably done much easier themselves in house if they had the foresight)?
@Rich @Kris I definitely agree with you guys, this seems like some major legal stuff but I’ve seen some reassuring posts on #fb that things might not yet be over. So let’s hope they settle this for the sake of humanity.
“Spoon hopes to have cloud-based IE back up soon. Please stay tuned here or follow us @spoonapps.”
A totally awesome service. Too bad ms wanted IE pulled, afterall it seems IE is the main browser everyone has to debug for, so ironic that they pulled the perfect test subject..
POINT #1 – The brilliant minds at spoon.net provided an INVALUABLE service by allowing web developers to perform cross-browser testing easily from their desktops without having to worry about subscribing to some service that takes snapshots of your site or having to implement several virtual workstations to provide the various flavors of the browsers. I have used spoon.net a TON and have developed better web pages as a result.
POINT #2: Are you freakin’ kidding me?? Microsoft has ordered Spoon.net to remove IE from their site? I know MS must be embarrassed to have IE6 running side-by-side with IE7, IE8 and IE9 so people can see the stark differences between the browsers, but come on Microsoft – don’t you WANT people to be able to create quality sites that function well within your browsers?
What a stupid thing for MS to do.
I don’t know who’s responsible for this, but I want to bear their child.
great plugin, i can work more easily now, thanks for sharing
hi, thanks for the good solution
Spoon plugin worked for getting onto the site, but something with either the ie7 standalone I tried previously or the one in spoon made me have to re-register all my DLL files, so I will try and figure out which it was and post up in response
Aack, I have win 7 home premium, can’t use IE7 on it, wife needs to do a job application, and the website for it only supports ie 6 and 7, talk about people living in the past.
i installed and i dun see anything happen, how to use it?
i am using window 7… not working in this system?
I have installed the IE toolbar, and even though I can see the icon in IE6 (Spoon plugin) it does nothing?
Anybody managed to make the IE toolbar working for IE6 via Spoon?
Are there any bandwidth issues with using the Spoon plugin?
unfortunately no workaround for the use of standalone .exe files 🙁
or does anyone has a solution to get just the binary?
KR
T.
IE8 standalone
I’ve installed the plugin successfully as local admin; now I want other users who access this computer with their own logins to be able to access this, but can I do this without re-installing the plugin as the user? The users do not have admin privileges.
thanks!
Is it possible to use the IE7/8 with a Win2000 System?
So true. No win7 support. Yet still dont understand why we have to have this stupid problem, why people dont upgrade their free software and live in the past.
Works great except IE7 won’t run on Win 7. Hope they’ll fix it soon.
can any one please tell me how to use that spoon plugin i have installed it on my system now what to do
I’ve found a few issues while using it on the job, it doesn’t render cufon fonts correctly, nor does it seem to render ie css hacks either.
For general use its ok, but not for serious testing.
What I will do from now on is revert my IE to v7 and use spoon to test IE8, since IE8 seems to render a lot like FF(yes i did say that).
Thanks,
Samuel M.
me too. tried it and got the error ‘ AN error occurred while bufferring the application. PLease try again.”
Hm, strange, doesn’t seem to work with my Ubuntu. I just get too many times “This service is unavailable..”
I have a friend that ie7 @ spoon running with flash in winxp.
I can’t get flash to work, also in winxp.
The Adobe flash install keeps popping up, but it keeps refreshing the page when i try install it.
Anyone with similar experiences or solutions?
@Pushkar Please read the follow up on this at http://www.fluxhq.com/archives/149
Hello man..thanks for the nice solution but i can’t see any setup file..or download link..please guide me for the same….Thanks in advance.
Nice technology, but as far as cross browser testing is concerned – why bother if you can actually install all these browsers locally using, for instance, our free BrowserSeal.BrowserPack package?
@Robert K – As long as you have a legal copy of Windows 7 you can run any of the IE browser you want.
I would like to know if I can legally run IE6 virtualized on windows 7?
The browser cache would be great, if it actually worked…
@Darren No, fortunately it is not 🙂
Thanks Dale, be sure to check the updated URL to the “Browser sandbox”. http://spoon.net/Browsers/
Apparently Xenocode has changed their M.O., and “replaced” their executables with the Spoon plugin. Actually, they’re just caching the .exe on your machine: get the skinny here: http://www.fluxhq.com/archives/149
I assume this Spoon plugin is spyware right? It doesnt even mention what the hec it is on the Xenocode site.
Exactly what i needed for cross browser compatibility testing. Thanks
Hmmm…what am I missing here? Clicking on any of the applications/browsers directly, gets me redirected to the product website (i.e. Microsoft, or Mozilla, or Opera, etc), and the only other thing to click on I can seem to find is where it tells me to install the “Spoon Plugin”.
I’ll remove IEtester immediately 🙂
Wow it does works nicely… Thanks for the tip. No more virtual pc for me 🙂