This is a very common issue among us, developers or testers of web applications, so I will explain here exactly what worked for me, along with other solutions which have proved useful for others in the past.

After trying the various solutions on the internet, I learnt that the simple is the best.

  1. IE6 standalone install (best choice)
    • download the IE6 standalone kit from evolt.org
    • unpack the archive in a convenient place on your computer; be careful to keep all the files into the same directory
    • create a shortcut to iexplore.exe either on the desktop or in the QuickLaunch bar
    • Congratulations, you’re done!
    • please note that until IE8 is a stable release and gains a small market share I am not interested in testing web apps for it, so this is the reason I chose this solution to be the best one for me
  2. Use Internet Explorer Collection
    • download the IE Collection kit (note: at the time of this writing, the IE Collection has 42.4 MB, and has reached 1.1.0.1);
    • this package contains various versions of IE:
      • Internet Explorer 8.0 (8.0.6001.18241)
      • Internet Explorer 7.0 (7.0.5730.13)
      • Internet Explorer 6.0 (6.00.2800.1106)
      • Internet Explorer 5.5 (5.51.4807.2300)
      • Internet Explorer 5.01 (5.00.3314.2100)
      • Internet Explorer 4.01 (4.72.3110.0)
      • Internet Explorer 3.0 (3.0.1152)
      • Internet Explorer 2.01 (2.1.0.46)
      • Internet Explorer 1.5 (0.1.0.10)
      • Internet Explorer 1.0 (4.40.0.308)
    • choose the version of IE you want to install
    • All set up!
    • please note that this solution does not work with Microsoft Vista
  3. Use IETester
    • download the IETester kit from the My DebugBar page (note: at the time of this writing the kit has reached version 0.2.3 and has 24 MB)
    • please note that you need to have Windows Vista or Windows XP with IE7 installed if you choose this solution (ithese 2 are the configurations known to work)
    • install it and you’re ready to go!
    Happy coding / testing!