Virtual Machine

Because the code for Internet Explorer is so tightly integrated into Windows, the only way to run the “pure / authentic” version of IE6 on the same machine as IE7 is by using a Virtual Machine. Microsoft has made this easy by providing a Virtual PC image for this purpose. Virtual PC is also available for free download, so this is a great option. There are two downsides to this option, the VPC image is over 400MB in size, and the image periodically expires requiring a new download every 6 months or so.

If you have a copy of Windows XP sitting around you could use Virtual PC, VMWare, VirtualBox or any other virtualization software to create your own non-expiring image for testing.

IE6 Standalone

The Evolt Browser Archive includes a standalone version of IE6. Simply download the zip archive, unzip and run iexplore.exe. Simplifiy your life by creating a shortcut in your start menu or on your desktop. This is my preferred method, mostly due to the simplicity, and has worked very well for me.

Multiple IE

Want to test more than just IE6? Multiple IE installs IE3 – IE6 standalone versions. It’s been a long time since I’ve cared about how something looked in anything earlier than IE6, but if you have a reason to test a site on an earlier version of IE, this is a good way to go.

IE7 Standalone

The above options assume that you’ve already installed IE7. The makers of Multiple IE also have an installer for IE7 standalone (but it’s not integrated into Multiple IE). The idea here is that ou would run IE6 natively, with IE7 in standalone mode. I’ve never sucessfully used this option, but others have found it useful.

Gotchas

Running a standalone version of Internet Explorer is not the same as running the native, built-into-windows version.

Due to IE’s reliance on DLLs and registrty settings, things can get messy in certain situations. Take a look at Taming Your Multiple IE Standalones for more information on these possible snags. In short, they recommend using Multiple IE, as the registry hacks and DLLs are all included.

Install Console

Console is an Open Source command prompt window enhancement. If you’re familiar with Konsole from Kde, Console has a similar feature set.

Console allows you much greater control over the display and setup of the command prompt including resizing the console, specifying background and font colors, specifying a startup directory, using tabs, etc.

There’s no installer with Console, just extract the zip file and run console.exe. I’ve created shortcuts in my taskbar and on the desktop for easy access. Once you’ve launched Consoe, be sure to spend some time playing around with the settings, that’s where all the power is!

Install Cygwin or GNUWin32

Now that we have a decent console, it’s time to get some *nix goodness! There are two great options for getting ports of *nix tools working on Windows: Cygwin and GnuWin32.

Cygwin provides a more *nix like environment, as well as a larger number of tools overall. Cygwin includes a batch file to launch a command prompt with bash as the interpreter. With Cygwin you can also install an X server and run programs that require an X server, though if you’re trying to do that it’d be much easier to install VirtualBox or VMWare Player and run a virtual instance of your favorite *nix distro.

GnuWin provides Windows ports of many *nix tools, but does not try to imitate the *nix filesystem like Cygwin does. If you’re only looking for specific tools it may be easier to get them from GnuWin32.

I’m currently using Cygwin as it’s a standard at work.

Using *nix Tools from the Windows Command Line

Now that we have our command line and our *nix tools, all that’s left is to connect the two by adding the folder with the binaries to your Windows path. For Cygwin this is c:\cygwin\bin by default.

1. Right click on “My Computer” on your desktop (or in windows explorer)
2. Select “Properties”
3. Click the “Advanced” tab
4. Click on “Environment Variables”
5. Look at the top list of variables,
   • If there is not a variable named “Path”
     1. Click on “New”
     2. Enter “Path” in the “Variable name” field
     3. Enter “C:\cygwin\bin” in the “Variable value” field
   • If there is a variable named “Path”
     1. Click “Edit”
     2. Click in the “Variable value” box and go to the end of the field
     3. Add a semi-colon ( ; )
     4. Enter “C:\cygwin\bin”
6. Click OK 3 times and you should be ready to go

Open Console and enjoy your much improved windows command prompt experience!