Nneon

As a web designer it’s important to check your work in many different browsers, especially when you are designing a new layout for a website.

The problem for most people is that multiple versions of certain browsers cannot co-exist with each other, the most notable example of this is Internet Explorer.

However, here’s a solution that I came across for all the Mac users out there using vmware fusion:

1. Download the version(s) of Internet Explorer that you want from Microsoft.
2. Rename the file extension from .exe to .zip
   
   
3. then using zipeg (its free) unpack the file
4. Once you have the vhd file, rename it making sure you remove all the spaces
5. Download and install Q.app (also free)
6. Open terminal, then using “cd” to change directories and “ls” to list the files go to the directory with the vhd file and type…

   [code]/Applications/Q.app/Contents/MacOS/qemu-img convert -O vmdk -f vpc XPSP3withIE7.vhd XPSP3withIE7.vmdk[/code]

7. Open VMWare Fusion and create a new virtual machine
8. Go through the wizard and check ‘Use an existing Virtual Disk’
   
   
9. Ignore any driver dialogs that ask you to insert a Windows CD. The VMWare Tools should install these drivers for you (see next step).
10. As soon as Windows boots up Install the VMWare tools by going to Virtual Machine -> Install VMWare Tools.

Some More Info

Make sure you don’t delete the vmdk file as this is needed to run the Windows Virtual Machine.

If you don’t have a copy of VMWare there is a free alternative called VirtualBox. You can check out the the mozmonkey blog for instructions on how to set that up.

The Virtual PC images that Microsoft give out expire after three months… This is done to deter people from using the Operating System for anything other than testing purposes.