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Comment by jcampbell1 | Hacker News Reader

I used to be interested in this type of service, but then I got an SSD. With an SSD it takes about 5 seconds to boot windows through parallels, and now cross browser testing is no longer a chore.

I am willing to admit that I pirate windows for the sole purpose of supporting IE with my webapps. It would be too expensive to do it legitimately, so my solution is not for everyone.

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Here's a great discussion about how to run multiple versions of IE on a single windows instance,

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/574463/running-internet-e...

I have found multiple IE just doesn't work the same a real IE install, and it is hard to duplicate the same bugs as users see. As you can see the top rated answer is "don't do it, use VMs".

I think MS provides VM images of Windows for testing IE.

If they are the same ones we tried, they are a giant pain. Lots of screwing around to get everything downloaded and set up right for multiple version of IE. Then they expire every few months, requiring regular doses of rigmarole.

And when you finally have them set up, you know what prize you win? You get to debug some crazy-making IE issue. As far as I'm concerned, free isn't enough: they should come with masseuses and bottles of good scotch in compensation.

here: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=11575

Do you test all of IE6, 7, 8, and 9 like that?

Yes, I do. Which is part of the reason I pirate windows, because it is the only way I know how to get an IE6 install.

It is reasonably fast to setup, because once you install XP, you can copy the VM, and install IE 7, copy the VM and install IE 8. I then do the same thing for Vista/Windows 7.

With 8 Gb of ram, I have no problem running 3 Xps, and 2 Windows 7, at the same time.

"With 8 Gb of ram, I have no problem running 3 Xps, and 2 Windows 7, at the same time."

That's good to know. I'm in the market for a laptop to replace my desktop, and I want enough RAM to run multiple VMs like that. Was thinking I'd need to find one with 12 or 16GB, which rules out MacBooks (unless I get an expensive 3rd party 2x8GB RAM upgrade). But maybe not.

I configure XP to have 512MB of ram, and Windows 7 to have 1 GB. This works fine if all you are running is the OS and a browser. I will re-iterate that an SSD is the important factor because it cuts the VM startup time by 75% in my experience.

I used to buy Windows licenses, even multiple use family packs. And I would install them in Parallels on my Mac for testing IE. That works, until your Windows keys start to expire. I guess I installed them too many times. Now my keys no longer work.

So now I pirate copies of Windows that I have paid for, because it's too much hassle to work with the legitimate versions.

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