Download Free Windows XP and Vista Releases to Test Websites Against Multiple IE Versions

Microsoft recently updated its free Windows XP and Windows Vista downloads making fresh releases available as a part of a continued effort (more than a couple of years now) to make it easier for website developers to test drive their projects against multiple versions of Internet Explorer. Devs that create websites need to make sure that users will have the same experience when running different browsers, as well as when leveraging different flavors of IE for example.

Early adopters currently running Internet Explorer 9 are bond to have come across the emulation functionality that the browser offers, covering a number of older IE document modes, including IE8, IE7 and IE7.

Sometime however, emulations are not 100% accurate in depicting the user experiences associated with the actual browsers.

This is why Microsoft not only recommends, but also provides a variety of resources for developers to test their projects against IE versions still supported.

“One way to run multiple versions of Internet Explorer on one PC is to run the older version(s) of Internet Explorer using Windows XP Mode on a Windows PC running Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise, or Ultimate edition,” revealed Ted Johnson, Lead Program Manager, Internet Explorer.

Windows XP Mode is essentially a free copy of Windows XP SP3 that the software giant made available to Windows 7 customers requiring easy and cost free virtualization solutions for application incompatibility issues.

“Interested in trying this? This linked document provides detailed instructions for setting up a Windows XP Mode virtual machine and then copying it to create two additional XP Mode virtual machines and configuring them to run IE7 and IE8,” Johnson stated.

Of course, devs can also download the “Windows Virtual PC virtual machine hard drive images (VHDs) for testing websites with different Internet Explorer versions. These images were recently updated and now expire on May 18, 2011,” he added.

Windows 7 RTM Enterprise 90-Day Evaluation is available for download here.