Creating portable IE7/8

[PliotronX]

Before anybody posts a link, keep in mind MS has made it known that downloads of portable IE are prohibited.

So a large client recently had Windows 8.1, not 8, but 8.1 deployed to each of their systems. They did not foresee the kind of compatibility issues we are trying to work through. The reason for 8.1 being significant is that it bundles IE11 with it and no option to downgrade. Now the biggest issue we are facing is that their accounting/payroll software relies on Java and compatibility with IE10 or earlier. Believe me, I have tried everything. Document mode (F12), compatibility view, trusted zone, Chrome with IETab, Firefox with IETab... all have quirks or flat out don't load this website.

So I'm looking at two options right now, I have yet to test it, but IETester and I am wondering whether it will have better luck than IETab or document mode, or if it will be simply loading document mode in a different interface. The other option I'm playing with is creating a Thinapp package of IE8 from using a virtualized Vista SP2 installation. I am not having luck getting it to run under Windows 8.1 however.

What we need is to truly emulate an older version of IE because they barely just began supporting IE10 and IE11 is slated for about three months out and Microsoft decided to make it impossible to downgrade.

You guys got any idears?

 

[Fardringle]

Have you tried running Google Chrome in IE mode? It's not a perfect solution, but I've had some success with that on web sites that don't work with IE 10 or 11.

 

[PliotronX]

Thanks for that, yeah I have tried IETab for Chrome if that is the IE mode. Is there a hidden setting natively in Chrome? I've tried a couple of different versions of IE in IETab but it still doesn't want to work right all of the time so these poor people using this POS accounting software have to use IE with compatibility view for some pages and then Chrome with IETab for others and it's driving them bonkers.

 

[lxskllr]

What fails on the sites? Could they be worked around using css hacks, or js using addons for Firefox?

 

[oynaz]

A lot of compability issues with IE11 can be solved by applying Windows Updates to the server running IIS. I cannot remember which upgrades, though - I gave up reading the jungle of release notes and just applied all.

Worth a try.

 

[ConradGoodmanIT]

If the accounting packaging is causing you a real nightmare then put it on a terminal server or TSApp for now?