Internet Explorer for Mac
Are you looking to install Internet Explorer for Mac? Today I discovered a nice tool on Github which installs free Windows virtual machines using VirtualBox on OS X. The only reason I’d use these virtual machines is to have different versions of Internet Explorer browsers running side by side for testing purposes.
So here’s what you need to do to install Internet Explorer for Mac:
1. Download VirtualBox if you don’t have it already.
2. Choose what version of Internet Explorer to install. Then type the following commands in your terminal window:
Install ALL versions of Internet Explorer: IE 6, IE 7, IE 8, IE 9 and IE 10
curl -s https://raw.github.com/xdissent/ievms/master/ievms.sh | bashInstall Internet Explorer 7 Only
curl -s https://raw.github.com/xdissent/ievms/master/ievms.sh | IEVMS_VERSIONS="7" bashInstall Internet Explorer 8 Only
curl -s https://raw.github.com/xdissent/ievms/master/ievms.sh | IEVMS_VERSIONS="8" bashInstall Internet Explorer 9 Only
curl -s https://raw.github.com/xdissent/ievms/master/ievms.sh | IEVMS_VERSIONS="9" bash3. Open VirtualBox and launch your virtual machine. You will be prompted to type in account password, which is “Password1″. The password is also in the “Passowd hint” field if you forget it.
UPDATE: 13/Apr/2013
Internet Explorer for Mac just got better. Now, you can install IE10 on Windows 8.
Install Internet Explorer 10 Only
curl -s https://raw.github.com/xdissent/ievms/master/ievms.sh | IEVMS_VERSIONS="10" bash
Cheers
Marko
Thanks for posting! Very helpful!
Have you been able to get the ethernet to run on the virtual machine?
nevermmind. I think I have it figured out. There are more instructions on github.
I installed all the versions adn actually do’t need all of them. How do I uninstall some versions of IE ?
In Virtual Box, you can right-click on the image and remove it. Another way to do it is to physically remove the virtual image from ~/.ievms/vhd directory. It’s a hidden directory, so you’ll need to make them visible.
Make sure to disable “Enable absolute pointing device” on System->Motherboard in order to see the mouse pointer in Windows Vista/7
Do these expire?
Thanks,
You mean do the virtual images expire? They don’t expire in a sense that you can use them whenever you want. But I think the Windows session is limited to 1 hour or something, which is more than enough time for me to test.
Hmm, thumb up for this famous blog!
Come back again for the last command line as the first one failed at ie9 on my Mac. lol
If you decide to install 4 operating systems at ones, which could be around 30GB of data, there is a chance you’ll lose Internet connection when your computer goes to sleep. 3/4 with a single command ain’t too bad.
Mark, thanks so much for this. Saved my ass at work.
Any idea if/when an IE10 VM will become available?
I have some good news for you Harry. You can install IE10 VM now by running:
curl -s https://raw.github.com/xdissent/ievms/master/ievms.sh | IEVMS_VERSIONS=”10″ bash
Enjoy!
Thanks so much for the sharing. I tried to get VirtualBox and followed the steps mentioned above to have IE9 on my old macbook, but I just realized that it took too much space on my hard drive. Is it possible to locate the IE files and remove them permanently? (I’ve finished uninstalling virtualbox, tried search through all of the files but still couldn’t find where the files are located. )
I really appreciate any help you can provide.
Virtual images are stored in a hidden directory called .ievms
The location of files should be /Users/yourusername/.ievms As I mentioned, .ievms directory is hidden so you have to show hidden directories on your system to delete it. One of the tools that will allow you to do that is http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/12194/invisibles
Many thanks!
Thanks for that great work. Last week I had a problem. The Win XP Vms did expire and so I wasn’t able to login anymore. Is there a way to set them back or anything else. The last choice would be to download a new copy of them.
yes, yes, is there any way to reset the date? Windows for IE8 wants me to validate.
@Scott – From memory I think you can skip the validation part and just use windows for about an hour before it shuts down. 1 hour is normally plenty of time for me to spend in Windows.
sadly, no, it tells me “this copy of Windows must be activated before you can log on.” I’m going to try and reinstall just those two (7 and 8).
FYI:
running the 7 and 8 scripts again resulted in a quick, fresh install that works, since the disk images were still local.
You my man are a legend!
Cheers
I got this error:
Progress state: VBOX_E_FILE_ERROR
VBoxManage: error: Appliance import failed
VBoxManage: error: Could not create the clone medium ‘/Users/Iva/.ievms/IE7 – WinXP-disk1.vmdk’.
VBoxManage: error: VMDK: Compressed image is corrupted ‘/Users/Iva/.ievms/IE6 – WinXP-disk1.vmdk’ (VERR_ZIP_CORRUPTED)
VBoxManage: error: Details: code VBOX_E_FILE_ERROR (0x80bb0004), component Appliance, interface IAppliance
VBoxManage: error: Context: “int handleImportAppliance(HandlerArg*)” at line 781 of file VBoxManageAppliance.cpp
what should I do? thnx
Iva, I’d try removing .ievms directory and reinstall. Make sure your download completes successfully and you have write permissions in that directory.