Windows 7 and Internet Explorer 8 vs 9

Thorin · June 07, 2013, 01:11:46 PM

Okay, so at work we have a third-party component that creates nice PDFs from web pages. This component has a dependency on an older Internet Explorer module (a .dll). This .dll exists in IE8 or older, but appears to be missing from IE9 and newer ("appears" since the component just fails without a specific error message).

Okay, fine, IE9 is an installed update on Windows 7, I can just uninstall it and IE8 (which was part of the Win7 base OS) will just re-appear. Except it doesn't. Apparently newer versions of Win7 came with IE9 pre-installed, and if they did then the files for IE8 are not part of the OS image. Yeah, I didn't know that either until today.

Okay, fine, I'll go download IE8 and install it manually. Except I can't - all the installers are version locked to XP or Vista.

Hmm, this sucks. But wait, we use Outlook 2010 and Lync 2010, both of which require some version of IE to be installed! So I can't create the PDFs of the reports that I'm being asked to make if I have IE9 installed, but I can't roll back or even force-install IE8, and I can't email or IM my coworkers once I've uninstalled IE9!

This sucks giant donkey balls.

Melbosa · June 07, 2013, 01:49:49 PM

Old dependencies such balls... You should work in the Post Secondary sector. We have so much of this with Vendor software that our Labs teach that we had to stick with XP and IE 6 at some places.

Darren Dirt · June 07, 2013, 02:52:33 PM

Quote from: Melbosa on June 07, 2013, 01:49:49 PM
Old dependencies such balls... You should work in the Post Secondary sector. We have so much of this with Vendor software that our Labs teach that we had to stick with XP and IE 6 at some places.

Do you guys still support that inventory app that requires Windows NT 3.5x and Powerbuilder (if memory serves correctly)?

Thorin · June 07, 2013, 03:21:13 PM

Ha ha, XP with IE6. Thing is, the PDF component is server-side, so the server running the code has to have IE8 or older. The client can view our website in any modern browser.

My problem is that I'm trying to run my dev station as a server, but I can't roll back to old IE8.

Melbosa · June 07, 2013, 04:20:29 PM

VMs *cough*

Sorry got something stuck in my throat....

Seriously, that is what having a VM software or role installed on your laptop is for... times like these

Thorin · June 07, 2013, 05:10:58 PM

Yah I know. I've got Sql Server and Oracle running, always Visual Studio and sometimes two copies at the same time, AppFabric caching software, the Yammer and Lync and Outlook clients, which each consume 100-200 MB, then Trillian so I can stay in touch with peeps. There's a bunch of little apps, but those are the biggies. It's not uncommon for my physical memory to be at 85-90% used. Throwing in VM hosting software would just make my computer have to work even harder. And all just because Microsoft doesn't feel like updating their IE8 for Vista installer to IE8 for Win7. Seriously, it's probably just a version checker stopping me.

Melbosa · June 07, 2013, 07:42:44 PM

Nice thing about VMs and their software: it doesn't have to run all the time. Just when you need it.

Thorin · June 07, 2013, 10:37:45 PM

Yeah, you can shut down the VM, but actually most VM software for Windows these days run a service even when the VMs are all turned off. VMware sucked up a surprisingly large amount of physical memory even when nothing was running, back when I tried it last (last year). And like I said, there's already a bunch if other software that has to run all the time.

Nevertheless you're right that using VMs could help me here. Assuming, anyway, that I can find a legal copy of Windows 7 that includes IE8 as its base browser, which given that I used the authorized company Win7 ISO might be more difficult than expected. I'm not sure that our company has a Win7 ISO that doesn't have IE9 as its default browser.

Melbosa · June 08, 2013, 12:13:41 PM

OK, what version of Windows 7 are you running? If Pro or higher you can download XP Mode for free: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-CA/windows7/products/features/windows-xp-mode. That would get you your base you could us right?

Thorin · June 08, 2013, 05:15:02 PM

That might work. Although if I'm ever asked to test IE8 on Win7, I'd have to say no. But it would at least let me run IE8 on my machine in some fashion. However, XP Mode is just another virtual machine, from what I've read. So why not just take an old XP ISO and use that on a VMware or VirtualBox guest?

Lazybones · June 09, 2013, 12:25:00 AM

Install an old base install of XP, patch accept for service packs and IE.

Shutdown Snapshot

Upgrade IE and patch

Shutdown Snapshot

Upgrade IE and patch .....

Don't use this vm for anything but browser testing you can quickly hop to a version test it the. Hop to another.

If using VMware you can should even be able to tell it to never save its state so it always comes up clean.

Normally having lots of snapshots is a bad thing but if the state of the VM doesn't change then there aren't any growth or rollback issues to worry about