Do you mean you can't run IE7 and IE8 on the same machine concurrently? Seems a bit of an oversight - I wouldn't trust a beta version of software to be fully featured, so would want to keep around an official release of a previous version.

just love these fuckers!

Nope, different versions of MSIE don't play nice with each other. It's not so bad, though - Firefox and Opera get along fine on the same machine.

I guess the solution is virtualisation if you want more than one IE knocking around (though IMO one is 100% too many).

This is a perfect example of why I don't run Windows. If I want five different versions of the same program on my machine I don't want the OS to prevent this.

to the biggest beta-test in the world.

It's running now for 20 odd years and it' called MS Windows.

Normally I use the Firefox browser for general surfing, but there's still lots of sites that don't work with anything but the IE browser. And as far as it goes, I would not want to use a beta version of the IE browser on those sites since I'm not sure they would work with it leaving me unable to do do online banking and so forth.

Its a beta why are people suprised theres a couple of bugs in it.

seriously though if your the type of early adoptor who in insterested in beta's then your going to keep your system patched up.

It's not an oversight.

In order to substantiate its claim that IE is "integrated" into Windows and can't therefore be removed to please anti-trust lawyers, Microsoft scattered much of its code among various system DLLs. By definition there can only be one copy of such OS components on the system.

So, when you install the Beta browser, you also get a bonus bunch of buggy new code integrated into the operating system. Result!

-A.

No you can't, because of the way MS insidiously tie IE in with the Windows Explorer shell.

Bastards.

Re: latest version of its Firefox browser

Nope, because Firefox can display www.panoramicearth.com just fine whilst IE8 beta 2 screws up the Google Map zoom control (and probably other things as well) while FF3 have no problems. Mind you, IE8b1 put the entire Google map in the wrong place on the screen - blimey, even IE6 (heap of shit that it is) gets that right!

And before anyone asks, yeah, I've submitted the error to MS.

Only an idiot would commingled code between any application and any OS. That never is a good idea.

But, then it is more important to Microsoft to scew their customers.

For the life of me I can not figure out how anyone would ever admit to buying from Microsoft.

That's what the .Net framework is for! Multiple versions of same program, no problem, give them different version numbers.

Interestingly, in one of the other threads a while ago, most seemed to be complaining about having to install multiple versions of the same program. I know this is like fish and a bucket but still, can't please everyone now can you.

It *is* possible, but only if you get your mitts on a special "stand alone" version. I had "normal" IE7 and standalone IE6 installed alongside each other at one point. Still do in fact, but it's been a long time since I booted this box into it's Windows install.

I'm running IE6, IE7 and IE8 on the same machine - my Linux laptop. I"ve got 3 XP virtual machines, courtesy of VirtualBox.

I've also got Safari running in one of the XP VMs, as well as Firefox and Opera. It makes testing web sites a viable proposition - which it wouldn't be otherwise.

So , this is more fun then the great HP stuff up in SP3 on all their AMD powered mobile note books !

@AC: all very well .Net allowing for multiple versions but in practise two versions of IE still cannot be installed on one instance of Windows.

Personally I like the way apps are done in OS X. Everything is self contained. Drag the app to your Applications folder or drag it to the trash can when you want to remove it. It takes more hdd space but with today's massive drives it doesn't bother me to have three versions of Firefox taking up 100mb of my disk. Beats having multiple VMs (or Wine bottles) for different IE versions :-D

Funny, I run 3,4, 5, 5.5, 6 and 7 all on one machine.

http://tredosoft.com/Multiple_IE

I'd probably lose 7 if I installed the beta though, but thats what VMs are for, right?

http://www.my-debugbar.com/wiki/IETester/HomePage

duh

You've hit on the one thing I like about the Mac.

Posting anonymously so no one will know that I'm really Webster Phreaky.*

*Or not as the case may be.

>> And before anyone asks, yeah, I've submitted the error to MS.

I can't believe you wasted your time...

It's a well known FACT that IE is not broken, it's Google maps and ALL THE OTHER WEBSITES that do not display properly that need re-written.

I.E. - It's Everything you need.

I.E. - It's Evolutionary.

I.E. - It's Exciting.

I.E. - It's... Excrement!

IE and Messenger feel like viruses to me. I hate them.

I get a warm fuzzy felling when I run Firefox and Google Talk.

The very word Microsoft to me represents evil, expensive, and virus ridden.

Funny how brands work.

Yep, and my laptop got screwed by MS updates so I had no choice but to roll-back from IE8. Can you imagine the nightmare i had trying to work out what they hell was going on with IE !!!! 2 hours of hard labour and re-installs later....ba$tard$ or what? I should $ue them. Still, prettier and more workable than Ubuntu, for now. I just wish the the linux lot would get off their freetard soapbaxes and produce a real and easy competitor to MicroShaft XtraPissingaround. Why can't someone invent LinuXP for us busy business users???? Its what we need, no frigging, just familiarity but stable and productive.