IETester 0.5.2

Overview

IE Tester is a free app that can help users of Internet Explorer and web developers see how pages would look in different versions of the web browser. The package is its own web browser. It comes with a series of buttons along the main toolbar which can open a new tab using various IE rendering engines and Javascript engines. It is also possible to open all of the rendering tabs at the same time. The currently installed version of IE can also be used as one of the page renderers too.

Installation

The IE Tester takes up 111.7 MB including a host of language additions. During the installation the package provides the option to install both Start menu and Desktop shortcuts. The user is given the choice which folder they would like the setup package to install into; the default folder is shown which can be changed by navigating to a different folder instead.

No toolbars or other misleading software was added during the installation of IE Tester.

Interface

The interface has a list of large buttons on the toolbar to let the user open a new tab using one of the Internet Explorer rendering pages. The default (current) Internet Explorer software installed can be used as a base too. All versions of IE page rendering can also be launched at the same time to save clicking too many options one after the other when a full test of all versions is needed; mostly this last feature is likely to be of use to the web developers out there.

Pros

• Open a new tab that will render a page in one of five new representations of what Internet Explorer would the page would look like in IE 5.5, 6, 7, 8 and 9.
• Avoid the problem of needing to have multiple version of Internet Explorer installed within Windows for testing purposes and Windows not allowing that.
• Most useful for web site testers, graphics designers, web developers and programmers to test page code and designs across multiple versions of IE.
• Renders both Javascript and regular HTML.
• Free app

Cons

None.

Alternatives

IE Tab is a useful alternative to see how a page will look in Internet Explorer. It is an extension for Firefox and Chrome. It isn't possible to select different versions of Internet Explorer, but it still gives a decent idea based on the currently-installed IE version.

Conclusion

IE Tester is a useful separate program to Internet Explorer that will let users open tabs using Javascript and IE engine rendering from IE 5.5, 6, 7, 8 or 9, plus their currently installed version of IE as well (if this differs from the above list). This is useful for web developers and programmers who need to ensure that a web page design and content will display in an acceptable manner for people using older version of IE.