HOWTO: run IE6, IE7, IE8 on Linux in VirtualBox

[hopla]

You need: virtualbox, qemu, wine

apt-get install virtualbox qemu wine

Download the free(!) Microsoft Internet Explorer Application Compatibility Check VPC Images here:
http://www.microsoft.com/Downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=21eabb90-958f-4b64-b5f1-73d0a413c8ef&displaylang=en
(Note: you don't have to download the full pack, you can cherry pick specific combinations of XP/Vista and IE6-8)

Extract the VPC image(s) with wine (double-click).
(Note: it might take a while before the first window shows up)

Turn the VPC image(s) into (a) VMWare image(s) (which is/are readable by VirtualBox):
qemu-img convert -f vpc image.vhd -O vmdk image.vmdk

Setup a new VM in VirtualBox, using the vmdk image as an existing disk. Boot it, you will see the Windows boot progress bar and ... it will BSOD shortly after.

Fixing the BSOD:

The BSOD is caused because the virtual Windows tries to load processor drivers for the wrong processor (it is not running on VirtualPC proc, but on VirtualBox proc). Or something like that...
We need to force Windows not to attempt to load drivers for the processor (it doesn't need any proc drivers, because it's all virtual anyway).
Start safe mode by (frantically) hitting F8 at Windows boot and choosing safe mode.

Ignore all the 'New hardware' detected warnings (we will deal with those later). Start a command box and run the following command to disable the loading of processor drivers:

sc config processor start= disabled

(note the space between '=' and 'disabled'!)

Restart the virtual Windows, it should now boot all the way to the Windows Desktop.

Now just when you think you can start browsing the web with IE, you will find out that the virtual Windows needs to install the drivers for the AMD PCnet NIC, which are located on the Windows install disk. Fortunately for those without a Windows install disk, there is another way :)

Download AMD PCnet drivers here:
http://www.amd.com/us-en/ConnectivitySolutions/ProductInformation/0,,50_2330_6629_2452%5E2454%5E2486,00.html

Make an iso file containing the drivers. I used Brasero for simplicity. Choose to create a Data Project, add the zip file (or the unzipped files, saves you a step in Windows), create the iso. No need to burn an actual cd!

Stop the virtual Windows, edit the settings in VirtualBox: mount your brand new iso.

Start the virtual Windows, when it asks to install the drivers for the PCnet nick, point it to the (unzipped) drivers. Et voila! You have teh innernets!
(Now you can also try to install the other drivers it complains for, but it's not really necessary)

NOTE:

The image README says the image will expire on April 30, 2009. I don't know what will happen to your VMWare/VirtualBox image then. I don't know if Microsoft will provide new images (but I would think so).

[phorque]

Seemed a bit daunting when I read this, but it's surprisingly easy to pull off. Thanks so much! :)

[SuperMike]

A great find. I may have to use this.

But did you happen to see how long the downloaded images last? It's Apr 1, 2009 today for me, but the downloads expire on Apr 30, 2009. Am I to suspect that Microsoft is saying, "Here, here's some free downloads to test your sites against our browsers for free. But you'll have to reinstall in 30 days. This is our way of making certain you don't keep using the OS without a license."

Anyway, I'm wondering about that -- don't know for certain if this is true or not.

[maticer]

SuperMike: this is true, after Apr 30, 2009 will not boot anymore and Microsoft will publish (I guess) new images. Vista have expiration set that it will expire after 120 days after first run.

IS this agains't EULA of those images or not? Is it legal to convert images from vhd to vdi? If it is... I suppose it would be also legal than to share those converted images?

[hopla]

Nice to see that people like my tutorial! I posted it 2 weeks ago and apparently it took a while before the mods decided to allow it. Almost forgot to check back on it...
(/me enables auto subscription now)

As for the concerns about expiration and EULA:

* I hope Microsoft gives out new images after Apr 30. I wouldn't mind reinstalling new images every 3 months, as long as new ones keep coming...

* I would think that just by doing the steps in this tutorial you are already violating the EULA. Let alone distributing these images...

[matthewn]

Just a note to anyone who happens across the thread -- Microsoft has indeed posted new machine images at the same URL given above. Those new images have new expiration dates.

However, having followed the steps laid out here with an image that was set to expire on April 30, I have a virtual machine that's still working fine on May 4. Perhaps the expiration doesn't survive the conversion process?

Anyway, uber-thanks to hopla for one of the most useful how-to's I've ever seen on ubuntuforums. :)

[hopla]

All right, sweet! (I had not checked yet) The new images are valid until August 31.

I've tested one of my old images and I can also confirm that it still boots. Besides the conversion, this could also be because the expiration is a feature of VPC.

Anyway, I'm happy to see that this hack still works :)

Many thanks for all the kudos! (All though, for completeness, I must admit that this tutorial is rather scraped together from various websites and blogs (which I can't remember). With a little of my own magic added for fixing the BSOD and the network drivers.)

[rudy.b]

Thanks hopla for this tutorial, it worked great for me to install three XP VMs. The only difference was that I didn't get the Blue Screen of Death so I didn't have to perform the service configuration. Perhaps the new images from Microsoft don't have this problem.

I'm running Jaunty with version 2.1.4_OSE of VirtualBox.

[Pnuts]

Is there an advantage to using these premade images vs simply creating a new image and installing a legal XP install?

or is it essentually the exact same thing but without the expiration?

Im in the process of migrating off of windows to Ubuntu but need IE6 for work related internal sites that support nothing else, not even IE7 or IE8, lol. Just finding the best way to do this while being able to meet that requirement.

[hopla]

Well, these images are 100% legal as well, even if you don't have an XP key (that's the beauty of it). But converting them might not... So if you really want to be 100% safe you are indeed better of using a legal XP installed in a VM (XP's EULA says nothing about VM's, however Vista's does!).

I also think that these images are technically the same compared to your own XP install in a VM. However, you might not be able to install your own XP 3 times in a different VM so you can run one with IE6 and one with IE7 and another with IE8...
With an XP SP3 install CD you might not be able to get IE6 at all, since SP3 comes with IE7 (if I'm not mistaken) and there is no way to downgrade to IE6.

Hope this answers your questions...

@rudy.b: nice to hear about the BSOD :)

[danielrmt]

Thanks, downloading it right now. Just a question: do you really need wine? I have already extracted some exe files with file-roller, as if it was a zip.

[hopla]

Yes, when I last tried it, I needed Wine. I also tried it with the file-roller first but that didn't work ('invalid/damaged archive error' or something like that). Since I had Wine installed anyway, I didn't bother to look any further. But you could try some more things, like using 7zip... You never know that might work :)

[hopla]

Today both my IE6 and IE7 virtual XP displayed a message (see screenshot) that the evaluation period has expired and that the system would shutdown in 1 hour. However, I could still reboot them afterwards.

Anyway, should they ever fail, we can still install the new versions :)

[rudy.b]

Actually, I discovered that the conversion from .vhd isn't strictly necessary if you're just going to install one of the images. But installing a second image causes an error:

Cannot register the hard disk '...' with UUID {...}
because a hard disk '...' with UUID {...} already exists in the media registry ('...')

which is resolved by converting the images to .vmdk as described in the original post.

Also, if you want to create a shortcut to launch your VM from a panel you can use the following command: VBoxManage startvm <image-name>

[yekibud]

@OP: This is great! Thanks for posting. Saved me the hassle of tracking down an XP image. I exhausted all my options for IE6 testing with ies4linux, firefox plugins and online services like xenocode. They were all broken in some way.

[mvalviar]

Hi, I was able to install the image in VB and I got the internet going. But how to I access localhost from inside the virtual xp?

[hopla]

But how to I access localhost from inside the virtual xp?

Hi, you can access localhost from virtual OS (and vice-versa) very easily in the new Virtualbox. No more messing around with virtual interfaces in the host system for a simple network between host and virtual OS!

I attached the virtual interface of the virtual OS to NAT. Then I can access the host system on 10.0.2.2. To know the ip of the virtual OS (or the subnet if 10.0.2.x is not the correct subnet in your setup): just use ipconfig/ifconfig in the virtual OS.

[benwalker1981]

Hi All,

I'm a new ubuntu convert, alas still with dual-boot Vista for Photoshop and Cubase duties, but now running Jaunty quite happily...

Since I'm doing all my web dev on the ubuntu side, I needed a way to test IE8/7 etc and went through all the steps - downloaded XP SP3 with IE8 inside VBox, got the network drivers up and running, until finally http://myhostipaddress points to apache's localhost directory.

Then................... "This copy of windows requires activation"

Dang. Can't log in any more. My network connection worked fine, but just refuses to activate..

where next?

[jayturley]

Thank you so much for this guide. I just followed it and found that it differed a little from the original post:

There was no prompting for the AMD PCnet drivers. I did however have to download and mount them. But I had to open the Hardware Manager myself and update the drivers manually.

Once I did that, I took a snapshot of each machine with the browser open and running. I am seeing the Windows Genuine Advantage warnings, but I am hoping that if I keep returning to the snapshot, I won't have to worry about it.

Still trying to figure out the local host stuff, being a linux noob.

EDIT: (Doh!) I just have to "/sbin/ifconfig" and pull my IP address out of there. Then that's usable in the virtual machines. Nice.

[tone77]

I'm having the same issue as benwalker1981. Virtualbox opened the image fine, but the bloody thing keeps compaining that it needs to be activated. These images are supposed to be activated, so this makes no sense.