I want to test my web application on Internet Explorer 9 but I don't want to buy a copy of Vista/Win 7 on my developer machine with Windows XP.
Anyone knows a workaround, free and easy?
Use another machine.
Or better, get a set of Virtual Machines established which have an array of operating systems and browsers installed. Build enough VMs, and you are covered for all eventualities, regardless of whether you would personally use them or not.
Link to Internet Explorer Application Compatibility VirtualPC Images
You can't. The closest you'll get is IE9Preview.
I've found that IETester is not a bad way to quickly switch between browser versions for testing.
http://wiki.winehq.org/WineOnWindows
You can try running Wine on windows.
This will let you emulate a newer version of Windows
However, it will be really buggy (not mentioning how Wine is already buggy)
Its a unix/linux application ported for Windows
:)
IE 7,8,9
https://browserlab.adobe.com
Use
https://browserling.com
In unpaid version you have 3 minutes to test any site accessed from Internet on any browser.
In paid version you have unlimited sessions and ssh tunneling.
Related
Im using parallels desktop on my macbook (lion os) and I want to get xampp/localhost to work on the version of XP I have installed so I am able to test my websites in Internet explorer.
Obviously I don't want to have to install two different versions of xampp on my parallels desktop as that would mean duplicating sql databases etc.
Anyone know how to do this?
Thanks for any help in advance!
After further research I have found that if you go to Terminal and type in the command "ifconfig" and look for the "vnic1" section which is the last section to be printed and it has an ip address called "inet" e.g. "10.37.129.2" this will take you directly to local host.
If it doesn't work you must ensure that your parallels is set to a shared network under the preferences network section. Hope this helps others who are having difficulties.
Trying to develop and test an ASP.NET MVC 2 as well as a hosted WCF app where the client is limited to IIS 6.0 (OS Windows 2003). I am developing and testing in Windows 7 which has IIS 7. I do not have access to a Windows 2003 disk, so creating a VM doesn't appear to be a viable option for me...
Any suggestions or tips would be greatly appreciated
Update:
Lucas' response led me to consider a virtual dedicated server... Going to try that for a testing environment.
You don't have many options
You bend (get a MSDN subscription or Win 2k3)
Your client bends (upgrades to Win7/2k8)
Find someone you know who can let you use an IIS 6 machine.
Get your client to let you use one of their machines during development
You can virtual PC it. If you can use Windows XP, M$ provides a virtual machine + WinXP trial. It's more for using IE6 I think, but I don't think it limits application installation like IIS.
I don't have the link anymore, but it's provided by M$ from their download area
I'm looking for a way to programatically change features ("Programs and Features" -> "Turn Windows Features on or off") in Windows Vista (and newer Redmond OS, e.g. Server 2008).
Ideal solution would be in the form of a Powershell script (Get-Features, Set-Features), however any pointers to MSDN/other documentation would be very welcome! (my initial quick Google/StackOverflow search came up empty).
Having an automatic way to turn features on or off would allow me to automate computer setup for different scenarios. For example, to develop ASP.NET applications using IIS a bunch of IIS features need to be installed that are not installed by default. My current process of "make sure at least the features shown in this screenshot are checked" leaves a lot to be desired.
I just found an extension that works for Windows 7. "PowerShell module to Add/Remove Windows 7 features" - https://psclientmanager.codeplex.com/
in windows server 2008, there is the ServerManagerCmd command. This can install IIS with or without the subfeatures you want. You can also install/uninstall most of the major Windows features.
You can setup your server the way you want then run ServerManagerCmd -query template.xml. This exports the configuration to an Xml file.
You need to transform the file to prepare it for use on other servers
Copy the transformed file to the server you want to configure and run ServerManagerCmd -inputPath transformTemplate.xml
The way to do this in Vista and Windows 2008 is with the PKGMGR command line tool. Search MSDN for this tool to find a list of features/packages.
It looks live Powershell V2 on Server 2008 R2 (Beta) has a module that does exactly this. Let's hope Windows 7 will have this functionality as well...
For more details, see Managing Server Features with PowerShell Cmdlets on Windows 2008 Server R2 Beta
There's unfortunately not a set of cmdlets, yet, nor is there anything in WMI or any other easily-accessible area. Interestingly, Server Core's script-based role management features will only work on Server Core :). Windows 7 may bring some relief in this regard - but it also might not. In the meantime, you're pretty much left with the native Win32 APIs mentioned in the other answer.
As an aside, I should point out that MS deliberately doesn't want applications installing major OS features due to the security considerations. Adding IIS isn't something done lightly, and it brings with it security considerations and responsibilities. Witness MS' own application setups, which check for pre-reqs like that, but do not offer to install them for you. While I understand wanting to make your app setup as painless as possible, there's also damage to be done in putting major functionality into the OS under someone's nose :). I personally would prefer that apps err on the side of caution, tell me what they need, and let me make the decisions about how and what to install things - especially major functionality that will open ports and be able to execute arbitrary code, like IIS.
Can I really do this?
As I am reading up on virtualization, I am getting more excited. The latest thing I am realizing, that it may actually be possible to take my existing XP Pro development workstation(VS 2005/vs2008/sql server etc) and simply convert the entire installation to a virtual image and load onto my new box? Sounds to good to be true? Does it really work that easy? If I can take a complete "dump" of a machine and simply move it onto my new workstation, not even need to find all my old install disks, that is truly amazing.
Does one of the VM products support this better than others? that may tip the scales for me to pick one platform over another..
How is it that I have not gotten onto this VM bandwagon sooner!?
Edit/Update: Just as a quick update in case anyone is interest. Got the machine, decided to go with vmware and had a heck of a battle, first trying to figure out which product to use, and then actually getting anything to work. The instructions are not obvious and wasted my 6 hours trying to a) get a vmware working, and b) actually trying to do a conversion of my old XP machine into a VM - never got it working.
In frustration I downloaded MS Virtual PC in minutes, had it up and running in 5 minutes, and was creating VM's within the hour....VERY easy. I haven't however figured out how to convert my old XP machine into a VM - but, now having a VM running, it seems obvious to me that I wouldn't want to actually run a primary development setup in my VW window anyway.
Definitely VMware Converter.
VMware Workstation is the most user friendly and fully-featured app that I've used and is well suited for debugging. Check out an awesome video demo of the record/replay feature here.
VMWare has p2v. By far the easiest solution you could take, and it's pretty easy to convert the VMDK into a VHD if you want to use a different solution.
Three options I have used.
1) Vmware convertor will create an image for you you can move around forever. You can then run it for free in the VMWare player.
I think the easiest thing would be to connect an external drive to your computer, convert a computer into an image onto that drive, plug the drive into another machine, and try it out..
2) Ghost is ghost.. You can use something like norton ghost or a linux equivalent to mirror the drive onto a larger one. If you have driver issues you can do an inplace re-install over the existing xp install and it will replace the drivers and leave all your applications, data, and settings intact.
3) Go Mac. They're strange. You can link two macs up with a firewire cord and it will copy over your entire setup, including virtual machines. I have my laptop backed up and if it dies, I can transfer the identical computer onto another one in minutes as all the internal components in Apple are intel and the drivers are one and the same.
Options I've heard of:
4) Microsoft Virtual PC. A fourth option that I have been hearing good things about is Microsoft Virtual PC. They bought the technology from another company and
5) Citrix - This one is intriguing because it would conceivably work as well, if not better than VMware. At least that's what I hear from my Citrix friend.
Welcome to the club of virtualisation. I set up a virtual machine on my Vista Os and running xp simultaneously. Its great as some apps don't work in 64bit (ie. those old 16bit apps.). You can try Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 its most probably the most user friendly. It's what I use. You can try Virtualbox too.
You can set up a partition and allocate space to the new operating system for this to work. Or use a spare formatted secondary drive if you have one.
Best of luck!
We now do all development in VM's.
The desktops are locked down tight and out IT manager is happy.
We use VirtualBox and it's fine.
There are fairly clear instruction for using physical disks directly for VirtualBox anyway.
The P->V transofer is not terribly hard.
Can't say the same of MS VPC or VMWare.
Here's a link to XenConvert, which is specifically designed for this "P2V" (Physical to Virtual) conversion, to show that the answer to your first question is "yes", it can be done.
http://www.citrix.com/site/ss/downloads/details.asp?downloadId=2318170&productId=683148
However, that tool is designed for stuffing your XP machine's image into a server, rather than onto your desktop machine.
For your more specific problem of doing this for your desktop, you're talking more about "Client Virtualization" (as opposed to Server Virtualization), where tools like XenClient, KVM, Virtual Box, qemu, Parallels, VMWare Workstation, etc. are better suited, and each will have their own P2V conversion technique.
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Closed 10 years ago.
Which OS do you prefer to program on? Client or Server
There is a school of though that if you are doing (mostly) web programming (or other server based code), you should use a server OS for your dev machine, since that's closer to the environment where your app will be running.
Update: I should add, this is really directed to the Windows crowd
OK, I know you're mainly talking about windows but...
I used to develop on windows for deployment on *nix servers. Sure there were lots of gotchas with this way of working, but you just kind of get used to it.
In October 2005 I switched to Linux, initially as an experiment, but I never went back. There was a steep learning curve. I thought I knew *nix pretty well after 10 years of dealing with it, but I knew nothing compared with the amount I learned using it on my desktop machine.
Workflow has been so much smoother developing and deploying to similar platforms.
More recently, we have even started to pick servers running Ubuntu server, so that they most closely match our Ubuntu desktop development machines.
If you are talking about the difference between a desktop and a server edition, I'd guess you needn't worry about it. If you're developing on one OS for deployment on another, I'd consider changing your desktop platform.
There is a school of though that if you are doing (mostly) web programming (or other server based code), you should use a server OS for your dev machine
I think that applies more to 'system programmers' rather than web 'application programmers'. Why? There is definitely great value in knowing the platform intimately, like one would get in living with the OS, etc. day in and day out. But not everyone can or should need to go there.
While my main production environment is RHEL4, Linux just does not work for me on the desktop--in fact, it drives me crazy. I find working on OSX close enough, though. And I just love working on my Mac rather than an XP box.
I'm doing the Java thing, and the "write once, run everywhere" hype actually works for me. :)
Update: I should add, this is really directed to the Windows crowd
Minute late, bit short ;) Maybe you should edit the title too...
It seems like the question is more about whether to use the server or client version of the same OS. So my answer is this: the client should be just fine. You can develop and test web applications of many flavors on client versions of Windows, OS X, and Linux. OS X and Linux obviously make Apache-based apps a little easier by coming with Apache pre-installed, but a download of XAMPP or WAMPP can quickly turn a Windows box into a solid development platform for LAMP applications, as well.
And if you're doing ASP.NET, your development tools (if you're using something in the Visual Studio line) have test server mechanisms built in.
So unless you have some other need for wanting the server version, I would stick with the client. It's less money, and you really don't need the server version.
The client vs. server OS issue is only relevant on MS platforms. And even there it depends on what you're developing for.
As far as I understand for Sharepoint development you need a server OS to run your code
If you're just doing vanilla ASP.Net stuff then it's mostly personal taste.
Edit
As Tyler commented, you can run MOSS/WSS on Vista but it's not supported. Or you could develop on a client OS and run sharepoint on a server OS in a VM.
Regardless of the operating system you're actually talking about, it shouldn't matter. Most applications you might write won't need to worry about the differences (if there indeed are any). Only in rare cases might you use some specific functionality that might only be available on a "server" edition of your OS.
There are other considerations, for example Windows server editions are tuned by default to give less priority and attention to desktop programs, and more attention to things like the file cache. Personally, I would always choose a "client" edition of my chosen OS.
Personally I use Windows Vista but that's because it's what I like and I can use it well. But in all honesty it doesn't matter, your OS should be something you are comfortable in and has the tools you need to be productive.
I would say your test environment is the one you need to have as close to your production environment as possible. I write in RoR on Vista but test it in a Linux VM setup the same as my web server and at work we have a Win2k3 server with IIS6 installed to test our .Net sites on but I develop on Vista using IIS7.
I use Windows Server 2003 set up as a workstation.This is the guide i have used for several years. Really like it.
This is going to be a bit of a weird answer but I'm a big fan of Windows 2008 and Hyper-V, as a workstation (I know). Essentially I'll only install Office like software on my workstation and all the development will be in Virtual Machines.
Assuming there's no Win2k8/Hyper-V availiable I'd gladly settle for some old WinXP (but w/Virtual PC).
Hyper-V allows you to get great performance out of any .VHD VM that you run. Both Virtual PC and Virtual Server are free (as in beer) and you can set up a ton of infrastructure that allows you to re-purpose virtual machines (ie. Base Machines, Differencing Disks, Undo Disks). The .VHDs are also interchangeable so you can re-host a previously enjoyed .VHD for other developers to enjoy on some virtual server, OR they can take a copy of it, rename the virtual machine and enjoy your ready-to-go environment with some Virtual PC!
This is awesome for bringing team members up to speed (environment wise) in less than 10 min. YOu can also use it to VERY QUICKLY provision machines that would otherwise take days to setup/configure.
Never mind the much better ability to test from different OS', or be able to roll back changes using Undo disks, VMs are a life saver! Start virtualizing people!
For some of the great benefits of Virtual Machines/Differencing Disks consider this post by Andrew Connell.