DebugBar forums / Can IE Tester run on a system without admin rights?

dragontheory · 2009-04-01 23:07:56

Hello,

I work for a major company that will soon (in all it's wisdom) switch our dev teams to IE7. We have MAJOR security to deal with and do not have control (admin rights) of what is installed on our local machines. But we still have many IE6 users. I am looking for a PRACTICAL solution to retain our ability to test in IE6. Will IE Tester accurately render IE6 (XP) on an enterprise wide network without admin rights on our local machines? This means Flash, CSS, JS, other client side scripting and dynamic content all work as a normal IE6 (XP) browser out of the box with little to no configuration)? Can this work as a stand-alone app (no installation required)?

Thanks.

fabrice · 2009-04-01 23:16:09

Hi,

I am working on it ! IETester needs admin rights to be installed (could be changed in a future release, the installer is just packaging files, so I could change the destination folder so it could work without admin rights).

When not launched as admin right, IETester is missing transparency (should be solved in the next IETester release for IE5.5), flash and Java.
For CSS and JScript, it should behave the same without admin rights.

I would be happy to have more time to improve IETester if your major company is willing to sponsor me :-)

dragontheory · 2009-04-06 14:27:01

Thanks for responding so quickly. Sorry it took so long to get back to you. Unfortunately I am just a lowly lead dev on the company's payroll, so I can't promises anything, but I have managed to raise such a stink over retaining our ability to test in IE6 that the board wants me to give a presentation! Sorry for all the questions but as I said, security in NUMBER ONE around here. If there is any HINT of the possibility of potentially compromising a system then it will be dropped like a hot potato.

Does IE Tester manipulate the OS? If so, how? Does IE Tester manipulate security on a system? Or is it COMPLETELY stand-alone (self contained - doesn't run scripts to manipulate anything outside of itself)? What does IE Tester do to enable multiple versions of IE on a single machine?

By "transparency" do you mean alpha transparency support for transparent or translucent PNG images (when a hack is in place for IE6 and under)? Can IE Tester handle any back-end infrastructure such as Java or Ruby on Rails?

Thanks again for your time

fabrice · 2009-04-07 09:29:31

Does IE Tester manipulate the OS?

No

Does IE Tester manipulate security on a system?

No

Or is it COMPLETELY stand-alone (self contained - doesn't run scripts to manipulate anything outside of itself)?

Completely stand-alone

What does IE Tester do to enable multiple versions of IE on a single machine?

IETester is loading specific versions of ie dlls and is redirecting COM calls to those specific dlls instead of standard dlls.

Note that IETester is embedding old IE dlls, so it might be a security problem as those old dlls can have security bugs.

fabrice · 2009-04-07 09:31:22

By "transparency" do you mean alpha transparency support for transparent or translucent PNG images (when a hack is in place for IE6 and under)?

I mean pgn transparency problem on IE6 and IE5.5 (http://homepage.ntlworld.com/bobosola/).

Can IE Tester handle any back-end infrastructure such as Java or Ruby on Rails?

I'm not sure to understand the quesiton here : IETester is a web browser client, it does not care about server-side. So, you can run your server using anything you want.

dragontheory · 2009-04-16 18:43:06

The presentation went well. They are very interested. How much is an enterprise license?

A few requirements though:
- It must fully emulate IE6 in an XP SP3 environment "out of the box", without admin rights.
- It must be completely benign and not "phone home" or touch anything outside of itself.

Thanks again for your time.

fabrice · 2009-04-16 18:50:23

The presentation went well. They are very interested.

Great :-)

How much is an enterprise license?

IETester is free ! You or your company can "sponsor" the project by giving a donation though :-)

Note that DebugBar is not free and you'll need to buy a license in order to use it, either with IETester or Internet Explorer (see http://www.debugbar.com/register/buy-step1.php to buy a license, or you can contact me for more information).

- It must fully emulate IE6 in an XP SP3 environment "out of the box", without admin rights.

That's not the case so far. Some things are not yet working (like Flash and transparency).

- It must be completely benign and not "phone home" or touch anything outside of itself.

That's the case.

dragontheory · 2009-04-17 14:19:41

Do you have a time line for when they might be working (without admin rights)? Want to go back and tell the "suits" when these features would be available. Thanks again.

fabrice · 2009-04-17 15:01:05

Do you have a time line for when they might be working (without admin rights)?

Unfortunately not. I don't even know if it is possible to make it work !

Announcement

#1 2009-04-01 23:07:56

Can IE Tester run on a system without admin rights?

#2 2009-04-01 23:16:09

Re: Can IE Tester run on a system without admin rights?

#3 2009-04-06 14:27:01

Re: Can IE Tester run on a system without admin rights?

#4 2009-04-07 09:29:31

Re: Can IE Tester run on a system without admin rights?

#5 2009-04-07 09:31:22

Re: Can IE Tester run on a system without admin rights?

#6 2009-04-16 18:43:06

Re: Can IE Tester run on a system without admin rights?

#7 2009-04-16 18:50:23

Re: Can IE Tester run on a system without admin rights?

#8 2009-04-17 14:19:41

Re: Can IE Tester run on a system without admin rights?

#9 2009-04-17 15:01:05

Re: Can IE Tester run on a system without admin rights?