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A recent topic in the Development forum at Sysinternals Forums contains some information about how to use Visual C++ 2008 to create binaries that run on Windows 9x and NT. For NT, it seems to just be a matter of changing the Subsystem Version to 4.0. One might think to use the /SUBSYSTEM linker switch for this. However, when one attempts to do so, the shipping link.exe reports:

LINK : warning LNK4010: invalid subsystem version number x.y; default subsystem version assumed

In this case, the default subsystem version is 5.0, and NT needs 4.0. One can use an older copy of EditBin.exe to change this (I found the version that shipped with Visual Studio .NET 2003 to work):

editbin /SUBSYSTEM:CONSOLE,4.0 c:\path\to\your.exe

The same requirement also exists to get the executable to run on Windows 9x, but one needs to do a bit more work.

Louis Solomon has taken the time and put forth the effort to find what is needed for this, and has documented it at C/C++ EXEs and DLLs created by Visual Studio 2008 don't run on Windows 4.0 (ie, NT4 and Win9x).

Steve Reynolds, program manager of the Internet Explorer development team, has just announced an “update” of sorts to Internet Explorer 7 a year or so after its original release in 2006. Never mind the fact that we were promised regular updates and that “Internet Explorer 7 won’t be like IE6″ with regards to lack of new features and updates, what’s up with the list of the things that have changed with this new version!? Have a look for yourself at the “changelog:”

1. No need for WGA verification in order to get Internet Explorer 7
2. The menu bar is now visible by default.
3. The Internet Explorer 7 online tour has updated how-to’s. Also, the “first-run” experience includes a new overview.
4. We’ve included a new MSI installer that simplifies deployment for IT administrators in enterprises. Learn more about it here.

Interesting… Here’s our take on these “updates” 

1. It really shouldn’t have required WGA in the first place - Microsoft (for some odd reason) guarantees users of pirated versions of Windows “immediate” access to any security-related patches, upgrades, and hotfixes. Doesn’t Microsoft tout Internet Explorer 7 as a security-prioritized upgrade?
2. Noooo! We love the hidden menu bar! It’s clean, it’s clutter-free, and it gives IE7 a great look. Obviously the reason they’ve put it back is that users had trouble getting the menu to show (hint: press `alt` to make it appear), but who actually uses the menu bar anyway?! At least make it a first-run option… please? Sure, you can make it hidden again by flicking a switch in the options panel, but that’s just so wrong on so many levels…
3. Not exactly what we’d call an upgrade to Internet Explorer itself so much as it is an improvement to the external documentation. It’s just a file hosted on MS servers that users can opt to view.
4. Nothing more than an upgrade to the packaging/deployment for Internet Explorer 7, albeit a most-welcome one for sysadmins and software integrators everywhere.

Previously, I had written about IE6 and IE7 Virtual PC images that the IE Team at Microsoft makes available. As the previous release of the VPCs has expired, a refresh release has been issued. The new release expires on 2007-12-07.

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If you need to run IE 6 and IE 7 on the same system for some reason (testing?), what are you supposed to do?

One solution is the “Multiple IE installer” from TredoSoft. I haven’t tried it, but it is certainly a novel approach. Looks like you can run IE3, IE4.01, IE5, IE5.5, and IE6 with it.

TredoSoft also provides instructions and a utility that allows you to run IE7 side-by-side with IE6. Again, I haven’t tried it, but it is good to know that it is available.

When I need to test different versions of the browser, I have as of late been relying on VPC images of Windows XP with IE6 and IE7 that have been provided by the IE team. The VPC images run with the free Virtual PC 2007. They expire on 2007-08-17, for various reasons, but the IE team has in the past provided a “refresh” for the IE6 VPC image when it last expired, and the expectation is that this will continue. The expiration-refresh cycle allows for control over how “old” an image is allowed to get - refreshes have the latest security patches installed so people aren’t left running ancient and (overly) vulnerable VPC images.

The images won’t pass WGA for obvious reasons but this hasn’t affected my ability to test with them.

I tend to customize my IE settings pretty severely, so it is nice to be able to test with “stock” / “virgin” installs of IE. One might argue that using the VPC images doesn’t necessarily mean one has two different versions of IE on the same system - that the introduction of a VM means another “system” is involved. While this is true, the VM solution does prevent one from needing to have multiple physical machines around just for the sake of testing. And, while the TredoSoft solution may work, I can’t help but think that the possbility exists for the solution itself to be a potential cause of problems.

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