Testing Browser Compatibility

If I'm using Windows 7 and IE9 to test browser compatibility for css/html/javascript is it "good enough" to use the developer tools and switch the browser mode between ie7, ie8 and ie9 or should i really be testing in each stand alone version? (using a virtual machine).

Also, should i be testing these separately on XP, Vista and Wi开发者_高级运维n7 or will Windows 7 give me enough to test with?

I work on a Mac, and I'm trying to limit the number of virtual machines I have to run to a minimum.

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...what's your baseline? IE7? One vm would do fine. I run Virtual Box for Win XP, but would suggest a stand alone machine for Win 7. I'd expect it to be a dog on a vm. But you might find it good enough. Funny thing is, FF on Linux and Win (4.0 for example) does produce different rendering results.

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If your main goal is to test visually, I would recommend a tool like http://browsershots.org/

There are providers (such as browsercam.com) which allow you even to use Selenium scripts, to test the functionality as well (FF only though).

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You can run IETester:

http://www.my-debugbar.com/wiki/IETester/HomePage

It's not perfect, and crashes, but it'll probably handle 95% of your issues if not more.

Otherwise, yes, ideally you're running each browser in their own VMs.

If you have a team that needs to do this, you could run all your browsers in server VMs and then use remote desktop as well.

MS not allowing multiple IEs to run in one windows install is near the top of my list as to why I despise MS as a web designer. ;)