Button Placement: IE8 Windows 7 not display the same as IE8 on Windows XP?

HTML & CSS
1

I am testing a website in a VM running Windows Vista IE8 and it runs great. However, a friend mentioned to me that the shopping basket page does not display the “Checkout” button in IE8 for him in Windows XP I am very confused / concerned. This very same button shows up fine for me within Vista running IE8.

Will IE8 run any differently on Windows XP compared to how IE8 runs on Windows Vista?? Aren’t they both running the exact same IE8 rendering engine, regardless of what operating system they are on?
If I should be running VMs with all possible operating system / browser build combinations than please advise.

Here is what I currently have for IE testing:
Windows XP: IE6
Windows Vista: IE7
Windows 7: IE8
Windows 7: IE9

Should I also be running Windows XP: IE7, IE8, IE9?
Windows Vista: IE8, IE9?

(In order to truly test each operating system environment for Internet Explorer?) In the past, I have always thought that having this many VM’s would be a bit excessive, especially since browser testing the same browser in different operating systems has provided the same results. So if someone could explain to me what IE versions will run differently in what Windows OS I would greatly appreciate it. Also, since then I have now included “position:relative !important” in my IE8 css file and it seems to have fixed the button for my friend’s Windows XP IE8. (Even though Windows Vista IE8 displayed it fine without that code!) I just want to add: he was not running Compatibility View within IE8. Does Windows XP force compatibility view for IE8 for some strange reason?

Also, Browser Shots does not quite work for this example because the buttons do not show up until something has been added to the shopping basket page. The IE testing programs seem to fail because they are emulating their environments and are not running the full browser within the program.

Thanks,

2

It’s unlikely that you need every OS for testing. It’s more likely to be a coding issue. Any chance of posting a link?

3

As Ralph said its likely to be a coding issue although I believe windows 7 ie8 may actually have some bugfixes not in earlier versions. There are also some odd reported bugs between service packs.

However, most of those bugs are rare and I haven’t really tested them to see if they are correct or not.

It sounds like the other computer is perhaps tripping compatibility mode - maybe a broken script perhaps. Or it could be a latency issue where some bugs only show on slower or faster machines or different download speeds.

Should I also be running Windows XP: IE7, IE8, IE9?

IE9 doesn’t run on XP.:slight_smile:

These days I just use IE9 and then use the browser modes in developer tools to do quick test 7 -9 and then follow up with IE tester for IE8/7. The developer tools mode doesn’t find some specific IE7/8 bugs but 99% of the time they are pretty close. I also have a laptop running IE8 Vista for more testing if needed but rarely use it. IE tester is almost always spot on for CSS rendering but crashes a lot. I know users who are running virtual machines and get more inconsistent results than IEtester because they haven’t updated all the service packs and other updates etc.

Soon you won’t need to test IE7 anyway as the usage is dropping fast and time will be better spent elsewhere.