Internet Explorer has been one of the reference browsers for many years. Not in vain was it installed by default in each new version of Windows, so its use was the most common. This was the case until the arrival of the Internet and with it the appearance of other browsers such as Chrome or Mozilla. If you have used Explorer for a long time together with the first versions of Windows, surely it was an old version such as Explorer 6 or Explorer 8. Although the ideal is to always have the most recent version of any browser installed, you may need to go back to use an old version of Internet Explorer , and today we are going to tell you how you can do it.
Although it is not usual to have to resort to an old browser, it is possible that you may have the need to reinstall it . For example, decades ago it was common for web application developers to use Internet Explorer by creating tools that conformed to their standards. That is why, if we have a web page and we want to check how it looks and looks on old computers, it would be a good idea to use an old version of Internet Explorer. Furthermore, if we develop the website with old tools, it is possible that these are not compatible with more modern browsers.
Currently, if we use a Windows 10 computer, we can still use Explorer 11. This version should be sufficient to be able to correctly view any web page. In the event that these websites have been made with very old tools, they may not be displayed correctly and it may be necessary to go back to an older version. So today we are going to see how we can download older versions of Internet Explorer.
Download Internet Explorer 6 or 8 or other versions
Download Internet Explorer 6
Although Microsoft no longer offers the possibility of downloading Internet Explorer 6 on its website, it is possible to resort to other secure pages to download it. That is why we can find it on a page like Internet Archive , a digital library managed by a non-profit organization. This page is responsible for preserving all types of files , multimedia resources and software, making it a very reliable option for downloading files.
In Internet Archive we will find a copy of Internet Explorer 6 with Service Pack 1 available for download since 2017. We can download it both by torrent and direct download in ZIP file. It has an approximate weight of 77.5MB and the browser is entirely in English.
Download Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 from here.
Download Internet Explorer 8 or other versions
Windows 7 incorporates Internet Explorer 8 by default as its default browser. This can lead to legacy applications wanting to use it instead of Explorer 6. Being a more recent version it is possible to find several sources to download it from, although the best place to get a copy is OldApps . This page offers a large number of links to download old software for free. Thus we can find different unsupported system utilities, retro games, audio and video players, etc., all of them discontinued, ideal to install on older computers.
As it is a very complete and reliable website, it becomes a good option to download our copy of Internet Explorer 8 or other later versions. We will have the versions corresponding to Windows XP, Windows XP 64 bits, Windows Vista and Windows Vista 64 bits , occupying between 13 and 32 MB depending on the version.
If you want to download Internet Explorer 8 or other versions of this browser, you can do so from the following link .
Alternatives to installing old versions of IE
As an alternative to downloading the old versions of Internet Explorer for use, we can choose to use a virtual machine from a previous operating system where an old version of IE is already installed, or try to use the Compatibility View function that Internet Explorer 11 incorporates .
Use a virtual machine
The main problem that we are going to have to install old versions of IE on a recent computer is compatibility . In a native way, it is not possible to run versions lower than Internet Explorer 11 on Windows, so it will be necessary to install a virtual machine . These machines allow us to run another operating system as if it were an application inside our PC.
It is also the safest way to install versions as old as Explorer 6 or 8 since it allows us to isolate the use of these browsers from our system. Furthermore, if we install an old operating system as a virtual machine, it is normal to incorporate its corresponding and original version of Internet Explorer by default .
Try the Compatibility View of Internet Explorer 11
Internet Explorer has among its functions an integrated mode designed to repair websites that have been designed for older versions . In this way we can test the Compatibility View and check if we can see correctly websites that have been designed to be used in other versions of IE.
To test this option, we must open Internet Explorer 11 and select the button with the shape of a nut that is in the upper right part. Next, a drop-down menu will open where we must select the “Compatibility View Settings” . When you click, a new dialog box will appear with the name of the current page in the “Add this website” box . We write the page we want to see, and we click on “Add”, so that the website is placed as “View with compatibility”. Finally, we press “Close” and reload the page to check if it is viewed correctly.
