One of the difficulties of developing web applications is testing code in various browsers and versions of those browsers. For many browsers this is not too bad as you can have multiple versions installed on one machine. Microsoft has been the exception here as Internet Explorer is integrated into the OS – which means you can only have one version of IE running on a given machine.

For years the solution was to run VM’s for each version of IE you were required to test (yeah right Microsoft). I have also used IETester but my favorite solution has been Spoon. Until recently Spoon’s virtualization software allowed users to run most versions of IE through the web – that is until Microsoft requested that Spoon remove IE from their service a few months ago.

As if developers needed more reason to dislike Internet Explorer – Microsoft has made a move that will increase the hatred for IE dramatically. And they wonder why they are losing market share? Not only have they provided us a browser in which only one version can be tested on a given machine – they have taken away one of the only tools that has helped us test!

There appear to be some legitimate concerns that Microsoft has in allowing IE virtualization (security, etc.), but there has to be a way to work out a solution for everyone. Please Microsoft – bring back Spoon IE virtualization.