Run Internet Explorer 6 on Windows 7

Having recently read the Browser Zoo article on Habré , I was very excited about the possibility of integrating the capabilities of Windows XP into the Windows 7 environment. This article will be only a small addition, which I hope will help avoid some of the “rake” when setting up such a solution.



When setting up your own browser zoo, I was interested in two problems:

1. The ability to launch Internet Explorer 6 directly in the Windows 7 environment (and other applications installed in Windows XP Mode), that is, for example, from the Windows 7 desktop or from the Quick Launch.
2. Full-fledged Full-color operation of applications installed in Windows XP Mode both in virtual machine mode and in Windows 7 environment, because initially all applications (and the virtual machine itself) in Windows XP Mode only work in 16-bit color, which is not very pleasant and sometimes just uncomfortable.

Having installed Virtual PC and Windows XP Mode, I found an interesting opportunity to run Windows XP applications in Windows 7. It turned out that you just need to install the application in a virtual machine and in the Start menu of the parent operating system in the subfolder "All programs / Windows Virtual PC / Applications Windows XP Mode ” duplicated the corresponding folder of the Start menu of the virus machine. The application launched in this way was executed in the environment of the parent operating system, being completely confident that it is running in the original Windows XP. But there is one feature - this mode is available only when the virtual machine is turned off , about which a corresponding dialog will appear when you try to start the application.
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Wonderful! But then I ran into two issues indicated above - Internet Explorer and the rest of the “native” virtual machine applications in the Start menu of the parent operating system are not visible, and the color depth of the virtual machine is strictly limited to the 16-bit palette and the standard desktop settings dialog do not change. In addition, when running an application in a Windows 7 environment, applications also use a 16-bit palette (because their execution is actually ensured by the execution of the virtual machine).

With the first ailment, everything is solved by creating your own folders in the “Start” menu of the virtual machine and copying the necessary shortcuts there, “native” Internet Explorer version 6, for example.

But with the second, I puffed for about an hour trying to figure out the features of setting properties of a virtual video adapter. However, he did not come to anything, and, as usual, googled using the search. The solution found was as follows:

It is necessary to set the maximum color depth limit in group policies. It is done this way - we launch the group policy editor (for example, “Start / Run / gpedit.msc”), open the “Computer Configuration / Administrative Templates / Windows Components / Terminal Services” branch in it and find the “Limit maximum color depth” setting, open the editing values, set the value to “Enabled” and specify the corresponding color depth value. Next, you should restart the virtual machine, after which we get the necessary full-color palette.

PS: I ask you not to judge strictly, if the post seemed to be “captain”, perhaps it will help someone to save time and nerves.

PPS: And I beg you not to throw holivars on the topic of the death of IE6 in the comments, firstly because the fight against IE6 is, was and will be, but there are still some people who still have to put up with working with him for some time and secondly, because it’s not just about IE6 alone.