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Installing Internet Explorer 8 in Windows XP mode

  • Artikel

If you are like me, and obsessively ensure that all your virtual machines are kept up-to-date with the latest patches at all times, you may have wondered why your Windows XP mode virtual machine seems to be stuck with Internet Explorer 6.

No matter how many times you check for updates – you never see a new version of Internet Explorer.

The reason for this is that we have disabled that update in Windows XP mode by default. 

The primary reason that Windows XP mode was designed was to allow people to run legacy applications that will not run on Windows 7.  Many of these legacy applications require the older version of Internet Explorer to run – and it would be problematic if Windows XP mode automatically updated itself to Internet Explorer 8 and broke these applications.

If you do not need to keep Internet Explorer 6 around – you can update your Windows XP mode virtual machine by opening Windows Update, and choosing the custom option.  Here you will see a warning that states that some updates have been hidden:

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If you click on the link to show these updates again – you should immediately see the option to install Internet Explorer 8:

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Cheers,
Ben

Comments

  • Anonymous
    October 18, 2011
    Or you could just download & run the installer from here: www.microsoft.com/.../details.aspx in the virtual machine.

  • Anonymous
    August 27, 2013
    I have a problem, when I click custom in XP mode windows update the site just sits there...doing nothing, it never finds any updates...any idea's?

  • Anonymous
    September 20, 2013
    Same as Frank Snyder, and in both windows update, microsoft update. Even if i try to install IE8 alone :( No solutions?

  • Anonymous
    September 26, 2013
    Works also with VirtualBox and WinXP

  • Anonymous
    October 15, 2013
    Same problem as Frank Snyder, Gialdini Gianmarco. Any ideas how to solve it?

  • Anonymous
    December 04, 2013
    We have to have IE8 to run an application in XP mode.  When it starts the download that is where it stays never goes past downloading once you have started the IE8 setup.  Anyone have an idea on why that is.  We have 10 new laptops that need to be setup and they all having this issue.

  • Anonymous
    December 06, 2013
    same problem as the rest of you folks on a new install. Any solution please post.

  • Anonymous
    December 09, 2013
    Same issue here with Xp Mode and Installing Internet explorer or windows updates. I read somewhere that this is part of Microsoft not supporting XP anymore from April 2014.

  • Anonymous
    December 17, 2013
    "No matter how many times you check for updates – you never see a new version of Internet Explorer. The reason for this is that we have disabled that update in Windows XP mode by default." Huh?  I was prompted to update to IE 8 & like a fool I said OK.  Got to "downloading updates for internet explorer 8" & sat there forever.  IMHO, you didn't do a very good job of disabling.

  • Anonymous
    December 17, 2013
    Unfortunately Ben, you cannot use IE6 without it prompting you to update to 8.  I think ie8 is also required for windows update.  So, is this really a good decision?

  • Anonymous
    March 27, 2015
    Clicking the 'Custom' option put IE6 in a seemingly endless loading cycle. I tried a few times but did not see the IE8 install update option. Finding another link to the .exe did: download.microsoft.com/.../IE8-WindowsXP-x86-ENU.exe