Windows doesn't support multiple versions of IE on the same machine without some hackery. But, if you're a Windows user and poor, Microsoft provides free virtual machines to test IE 6, 7, and 8. The images might work on other VMs too.
Though there are a couple minor bugs, it works fantastically for testing IE6, 7, and 8 without jumping through hoops.
Combine IETester with Safari for Windows, Firefox 3 (and 2), Opera, and perhaps Chrome and you've got a full suite of browsers to test with just on Windows. For the most part, that will give an accurate view of how it will look on Mac and Linux, but it doesn't hurt to have a VM of both a Linux distro and (cough) OS X available to test properly with.
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Windows doesn't support multiple versions of IE on the same machine without some hackery. But, if you're a Windows user and poor, Microsoft provides free virtual machines to test IE 6, 7, and 8. The images might work on other VMs too.
Virtual PC (free): http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=04D...
Disk images with IE 6, 7, 8 (free): http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=21E...
I just install all the other browsers (FF and Safari mainly) and do those manually.
For Windows XP there is also a nice installer for having multiple Explorer versions on the same machine (3,4,5,6 in addition to normally installed 7):
http://tredosoft.com/Multiple_IE
IE 3? That's some dedicated testing.
Don't forget about IETester: http://www.my-debugbar.com/wiki/IETester/HomePage
Though there are a couple minor bugs, it works fantastically for testing IE6, 7, and 8 without jumping through hoops.
Combine IETester with Safari for Windows, Firefox 3 (and 2), Opera, and perhaps Chrome and you've got a full suite of browsers to test with just on Windows. For the most part, that will give an accurate view of how it will look on Mac and Linux, but it doesn't hurt to have a VM of both a Linux distro and (cough) OS X available to test properly with.