Install Internet Explorer 8 on Linux

Windows Internet Explorer 8 (abbreviated as IE8) is the latest web browser developed by Microsoft in the Internet Explorer browser series. The browser was released on March 19, 2009 for Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, and Windows 7. Both 32-bit and 64-bit builds are available. It is the successor to Internet Explorer 7, released in 2006, and is the default browser for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 operating systems except in Europe. As of June 2010, estimates of IE8′s global market share ranged from 26-28% says Wiki.

It offers several enhancements over its predecessor that includes improvements in RSS, Cascading Style Sheets, and Ajax support. It also has several added features like automatic tab crash recovery, suggested sites, web slices, and accelerators.

I am not a big fan of Internet Explorer but sometime you need Internet Explorer on Linux for Testing purpose (web developers) and To see IE only sites Like Microsoft Live sites.

Step 1: Install Wine. The easiest way to download and install Wine is via Ubuntu Software Center or Synaptic Package Manager.

Step 2: Download winetricks using this command:

# wget http://www.kegel.com/wine/winetricks

Step 3: Install winetricks, corefonts, and flash.

# sh winetricks corefonts flash

Step 4: Configure Wine by navigating to Wine –> Configure Wine –> Libraries and set the following DLLs as shown:

“browseui=”native, builtin”

“crypt32″=”native, builtin”

“gdiplus”=”native”

“hhctrl.ocx”=”native, builtin”

“hlink”=”native, builtin”

“iernonce”=”native, builtin”

“iexplore.exe”=”native, builtin”

“itircl”=”native, builtin”

“itss”=”native, builtin”

“jscript”=”native, builtin”

“mlang”=”native, builtin”

“mshtml”=”native, builtin”

“msimtf”=”native,builtin”

“msxml3″=”native,builtin”

“riched20″=”native,builtin”

“riched32″=”native,builtin”

“secur32″=”native, builtin”

“shdoclc”=”native, builtin”

“shdocvw”=”native, builtin”

“shlwapi”=”native, builtin”

“url”=”native, builtin”

“urlmon”=”native, builtin”

“usp10″=”native, builtin”

“uxtheme”=”native,builtin”

“wininet”=”builtin”

“wintrust”=”native, builtin”

“xmllite”=”native, builtin”

Step 5: Download Internet Explorer 8 from HERE

Step 6: Start IE 8 installer using Wine,

# wine IE8-WindowsXP-x86-ENU.exe

Note: Don’t select the Windows security updates option during installation as it may cause issues later on.

Step 7: Finally click on Restart now to get effects. After rebooting your system, you will see Internet Explorer 8 under Applications –>Wine –> Programs