Microsoft Edge (Because I have trust issues) and RW uses webkit to test things

I have given in to my paranoia Microsoft has made a lot of promises about Edge Browser but given their history I don’t trust them nor should you.
So as a mac user and not owning a windows machine I still need to some how test my sites on Edge.
Here is a solution for everyone who refuse to buy an operating system just to check a Microsofts latest web browser is playing nice with your site.

Just for the cost of the bandwidth to download and in my case that is free.

Nothing is pirated here its all FREE to use and does not get you in any trouble.

Step 1 download Virtual Box

https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads

Step 2 download MS developer VM for testing Edge.

https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-edge/tools/vms/mac/?utm_source=SitePoint

Don’t follow MS instructions they are wrong very wrong convoluted.

Follow this

Step 3
Apple App store free down load to Unarchiver (FREE)

Step 4
unarchive the MS file

Step 5
unarchive the unarchived file you unarchived (because MS is crazy)

Step 6
put the MSEdge - Win10TH2.ova file somewhere you can find it. You will want to trash this file as its 4.85 GB

Step 7
double click the .OVA file
or
go to import or you can read through this https://www.maketecheasier.com/import-export-ova-files-in-virtualbox/

Step 8
Start Appliance yes it slow starting (Hint when you turn it off save its state faster than going through this MS windows hell of starting up .

Final note
this is a VM with 4GB of ram dedicated to it, It is not snappy by any means yet for testing my site its good enough.

5 Likes

Another tip, the first time you run your new virtual machine, create a snapshot of it in VirtualBox. Each time you need to do some IE / Edge testing, you can keep rolling back to this snapshot. Not only does this ensure you’re viewing webpages with a completely cleared cache, but it will also resets the 30 or 60 day expiry imposed on the downloaded virtual machine. That way you can avoid the hassle of having to re-download the virtual machine every time it expires!

Generally speaking, Edge is a good browser. But on occasions, I have still encountered a few super-strange bugs. Audio and video players are one area of weakness. So it’s worthwhile continuing to test everything through Edge. Especially now that Edge is finding its way onto a growing number of tablet and other handheld devices.

Of all the virtualisation software I’ve used over the years, VirtualBox remains the best. It’s not as pretty or feature-rich as some of the paid solutions, but for the basics it’s absolutely ideal. Very fast and stable.

4 Likes

Good point should of thought about the time issue. I forget I have Fibre so the downloads are no big deal for me it maybe for others.