The developer tools for older versions of Internet Explorer were a separate install. With Internet Explorer 8 (IE8), the tools are built in. To access it, open them from the Tools menu or hit F12.
Apart from the tools we’re used to, here a couple new ones:
- Javascript debugging works! There is also the console window (which the likes of FireFox has had for a while), allowing you to print trace information from your javascript code. This is much better than using alert boxes!
- There is now a Profiler as well, allowing you to see function call times as well as examine the call tree. Very useful for building AJAX based sites.
- You can test Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) compatibility. The tool allow you to change the Browser Mode and Document Mode between IE7, 8 and Quirks mode, so no need to have a VM just to work with IE7. For final QA testing however, I’d recommend using a real IE7 version.
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