Testing Web Pages on One Machine

I work on a Macintosh. It’s easy for me to check my sites on Safari and Firefox… and maybe even Opera if I’m bored. But how does one check out my designs for the Windows OS? There are a few options to pursue.

The first option is to buy Virtual PC for Mac. It’s from Microsoft so you know it’s legit. However, I’ve found it beyond slow on non-Intel Macs. In this environment, error messages are punchlines from often heard jokes that take too long to be delivered.

If you own an Intel Mac, you should try out Boot Camp, an Apple application that allows you to install a Windows OS on your Mac. 

The downside of Boot Camp is that you have to restart and log into one or the other OS. To run both a Mac and Windows OS on the same machine, look into Parallels, which cots about 80 dollars, or Q, which is free.

Personally, I go straight to BrowserCam since I still run on a non-Intel Mac. In one place, I can check the layouts of pages on numbers browsers on the PC without having to resort to buying a separate computer or installing a piece of software on my computer. 

If you own a PC and wish to test Mac browsers, you could try iSafari, however I found the web site not to be as responsive as BrowserCam. 

These options should cover most of your potential audience. Just in case I missed something, maybe you could tell me how you test your web site designs?