So you need to run Internet Explorer on your Mac and you don’t want to bother with a full Windows install in something like Parallels. What are you left with?

Update: You can download Internet Explorer and Windows virtual machines for free that run within Mac OS X. That method works for IE7, IE 8, and IE9, although they run within a VM rather than as an app like the below method.

Try WineBottler, it runs off of Wine and ‘bottles’ various Windows apps into launchable .app files that sit in your Applications folder like any other Mac app. There’s several packages included in WineBottler but the ones you are interested in using are Internet Explorer.

Download Internet Explorer for Mac

Downloading Internet Explorer for Mac directly can be done with IE5, but as we mention below Microsoft stopped supporting it officially after this version. Later versions of Internet Explorer can be downloaded and run through the WineBottler app within Mac OS X, the instructions below will walk you through this process with versions 6, 7, and 8.

Here’s how to get Internet Explorer running on your Mac using WineBottler:



Download and Get Internet Explorer 6 for Mac

* Download WineBottler

* Launch the WineBottler app

* Click on ‘Install Predefined Prefixes’ on the left column

* Select “Internet Explorer 6.0”

* Click ‘Install’

* Select the folder you want Internet Explorer 6.app to be installed into (Applications)

* Wait a few moments while IE6 gets installed, you may be asked about installing DCOM98.EXE from Microsoft, which is a required part of IE. This goes through Wine.

* When the Installation is finished, locate the newly created Internet Explorer 6.app located where you specified earlier and launch

* You are now running Internet Explorer 6 on your Mac!

Download and Run Internet Explorer 7 or 8 in Mac OS

* Installation and setup instructions are the same as above but click on “Internet Explorer 7 or 8” in the package installer. See screenshot below for installation reference.

* You will then look for the newly downloaded and installed “Internet Explorer 7.app” file within /Applications

Stability of running IE for Mac via WineBottler

If you are looking to install Internet Explorer 7 or 8 be aware that the developer of WineBottler warns both IE7 and IE8 are not particularly stable. I can confirm this, both crashed during testing the app but IE8 was particularly problematic. If you want to run Internet Explorer 7 or 8 in Mac OS I’d highly recommend just installing Parallels, VirtualBox, or VMWare with Windows, it’ll be far more stable.

You can download WineBottler from the developer.

What about Internet Explorer 5?

IE 5.2.3 was the last supported and released version of Internet Explorer by Microsoft for Mac OS. You can get Internet Explorer 5.2.3 for Mac OS X if you are interested in running this older version.

Why would you run Internet Explorer in Mac OS X?

Well, there’s a bunch of reasons you’d want to use IE on your Mac, but most are developers looking to insure cross-platform and cross-platform compatibility. Again, if you are looking to use IE6, IE7, or IE8 frequently in Mac OS X, it’s probably best to use something like Parallels, VMWare, or VirtualBox. I am partial to VirtualBox because it is a free download. In this case you will need to have a Windows install within the virtualization software to be able to run Internet Explorer on top of Mac OS X.