Browsium, a Washington-based startup composed of ex-Microsoft employees and partners, is planning to release an add-on that lets customers run the most-hated version of Internet Explorer within a more modern Microsoft browser. That's right: UniBrows will put IE6 in your IE8. Currently in beta, the add-on will ship later this month and will sell for $5 per user per year.

"Companies need something simple that isn't virtualization based," Browsium CEO Matt Heller told ComputerWorld. "UniBrows renders IE6 inside an IE8 tab without companies' having to change a single line of code in the sites or Web applications."

UniBrows reportedly provides full IE6 functionality and behaviors, including ActiveX controls support and JavaScript functionality. Administrator-specified sites are rendered as if IE6 was powering the separate tab while other websites and nonconfigured URIs are loaded natively in IE8. The add-on can be deployed with standard IT methods, managed by Group Policy within IE8 (so company IT administrators can choose IE6-specific sites and applications to render as IE6), and also includes a Microsoft Management Console snap-in. In contrast to heavyweight virtualization-based mechanisms, UniBrowse only requires 10MB of memory.

IE6 share is steadily falling, though in the corporate world usage is still higher than everywhere else. Compatibility problems are holding back many organizations from upgrading the browser since their internal Web applications don't work on IE8. Enterprises thus spend a lot of time and money trying to figure out workarounds.

One of Microsoft's recommendations is to use MED-V, which provides deployment and management of virtual Windows desktops for applications not yet compatible with newer versions. UniBrows does not, however, use a virtualized version of the old browser. Instead, Browsium has licensed several IE6 DLLs from Microsoft so that the add-on can run as a local process on the machine (more specifically, a child process of IE8). The DLLs take control of a given tab when the add-on is triggered by rules set by administrators.

UniBrows is aimed at companies that want to ditch Windows XP and move to either Windows Vista or Windows 7, without redesigning their internal sites and Web apps for IE8. They could install IE8 on Windows XP, of course, and the add-on would still work. This would defeat the purpose, however, since businesses are looking to upgrade away from XP, and it's IE6 that is their biggest obstacle. Most companies that choose to use the add-on will likely do so because they want to upgrade Windows to get improved security and functionality without worrying about compatibility issues.

UniBrows doesn't solve the IE6 problem permanently, of course. Microsoft will stop supporting Windows XP, and thus IE6, in April 2014, at which point it will stop releasing security updates for both. At some point, corporate users are going to have to move away from the ancient browser. UniBrows just lets them wait a little longer before they do.