The original article is here: http://blog.mozmonkey.com/2008/vpc-ie6-ie7-ie8-on-mac-os-x/
I came across the above article a while ago when looking for a good way to test my web sites in Internet Explorer without having to resort to using a PC. Microsoft releases Virtual PC images of Windows containing various versions of the Internet Explorer web browser. These expire and are re-released periodically. At the time of this writing, they are about to expire again. I do hope that Microsoft will continue this valuable service. (It's the least they can do.) You can download the images here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=21EABB90-958F-4B64-B5F1-73D0A413C8EF
If you are using Windows, then you may download the free Virtual PC from Microsoft. Otherwise, download the free, open source VirtualBox. At the time of the article noted above, it was necessary to first convert the Virtual PC images before they could be used on VirtualBox. This is no longer the case.
The Virtual PC images available from Microsoft come packed in self-expanding archive files. This is a small problem if on a Mac. You cannot run the self expander, but I find that the free Stuffit Expander works fine to extract the image file.
Once you set up your virtual machine, Windows will boot, show you the EULA and attempt (and fail) to install a bunch of "new hardware". Just skip past all of this and then choose "Devices -> Install Guest Additions..." from the menu bar. This allows better integration with your system. It also makes folder sharing with your Mac possible.
Of all those hardware installation dialogs you clicked past earlier, one of them was to install a network device. Without this, you can't access the internet. At the time of this writing, VirtualBox emulates an AMD PCnet-FAST III NIC by default. You will need to download the driver for it here. Then you'll need to setup a shared folder and put the driver in it so that you may install the driver from Windows.
If you're a more visual person, just watch the video here (or inline below).
I found the conversion step was necessary if you wanted to run more than one of these images, ie. it's not necessary for the first image but is for each Windows image after that. However, I'm using VirtualBox 2.0.6. Has this changed in the newer versions of VirtualBox?
These instructions are also quite detailed:
http://blog.affirmix.com/2009/04/01/ie6-ie7-and-ie8-on-mac-os-x-step-by-step/
Darren Smith
June 10, 2009 9:28 PM