We're purchasing a dell laptop to use specifically for testing websites in old Internet Explorers. Dell lets us choose between Windows 7 and Windows 8.

(I'm a Mac user, so...) As I understand it:

1. Installing IE9 will allow testing IE7 and IE8 via compatibility mode
2. IE9 is NOT installable on Windows 8

Assuming #2 is correct, I understand that there's a VM option for installing old IEs on Windows 8, but I'd rather avoid VMs altogether (otherwise, we might as well use VMs on our Macs).

So then, as I see it –– and keeping in mind that this is just a testing machine, not a productivity one –– **the best course of action is to get dell to ship the laptop with Windows 7 installed**.

Does that sound like a reasonable course of action?

Or, do I have my facts wrong? Like, perhaps:

1. IE9 is in fact installable on Windows 8(?)
2. IE10, which *is* installable on Windows 8 allows emulating IE7 through IE9(?)
3. It's actually not that painful to use VMs on Windows 8 for this purpose. Honestly [this SU post](https://superuser.com/questions/502014/how-can-i-run-legacy-versions-of-ie-ie7-ie8-on-windows-8) did not convince me.

Any tips and informed opinions would be appreciated. Thanks in advance...