This might seem a bit elementary for some more seasoned developers, but this is a step by step guide to get your cross browser testing working as seamlessly as possible in vmware under os x. This has saved me tons of time, since I no longer need to cross browser test on a development site, or under a separate local install for Windows.

I use Win XP as a VM to test in IE7, but this works in newer versions of windows as well for more modern browsers. XP is the only one that actually runs IE7 as intended. The emulators all suck.

1. In VMWare Fusion, go to Virtual Machine > Settings > Network. Make sure your Network settings are set to Bridged.
2. Open terminal. Type this in – sudo pico /applications/xampp/xamppfiles/etc/httpd.conf
3. Enter your password. Hit return.
4. Look for the line that says “Listen 80″. Change that to Listen 8888
5. Go like 2 pages down, and look for the string that says “#ServerName www.example.com:80″ and change that to “#ServerName www.example.com:8888″
6. Hit ctrl-x, hit ‘y’, then hit enter to save.
7. Open system preferences, network, and copy your IP address.
8. Open VM-Ware. Start Windows. In ‘my computer’ open c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts with notepad. You’ll see a few IP address, probably 127.0.0.1. Add your IP address to the end of the list, and a site name. Like this: 192.168.0.23 yoursite
9. Open your web browser within Windows. Now you should be able to open http://yoursite:8889 in IE.
10. Party down.