I understand this sounds really stupid because why would anyone want to use Safari on Windows, but unfortunately, I need it for a new job. Their ancient internal booking website only works on Safari. I’ve confirmed it doesn’t load on Chrome, Firefox, or any other browser. I can’t get Safari to open the download file on my Windows laptop. What can I do?
I’ve actually dealt with this exact issue before, been in QA for over five years, and every now and then, a client project demands testing on Safari. Here’s the thing: Apple hasn’t supported Safari on Windows officially since 2012, but older versions are still floating around. If you’ve already downloaded it and it’s not opening, it might just be a compatibility issue. Try right-clicking the installer and running it as administrator, that often works. And if that doesn’t help, you might want to test Safari on my Windows 11 laptop by using a VM with Windows 7 or 8 where Safari used to work a bit more smoothly.
Totally feel you, @prynka.chatterjee, I’ve faced similar hurdles doing front-end testing across browsers. I’d add to what you said: setting up Safari on my Windows 11 laptop via a VM is a smart path. You can use VirtualBox or VMware to run an older Windows environment — I usually go with Win 7 — and then install the last supported Safari version on that. It’s a bit manual, but it avoids messing with your main OS. Also, if you’re testing a legacy site, check if it specifically requires WebKit rendering — some older web apps depend on it, which is why Safari is sometimes non-negotiable.
Right on, @tim-khorev, and I’ve run into this plenty in cross-browser compatibility testing gigs. When all else fails, and running Safari on my Windows 11 laptop just becomes too much of a workaround, I usually pivot to remote macOS environments. MacStadium or AWS EC2 Mac instances can give you a real Mac experience in the cloud. No installations, no version headaches — just open Safari remotely and do your testing. It’s also ideal if the internal system is sensitive to environment-specific behaviors. Plus, it saves time compared to wrangling with outdated Windows setups.