I am running Windows 8 and Visual Studio on my Mac using Parallels.

The project I am currently working on is configured to use IIS Express, but I want to test it using a VM that contains IE8.

As it turns out this was quite simple to setup.

1. Download the VM from http://www.microsoft.com/en-au/download/details.aspx?id=11575  or http://www.modern.ie/en-gb/virtualization-tools

2. Open the VM using Parallels (File, New, Add Existing Virtual Machine).

3. Change the Windows 8 VM and the VM containing IE8 to both obtain their own IP addresses from the local WiFi router.

            Virtual Machine | Configure | Hardware | Network. Change type to WiFi

4. Change the configuration of the web application to use the Windows 8 VMs IP Address

             e.g. change it from http://localhost:63527/  to http://10.0.0.20:63527/

5. Edit the binding in your IIS host config file

(You can find it in  %userprofile%\Documents\IISExpress\config\applicationhost.config )

Find the entry for your application and change it from from

to

6. Disable windows firewall on the Windows 8 machine.

7. Run Visual Studio as Administrator and run the application. It will now be accessible from the IE8 Virtual Machine.

References:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5442551/iisexpress-returns-a-503-error-from-remote-machines