I tried to do the opposite once: to rank GitHub repos by effectiveness of contributions, where effectiveness is measured as stars divided by the number of contributions. Sort of, best things done quickly. With all cons and pros of this metric, I've got these projects in top 5:
1. ievms: Automated installation of the Microsoft IE App Compat virtual machines, https://github.com/xdissent/ievms
2. resume: Resumes generated using the GitHub informations, https://github.com/resume/resume.github.com
3. impress.js: It's a presentation framework based on the power of CSS3 transforms and transitions in modern browsers, https://github.com/impress/impress.js
4. deepdream: Neural Network art, https://github.com/google/deepdream
5. favicon-cheat-sheet: cheat sheet to favicon sizes/types, https://github.com/audreyr/favicon-cheat-sheet
In Show HN: GitHub trending alternative that ranks repos by contribution ratexdissent
ievms
Shell2011–2017
xdissent / ievms
ievms
Automated installation of the Microsoft IE App Compat virtual machines
43Distinct people
46Mentions
1Explicit recommenders
9.8KGitHub stars
What to know before exploring
What it is
Automated installation of the Microsoft IE App Compat virtual machines
GitHub
Where it is used
No documented product use was verified in the last source check.
What people are saying
It's not a lot of work to get a Windows/IE virtual environment up and running on a Mac, I use Virtualbox daily in combination with https://github.com/xdissent/ievms This shell…
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This week on Hacker News
Nov 7–Nov 14 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/14/2026, 5:04:57 PM UTC.
No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.
Mentions over time
HN mentions by year46 dated mentions
Observed mentions: 2011-08-22 19:25:09 UTC to 2017-01-21 20:40:38 UTC.
Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.
View mention counts and date ranges
| Period | Start (UTC) | End (exclusive, UTC) | Mentions | Submissions | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 2011-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2012-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 7 | 2 | 5 |
| 2012 | 2012-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2013-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 14 | 3 | 11 |
| 2013 | 2013-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2014-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 11 | 2 | 9 |
| 2014 | 2014-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 7 | 0 | 7 |
| 2015 | 2015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 4 | 0 | 4 |
| 2016 | 2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 2017 | 2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
From the project README
An excerpt from the repository, fetched Nov 13, 2026.
Read the project’s introduction
Overview
Microsoft provides virtual machine disk images to facilitate website testing
in multiple versions of IE, regardless of the host operating system.
With a single command, you can have IE6, IE7, IE8,
IE9, IE10, IE11 and MSEdge running in separate virtual machines.
Quickstart
Just paste this into a terminal:
curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/xdissent/ievms/master/ievms.sh | bash
Requirements
VirtualBox > 5.0 (http://virtualbox.org), select 'command line utilities' during installation
Curl (Ubuntu: sudo apt-get install curl)
Linux Only: unar (Ubuntu: sudo apt-get install unar)
Patience
NOTE Use ievms version 0.2.1 for VirtualBox < 5.0.
Installation
1.) Install VirtualBox and check the Requirements
2.) Download and unpack ievms:
To install IE versions 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and EDGE use:
curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/xdissent/ievms/master/ievms.sh | bash
To install specific IE versions (IE7, IE9 and EDGE only for example) use:
curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/xdissent/ievms/master/ievms.sh | env IEVMS_VERSIONS="7 9 EDGE" bash
3.) Launch Virtual Box.
4.) Choose ievms image from Virtual Box.
The OVA images are massive and can take hours or tens of minutes to
download, depending on the speed of your internet connection. You might want
to start the install and then go catch a movie, or maybe dinner, or both.
Recovering from a failed installation
Each version is installed into ~/.ievms/ (or INSTALL_PATH). If the installation fails
for any reason (corrupted download, for instance), delete the appropriate ZIP/ova file
and rerun the install.
If nothing else, you can delete ~/.ievms (or INSTALL_PATH) and rerun the install.
Specifying the install path
To specify where the VMs are installed, use the INSTALL_PATH variable:
curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/xdissent/ievms/master/ievms.sh | env INSTALL_PATH="/Path/to/.ievms" bash
Passing additional options to curl
The curl command is passed any options present in the CURL_OPTS
environment variable. For example, you can set a download speed limit:
curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/xdissent/ievms/master/ievms.sh | env CURL_OPTS="--limit-rate 50k" bash
Disk requirements
A full ievms install will require approximately 69G:
Servo:.ievms xdissent$ du -ch *
11G IE10 - Win7-disk1.vmdk
22M IE10-Windows6.1-x86-en-us.exe
11G IE11 - Win7-disk1.vmdk
28M IE11-Windows6.1-x86-en-us.exe
1.5G IE6 - WinXP-disk1.vmdk
724M IE6 - WinXP.ova
717M IE6_WinXP.zip
1.6G IE7 - WinXP-disk1.vmdk
15M IE7-WindowsXP-x86-enu.exe
1.6G IE8 - WinXP-disk1.vmdk
16M IE8-WindowsXP-x86-ENU.exe
11G IE9 - Win7-disk1.vmdk
4.7G IE9 - Win7.ova
4.7G IE9_Win7.zip
10G MSEdge - Win10-disk1.vmdk
5.1G MSEdge - Win10.ova
5.0G MSEdge_Win10.zip
3.4M ievms-control-0.3.0.iso
4.6M lsar
4.5M unar
4.1M unar1.5.zip
69G total
You may remove all files except *.vmdk after installation and they will be
re-downloaded if ievms is run again in the future:
$ find ~/.ievms -type f ! -name "*.vmdk" -exec rm {} \;
If all installation related files are removed, around 47G is required:
Servo:.ievms xdissent$ du -ch *
11G IE10 - Win7-disk1.vmdk
11G IE11 - Win7-disk1.vmdk
1.5G IE6 - WinXP-disk1.vmdk
1.6G IE7 - WinXP-disk1.vmdk
1.6G IE8 - WinXP-disk1.vmdk
11G IE9 - Win7-disk1.vmdk
10G MSEdge - Win10-disk1.vmdk
47G total
Bandwidth requirements
A full installation will download roughly 12.5G of data.
NOTE: Reusing the XP VM for IE7 and IE8 (the default) saves an incredible
amount of space and bandwidth. If it is disabled (REUSE_XP=no) the disk space
required climbs to 95G (49G if cleaned post-install) and around 22G will be
downloaded. Reusing the Win7 VM on the other hand (also the default), saves
tons of bandwidth but pretty much breaks even on disk space. Disable it with
REUSE_WIN7=no.
Features
Clean Snapshot
A snapshot is automatically taken upon install, allowing rollback to the
pristine virtual environment configuration. Anything can go wrong in
Windows and rather than having to worry about maintaining a stable VM,
you can simply revert to the clean snapshot to reset your VM to the
initial state.
Guest Control
VirtualBox guest additions are installed after each virtual machine is created
(and before the clean snapshot) and the appropriate steps are taken to enable
guest control from the host machine.
Resuming Downloads
If one of the comically large files fails to download, the curl
command used will automatically attempt to resume where it left off.
Unfortunately, the modern.IE download servers do not support resume.
Reusing XP VMs
IE7 and IE8 ship from MS on Vista and Win7 respectively. Both of these
images are far larger than the IE6 XP image, which also technically supports
IE7 and IE8. To save bandwidth, space and time, ievms will reuse
(duplicate) the IE6 XP VM image for both. Virtualbox guest control is used
to run the appropriate IE installer within the VM. The clean snapshot
includes the updated browser version.
NOTE: If you'd like to disable XP VM reuse for IE7 and IE8, set the
environment variable REUSE_XP to anything other than yes:
curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/xdissent/ievms/master/ievms.sh | env REUSE_XP="no" bash
Reusing Win7 VMs
Currently there exists a bug in
VirtualBox (or possibly elsewhere) that disables guest control after a Windows 8
virtual machine's state is saved. To better support guest control and to
eliminate yet another image download, ievms will re-use the IE9 Win7 image for
IE10 and IE11 by default. In addition, the Win7 VMs are the only ones which can
be successfully "rearmed" to extend the activation period.
NOTE: If you'd like to disable Win7 VM reuse for IE10, set the environment
variable REUSE_WIN7 to anything other than yes:
curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/xdissent/ievms/master/ievms.sh | REUSE_WIN7="no" bash
NOTE: It is currently impossible to install IE11 without reusing the
Win7 virtual machine.
Control
Read the full README on GitHubWhat Hacker News says
46 sourcesI got some of the way there with https://github.com/xdissent/ievms and https://github.com/xdissent/iectrl but I'd really like a way to provision things on to the VM once it's up and running. Windows seems to suffer from a historical lack of attention to automated provisioning.
In OSBoxes – Virtual Machines for VirtualBox and VMwareOn a OSX/Linux I was always using https://github.com/xdissent/ievms to get Windows VM that I want.
In Free Windows XP-10 VirtualBox/Parallels Images from MicrosoftI cant think of many gotchas. Just don't fall into a trap of trying to customize everything right away. Also, take advantage of the best trackpad you can find, especially the multitouch shortcuts. :)
Software I use often: SublimeText, iTerm, Chrome & Chrome Canary, SourceTree, npm, FileZilla, Adoce CC, Keka (zip/archives), Airmail, Sequel Pro (Great GUI for browsing/managing MySQL databases), Sip (color picker).
Also, MS offers VirtualBox images with Windows and a bunch of IE versions, for testing. Here's a quick tool to get them up and running fast: https://github.com/xdissent/ievms
In Ask HN: Tips for first time Mac buyerIn the past they also provided Vagrant boxes. Some people also developed easy Vagrantfiles for them. See here in a official blog post http://blog.syntaxc4.net/post/2014/09/03/windows-boxes-for-v... Would be great if they will support Vagrant officially for Edge. Although https://github.com/xdissent/ievms/ is pretty close but not maintained good (last update last year). This is how I want to spin up IE VMs:
vagrant init somwhere/edge
vagrant up
In Test versions of IE from 6 through 11 and Microsoft Edge using virtual machinesyes, this is a cool project. But unfortunately it is not using the latest images of all IEs and Edge is also not included yet although there is an issue for that https://github.com/xdissent/ievms/issues/263 . The maintainer does not update it regularly... last update last year. Also not compatible with VirtualBox 5.0.x. It screams for a fork ;)
In Test versions of IE from 6 through 11 and Microsoft Edge using virtual machinesAnd https://github.com/xdissent/ievms for a hassle-free installation.
In Test versions of IE from 6 through 11 and Microsoft Edge using virtual machinesAnd, if you frequently use IE virtual machines, you can use the ievms[1] script to manage the downloads, expiration times, etc. Saves a ton of bandwidth and disk space over the modern.ie downloads, too (it uses the modern.ie images as base installs).
[1] https://github.com/xdissent/ievms
In Announcing RemoteIE: Test the Latest IE on Windows, Mac OS X, iOS and AndroidBecause the alternative (the downloadable VMs) is a gigantic, unbelievable pain in the ass.
1) You have to download a complete system image of a machine running the specific versions of Windows and IE you're interested in testing against. Each of these images can require downloading up to 4 DVDs worth of data just to get it bootstrapped, which can take forever even on a fast pipe.
2) Want to test against a different version of Windows, or IE, or both? Now you get to download 4 more DVDs, all over again! (Yep, if you started testing, say, IE9 on Windows 7, and now you want to test against IE10, you have to download a whole new virtual machine from scratch.)
3) For reasons known only to Microsoft, they don't distribute the VM images as unified packages; instead, they're a bunch of DVD-size RAR files that have to be assembled into a complete
Read the rest
VM image after downloading. One of those RARs get corrupted en route? Back to downloading!
4) RAR files? In 2014? For serious? Yes, RAR files, for serious.
5) Now you've made it through the epic download, assembled your VM image, and are ready to get started. Hey, guess what! Microsoft is so paranoid about the chance that you're an Evil Pirate™ rather than a legitimate developer that they put a special surprise in the VM, just for you: when it reaches the end of the calendar quarter, the VM self-destructs. Yes, you read that right -- after all that, this VM that you marched through Hell to put together becomes useless after three months at most. So at that point, you get to do all the stuff listed above again.
(Yes, I know there are hacks you can make in the registry to extend this time for an extra quarter or two. It's still insulting.)
The whole process is such a pain that people have written tools like ievms (https://github.com/xdissent/ievms) just to automate the endless, tedious downloading-unpacking-installing-self-destructing-downloading-etc. cycle. And vendors like BrowserStack (http://www.browserstack.com/) make good money charging people to do the same thing they could conceivably do with the VMs, just because using the VMs hurts so much people will happily pay to avoid it.
And the kicker: all of this nonsense, of course, is only necessary because you can't install two versions of IE side-by-side. And the only reason you can't install two versions of IE side-by-side is because Microsoft, back when it was Pure Evil, decided to make it that way to force people to upgrade Windows when they wanted to upgrade IE.
Microsoft management are considerably more enlightened these days than they were back then. But this huge, ugly, painful, completely unnecessary wart on the Windows development experience that they forced upon the world back then still persists, either because someone in Redmond thinks it's a good idea, or just out of sheer laziness.
I have the feeling that https://github.com/xdissent/ievms will still work better and with less space than Vagrant boxes from MS.
In Expanding offers and VM delivery choices on modern.IEThe ievms installer (https://github.com/xdissent/ievms) automatically takes a clean snapshot on install, which allows you to restore to a blank "just installed" state, resetting the licensing timer in the process.
Still frustrating, but work-arounds are there if needed.
In Download test VMs of IE for OSX, Linux or WindowsFor even more convenience, use this script that automatically installs specific versions of IE VMs from the command line: https://github.com/xdissent/ievms
In Download test VMs of IE for OSX, Linux or WindowsThe easy way to use those is https://github.com/xdissent/ievms
In Modern IEAutomated Virtual Box install of IE VMs (for testing of course)
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