Standalone IE6 gets its version from IE7 and gets the wrong CSS

I have an odd question related to how IE6 gets its version info with respect to conditional comments.

So far I had been successfully using a standalone IE6 inside a custom directory, which I had gotten from (I believe) either MS or evolt - to fix my current issue I also tried to download IE6 from MS (using the instructions from here) to override IE7 but the MS connection keeps breaking - also the files from evolt (the other s开发者_如何学Colution) have disappeared.

Today while running IE7 I did try to install the MS developer toolbar and clicked on 'repair current developer toolbar' when offered. To make a long story short, this affected my IE6 install, as now IE6 still looks (and renders) like IE6, but lists '7.0.xxx' as its version, just the same as IE7. When I looked at the IE6 dir, only one file was marked as modified: IEXPLORE.EXE.local (0 bytes).

The result seems to be that IE6 responds to conditional comments aimed at IE7, which override the * html hacks used to fix IE6 css bugs - pages that previously were fixed are broken since the change.

So, my question: how does one make IE6 take its version information from the 'right place'? There is a version.txt file inside IE6 dir, but obviously isn't useful to the binary. I also tried deleting the IEXPLORER.EXE.local, and also tried to copy it to the IE7 install, but that didn't work.

Microsoft REALLY knows how to irritate developers as well as customers (sorry, saying that makes me feel better)...

I am hoping there is a simple fix. I list all the files inside the IE6, below.

version.txt  
xpsp2res.dll  
urlmon.dll  
mshtml.dll  
mshtml.tlb  
inetcpl.cpl  
shdocvw.dll  
brwseui.dll   
vbscript.dll   
jscript.dll   
dispex.dll   
iexplore.exe  
IEXPLORE.EXE.local  

Thanks for any suggestion!

KC

It's in the registry.
Check this and read this blog post.