Safari runs on Windows!?!
I can't believe it took me this long to figure this out, but it's totally possible to run the latest WebKit/Safari on Windows locally and debug issues that would otherwise require emulation, a remote machines or a Mac!
Not only can it be done but it's extremely easy to do, and in this article I will go over the 2 simplest ways to get up and running.
Method #1: Playwright CLI
This first method is by far the easiest as it only requires having Node.js installed which comes with npm/npx. Once you have Node.js installed you will need to run the Playwright command to download the browsers.
Open up the Command Prompt and type npx playwright install, then once this is done you can open up a url in WebKit by running the follow command npx playwright wk https://dustinbrett.com/, as described in the docs for Command line tools -> Open Pages.
Method #2: Download Build Artifacts
As described in the Webkit Wiki, the files required are built often and can be easily downloaded and combined.
The first file that is needed comes from the Webkit CI Builders, specifically WinCairo-64-bit-Release-Build.
Open the latest green build and download the zip file mentioned after S3 URL on the transfer-to-s3 step.
Now you will need to download one more zip file from the WebKitForWindows Releases by downloading WebKitRequirementsWin64.zip from the Assets section of the most recent release.
Then extract both files to the same folder so that the bin64 folders become combined. All other folders can be deleted as they are not needed. Go into the combined bin64 folder and launch MiniBrowser.exe and you are up and running.
This version has more features compared to the Playwright one and allows turning on and off Experimental & Internal Debug Features.
Both versions have the familiar Web Inspector which is extremely helpful to have locally.
Companion Video
I thought this was such a useful trick that I also made a video showing how to do it, feel free to check it out!
Top comments (1)
Thanks a million!