More free software from Microsoft. Yes, Microsoft. I am a user of plenty of their free stuff, from Visual Studio Express editions to Windows Live Mail. I even reviewed Windows Live Writer the other day. So far, I have had exceptional results with their peace offerings free software.
Now the upgrade to Virtual PC 2004 has been made available. Virtual PC 2007 sports these new features:
- Support for Windows Vista as a host
- Support for Windows Vista as a guest
- Support for Windows Vista 64-bit as a host
- Improved performance compared to Virtual PC 2004
In a nutshell, you can now run Vista. It’s a handy tool if you’d like to give Vista a try before you take the full plunge.
If you’re unfamiliar with the purpose of Virtual PC, or virtualization in general, here’s Microsoft’s definition:
Virtual PC lets you create separate virtual machines on your Windows desktop, each of which virtualizes the hardware of a complete physical computer. Use virtual machines to run operating systems such as MS-DOS, Windows, and OS/2. You can run multiple operating systems at once on a single physical computer and switch between them as easily as switching applications
Now, I have used VMWare Workstation, which is a similar program (albeit not free). It worked well for me except that OSx86 would not run correctly. I have already downloaded and installed Virtual PC 2007, and it seems incredibly easy to create a virtual OS. However, I have not actually tried installing one yet. I plan to do so soon.
Oh, and I will stress again that this software is completely free.
