Microsoft Makes Virtual PC Freeware

[ronjor]

Microsoft has released an update to Virtual PC 2004 Service Pack 1, and is now making the virtualization software available free of charge to all users. The company also promised to freely release Virtual PC 2007 next year, bringing support for Windows Vista.

Story

[Bubba]

Hmmm....might have to give this a go

Microsoft download for those interested.

Virtual PC 2004 SP1

System Requirements

• Supported Operating Systems: Windows 2000 Service Pack 4; Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition (32-bit x86); Windows XP Service Pack 2

Processor: Athlon®, Duron®, Celeron®, Pentium® II, Pentium III, or Pentium 4

Processor speed: 400 MHz minimum (1 GHz or higher recommended)

RAM: Add the RAM requirement for the host operating system that you will be using to the requirement for the guest operating system that you will be using. If you will be using multiple guest operating systems simultaneously, total the requirements for all the guest operating systems that you need to run simultaneously.

Available disk space: To determine the hard disk space required, add the requirement for each guest operating system that will be installed.

Virtual PC 2004 SP1 runs on: Windows 2000 Professional SP4, Windows XP Professional or later, and Windows XP Tablet PC Edition or later.

[Peter2150]

Hmm. Have the relieved the licensing requirement to have a separate license on each VM?

[Bubba]

Originally Posted by Peter2150

Hmm. Have the relieved the licensing requirement to have a separate license on each VM?

I'm new to this type software Peter but if Ms is giving it away for free would licensing problems arise

[crofttk]

Wow ! and to think I paid for the dang thing a couple of years back...

[Peter2150]

Originally Posted by Bubba

I'm new to this type software Peter but if Ms is giving it away for free would licensing problems arise

Well originally the site was very specific. You had to have a license for every operating system you had on a virtual machine. That meant 2 copies of XP, so two licenses, etc. Didn't matter which software. I know developers get some license that allows unlimited use.

Pete

[Mrkvonic]

Hello,
I guess they're losing territory to vmware ....
Mrk

[InfinityAz]

BTW - Virtual PC will only run on Win2K Pro or XP Pro (not home edition).

Already downloaded, installed, etc. Very nice platform for testing software and like the ability to save or discard changes for the VM.

[starfish_001]

Always used VMware

VirtualPC - performance is poor compared to VM player - might be good to create VMs - that can then be imported to Vmware