[Blake Pender]

That's right! Microsoft is offering access to free downloads of Windows Vista Business and Windows XP SP2.

Even though the Redmond company's Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer revealed in the past that open source was not the way to go for Microsoft and that a free version of Windows was completely out of the question, the fact of the matter is that it was not entirely true.

Microsoft is indeed offering free copies of Windows, and not just XP SP2, but also Vista Business. So you can grab both for free! The sole downside is the fact that both copies of the operating system come as Internet Explorer Application Compatibility VPC Image. Which means that they are essentially VPC Hard Disk Images designed for test driving websites in both Internet Explorer 6, Internet Explorer 7 and Internet Explorer 8 on Vista and XP SP2.

"A VPC hard disk image containing a pre-activated Windows XP SP2 or Windows Vista, and IE6, IE7 or IE8. This VPC image will expire on July 3, 2008. You will need a minimum of 1.5 Gig hard drive space free to expand the VHD file. Once you have completed the download, double-click file to expand the VHD file. Start Virtual PC and create a new VPC, and point to the files you just expanded," Microsoft informed.

There are six downloads available completely for free, including IE6_VPC.EXE (435.1 MB); IE7_VPC.EXE (434.3 MB); IE7-VIS1.exe (700.0 MB); IE7-VIS2.rar (700.0 MB); IE8_VPC.EXE (438.6 MB) and IS7-VIS3.rar (590.5 MB). Of course, for all you will need Virtual PC 2007

Link for Virtual PC 2007: http://www.microsoft...;displaylang=en

Link for Vista & XP: http://www.microsoft...;displaylang=en

[pauldacheez]

Any way to switch it to a disk image of some kind to make it work with Boot Camp on my brother's iMac? He wants to play all his old PC games on it.

[endrit10]

No, its pre-activated by microsoft, so they would have go to incredible lengths to make it fool poof.

[BinaryChaos]

How can it be free if it carries an expiration date? Its like installing Windows without the key having 30 days to activate it. Seems a bit pointless it would be nice if they just gave out serial keys instead. NOW THATS FREE!

[pauldacheez]

Dammit, no Windows on a Mac for my brother. Isn't there at least a free/open source emulator that can do this? (Intel please.)

[pm_41]

These images don't expire until July 3rd.

[Fraxtil]

This is pretty awesome... What if I could have a virtual machine within a virtual machine now? XD

[pauldacheez]

Gforce20, on Mar 15 2008, 09:55 PM, said:

This is pretty awesome... What if I could have a virtual machine within a virtual machine now? XD

Or a virtual machine within a virtual machine within a virtual machine within a virtual machine within a virtual machine within a virtual machine within a virtual machine within a virtual machine within a virtual machine within a virtual machine within a virtual machine within a virtual machine within a virtual machine?

That would be hella slow, though.

[Johnnyboy]

That's cool, but I already have genuine copy of Vista and XP SP2.

[winmatrix2007]

if a hacker found out how to convert the file into a iso format and hack the serial microsoft would lose money on there own idea

[Lulis]

Not like they can't afford to lose any.

[ForumUser]

Thanks!!!

Tip: to download them at the same time, I mean more than
two files in download.microsoft.com server

Use WinBubble > Optimization Tab > Increase the bandwidth for network and internet connections...

WinBubble

This post has been edited by ForumUser: 17 March 2008 - 02:11 PM

[Island Dog]

Yeah, it's not really free if it keeps expiring.

[pm_41]

Cool! These are good for testing unstable apps and betas.

You could even load it full of malware for fun and then just delete the .VHD file!

THANK YOU, MICROSOFT!!!