Microsoft is making available their Virtual PC 2007 for Free. Their website also includes documentation and helpful hints to use the software. This is a great way to learn about virtualization and how to run multiple operating systems from one machine.

I previously used Microsoft’s Virtual PC 2004, and it worked very well. If the new 2007 versions works as well, it should be easy to use. I’ll be reporting on the new software and posting a review.
Microsoft states that:

“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—instantly, with a mouse click. Virtual PC is perfect for any scenario in which you need to support multiple operating systems, whether you use it for tech support, legacy application support, training, or just for consolidating physical computers. ”

Supported operating systems are:

“The Virtual PC application requires a 400 MHz Pentium-compatible processor (1.0 GHz or faster recommended), and requires approximately 20 MB of disk space. It runs on Windows Vista Business, Windows Vista Enterprise, Windows Vista Ultimate, Windows XP Professional, or Windows XP Tablet PC Edition. ” Another note, once you get back to the download link, you will notice that Server 2003 is supported as well.
Also Microsoft provides a work sheet to determine the exact amount of memory that would be needed per OS that run at the same time. That information can be found here.

Complete Virtual PC 2007 download is available here.

[tags]microsoft, software, free, virtual PC 2007, download[/tags]