Virtual Goodness - Virtual PC 2004 Now Free from Microsoft

RTA Information Technology, Tempe, Arizona http://rtait.com/index.htm

Following the lead of Microsoft's Virtual Server 2005, Virtual PC 2004 is now available for free download:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtualpc/default.mspx

Virtual PC, purchased from Connectix a few years ago, is an amazing and easy-to-use program that has dozens of uses. Some prime uses:

1) Running older programs that won't work under XP or Server 2000 or Server 2003
2) Running Trial Versions of Microsoft Server software or applications like Exchange or ISA
3) Experimenting with "risky" changes to your Server or Desktop operating system
4) Learning about networking

When I was working on my MCSE certification, I spent countless hours running networks of multiple Windows Servers inside of multiple Virtual PC workspaces. If you make a mistake and trash a Server, you can close the window and restart the Server. No harm done.

Another common use is if you have an old program that only works under Windows 95, 98, or NT. You can load that OS into a Virtual PC window and then load your program into the new, virtual, OS. Now you can use your old program, safely, on a modern XP workstation.

About the only things you can't do in Virtual PC are emulate SCSI drive arrays or Fibre arrays for Clustering. As long as you have enough memory in your desktop PC, you can pretty much run as many Virtual PCs (or Servers) as you care to. Each Virtual PC requires REAL memory to run, though. It can't take advantage of virtual memory. So if want to run four Servers and each needs 384MB of memory, you'll need around 1.5GB of RAM in your desktop PC.

So, download Virtual PC 2004 and download a trial copy that OS you want to play with (most Microsoft Server 2003 trials are good for six months). And play to your heart's content for six months for free!