Microsoft Issues Free Virtual PC 2007
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The long-awaited update to Microsoft's virtualization software was released Monday. Virtual PC 2007 brings support for Windows Vista -- as both a guest and host operating system -- and takes advantage of new hardware virtualization technology from both Intel and AMD.
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A software patch to protect your system is available from Microsoft.
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The company plans to making available free software that connects its Windows operating system to software services delivered on the Internet.
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Microsoft makes available a test version of the software, which can be installed on a spare computer to share music, movies and digital media throughout a house.
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Microsoft pulled the free software offer from its Web site Tuesday, which made free copies of Vista and Office among other applications available in exchange for feedback.
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(InfoWorld) - As Microsoftâs five-year-long development effort slouches toward completion, details began to emerge last week that showed the company is (finally) gearing up to release Windows Vista after the new year, as promised. Pricing information popped up on a Canadian Web site, and Amazon.com told visitors that the new OS would be going out on Jan. 30, only to replace that date with a squishier âEarly 2007.â Finally, by the time you read this, Microsoft has promised to release the penultimate test version of its Vista operating system, dubbed âRelease Candidate 1â to an army of testers around the world. Are anticipatory chills running down your spine? They shouldnât be. Because a Release Candidate must be stable enough to allow corporate buyers to evaluate the product for deployment, Microsoft will have done quite a bit of work to RC1 over Vistaâs previous beta incarnations; so get set for a number of improvements. On the other hand, because of this concentration on stability, donât look for any noteworthy new features. Hereâs what Vista RC1 will likely have to offer: Installation: A late beta release dubbed âPre RC1â received kudos from more than one online reviewer for the improvements in this area, and rumors out of Microsoft say RC1 is the first version of Vista (or any Windows version) that has seamlessly installed on a variety of new notebooks and desktops â no muss, no fuss, and with full detection of PC Card and USB peripherals. Graphical interface: Aero has reportedly given Microsoft quite a few Advil moments, and even Beta 2 users were reporting intermittent difficulties. Look for this to be smoothed out in anything that receives RC status. That doesnât mean, however, that you should try to run it on your anemic graphics subsystem from 2003. Microsoft recommends at least 32-bit-per-pixel graphics capability. To you and me that means that for really smooth Aero-nautics, you should have a DirectX 9-capable 3-D accelerator card with 128MB of dedicated video RAM. If your test box lacks this video muscle, RC1 will support a non-Aero interface for weaker or older PCs. Audio: Microsoft has been having trouble with audio in even its most recent Vista Beta release. Toolsmixer controls are intermittently absent, and audio playback is often interrupted or missing. This should be solved in an RC1 release. If youâre a systems or network administrator, RC1 wonât be much different from Beta 2. The new release will ship with Internet Explorer RC1 installed, but even that has few differences from IE7 Beta 2. There will be a new, easier-to-use integrated backup tool, but itâs of little interest to corporate users whoâll most likely be using a centralized third-party app or Windows Shadow Copy. The pricing and availability info â coupled with the OSâs slow march toward âgold,â aka a finished version of Windows Vista ready for manufacturing â shows that Microsoft is serious about meeting its ship date. However, the key criterion for Vista RC1 will be stability. If it installs smoothly, runs smoothly, and gives us the full Vista experience that Microsoftâs been promising, consider it a success. If not, itâs back to the drawing board.
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InfoWorld - Microsoft is working with state officials in Louisiana to offer Windows and Office software free for a year to small businesses still feeling the effects of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
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New VMware Fusion for Mac lets Windows apps run on the Mac OS; free VMware Player 2 runs virtual appliances on Windows or Linux.
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Microsoft's new Virtual PC emulator lets an Apple computer run Windows XP amazingly well. It's a great product for those occasions when you must sully your Mac with a Windows-only application. By Leander Kahney.
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Microsoft is providing a free virtualized copy of Windows XP SP2 to assist developers in migrating IE6 applications to IE7. However, it will only work until April 1, 2007.
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Microsoft has begun a short-term validation programme aimed at tackling software piracy. Users are invited to have their copies of Windows XP analysed, with the promise that they will be replaced free of charge if found to be counterfeit.
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Virtualization software is ideal for trying out new software--and keeping your real PC clean.
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Flexible friend Microsoft has updated the licensing terms and conditions of its popular database for the benefit of virtualized computing environments.â¦
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Microsoft is giving students free access to its most sophisticated tools for writing software and making media-rich Web sites.
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(InfoWorld) - Microsoft Corp. is licensing the new UI (user interface) in Office 2007 for free so developers can build applications that look similar to the programs in the suite, the company said Tuesday. Microsoft is licensing both design and functionality of Office 2007's RibbonX UI, as well as offering guidelines for implementing it, through a new program, said Takeshi Numoto, Microsoft general manager for Office Client. Developers and ISVs (independent software vendors) can sign up with Microsoft on the Web and register products that will use the UI. More information about the new licensing program can be found here . Microsoft said it decided to launch the licensing program after being approached by ISV partners that wanted to build applications using Office 2007 as a platform. The RibbonX UI is a completely new interface for Office 2007 that is designed to make common Office features easier to use. According to Numoto, the company has spent hundreds of millions of dollars revamping Office 2007's UI; indeed, it is the suite's most significant new feature. The company wants "qualified developers" to be able to use these investments, but it also wants to protect its proprietary investment from unauthorized use. "The new licensing program enables developers and ISVs to benefit legally from Microsoftâs innovation by using the UI for their own applications," he said. Andrew Brust, chief of new technology for New York consulting firm twentysix New York, said a new formal program for licensing RibbonX makes a lot of sense because the UI is "the result of a significant investment by Microsoft in usability research and UI development," and Microsoft naturally wants to protect that.
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SEPTEMBER 20, 2004  - VMware Inc. released today a virtualization tool for PCs it says will cut hardware and maintenance costs for users such as independent contractors that support third parties on their networks.
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Microsoft UK is offering FREE licensed copies of Windows XP to anyone who is willing to give up their counterfeit copies in exchange.