Microsoft just launched the Free Virtual PC 2007 1.0 to its users. The program permits Windows users to run many operating systems simultaneously from a single physical machine. Customers can also easily switch back and forth between different operating systems with the click of a mouse.
This release of Virtual PC 2007 brings new features:
Windows Vista™ operating system as a host operating system
Windows Vista as a guest operating system
64-bit host operating systems
Hardware-assisted virtualization
Network-based installation of a guest operating system
Running virtual machines on multiple monitors
Support has been removed for the use of linked disks in a virtual machine.
Support for Windows Vista as a host operating system This release of Virtual PC 2007 introduces support for Windows Vista as a host operating system. The following are supported host operating systems:
Windows Vista Business
Windows Vista Enterprise
Windows Vista Ultimate
Windows Server® 2003, Standard Edition
Windows Server 2003, Standard x64 Edition
Windows XP Professional
Windows XP Professional x64 Edition
Windows XP Tablet PC Edition
Support for Windows Vista as a guest operating system This release of Virtual PC 2007 introduces support for Windows Vista as guest operating system. The following are supported guest operating systems:
Windows Vista Ultimate
Windows Vista Enterprise
Windows Vista Business
Windows XP Professional
Windows XP Tablet PC Edition
Windows 2000 Professional
Windows 98 Second Edition
IBM OS/2 Warp 4 Fixpack 15, OS/2 Warp Convenience Pack 1, and OS/2 Warp Convenience Pack 2
Older version of Microsoft Operating Systems are no longer supported: The following operating systems that were supported in Virtual PC 2004 SP1 are compatible with this release, but they are not supported:
MS-DOS® 6.22
Windows 95
Windows 98
Windows Millennium Edition
Windows NT 4.0 Workstation
Network-based installation of a guest operating system The virtual machine network adapter includes support for performing a PXE boot. This means that when the appropriate network infrastructure is in place, you can perform a network installation of a guest operating system without using a PXE boot floppy disk.
Running virtual machines on multiple monitors Virtual PC 2007 includes support for viewing virtual machines on multiple monitors of a physical computer. If you have more than one monitor attached to your physical computer, you can view a virtual machine on one of the monitors, in either window mode or full-screen mode.
Support for 64-bit host operating systems This release of Virtual PC 2007 supports 64-bit host operating systems. However, there is no support for 64-bit guest operating systems.
Support for hardware-assisted virtualization Virtual PC 2007 includes support for virtualization technology from Intel and AMD. By default, hardware-assisted virtualization is enabled if the feature is enabled on the physical computer. You can turn this assistance on or off for each virtual machine by modifying the virtual machine settings. For more information, see the Virtual PC Help.
No support for using a virtual hard disk linked to a physical hard disk You can create a virtual hard disk that is linked to a physical hard disk by using Virtual PC. However, it is no longer possible to use a virtual hard disk that is linked to a physical hard disk in a virtual machine.
A virtual hard disk linked to a physical hard disk allows the guest operating system to directly modify the contents of a linked physical hard disk. This means that the guest operating system can overwrite the contents of the physical hard disk and potentially corrupt the host operating system and other programs and data of the physical hard disk.
