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Virtual PC is free!

Today we announced a couple of cool things:

  1. Virtual PC 2004 SP1 will be available free - now!

  2. Virtual PC 2007 will be available for free in 2007, with support for Microsoft Windows Vista

  3. Windows Vista Enterprise customers will have the right to install four copies of the operating system on a desktop for a single user

A couple of questions I can see people having are:

  1. Why are you giving Virtual PC away for free?

    Microsoft views virtualization as a tool.  Virtual PC is used for a number of reasons, but the primary reasons are for development and test scenarios and application compatibility.  We already provide Virtual PC as part of MSDN for development and test users, and given that all our other application compatibility tools are free - charging for Virtual PC did not make much sense.

  2. Is the Windows Vista Enterprise licensing right restricted to Virtual PC?

    No - you can use any virtualization software for this.  In fact - you do not even have to use virtualization software to exercise this right.  You could - if you wanted - setup a quad-boot physical computer and be licensed for all four instances.

Well - enough talk - go check out the details and download Virtual PC from http://www.microsoft.com/virtualpc

Cheers,
Ben

Published Wednesday, July 12, 2006 9:15 AM by Virtual PC Guy

Comments

Wednesday, July 12, 2006 1:06 PM by David

# re: Virtual PC is free!

This is great news, I was wondering if microsoft would do this after making virtual server free.
When are we likely to see a beta of Virtual PC 2007.
Wednesday, July 12, 2006 1:21 PM by Kris

# re: Virtual PC is free!

Is it possible to run Vista on Virtual PC 2004 SP1 today? I have not had any luck with it.
Wednesday, July 12, 2006 2:08 PM by SuperJason

# Awesome

That's going to make a lot of people legal that run multiple virtual machines.  Good call MS.
Wednesday, July 12, 2006 2:18 PM by TAS

# re: Virtual PC is free!

Is the Mac version free also?
Wednesday, July 12, 2006 2:25 PM by jace

# re: Virtual PC is free!

Will the Virtual Machine additions for Linux be made available for VPC 2004 SP1?

Thank you!
Wednesday, July 12, 2006 2:33 PM by ikszkom

# re: Virtual PC is free!

i guess this also means that virtual pc express has been canceled
Wednesday, July 12, 2006 2:59 PM by Richard Tallent

# re: Virtual PC is free!

Great news for developers, testers, and people who need a sandbox or two for security or compatability! Two unanswered questions:

1. Will existing licenses for Win98, 2k, XP, and 2k3 be extended to also permit multiple instances through virtualization?

2. What about VirtualPC 2007 for OSX host machines? Not developing for MacIntel might stymie a few would-be switchers, but IMHO Microsoft should continue playing in the Mac virtualization market so Parallels is not the only game in town.
Wednesday, July 12, 2006 3:31 PM by Canadian IT Manager

# Virtual PC Guy's WebLog : Virtual PC is free!


Virtual PC Guy's WebLog : Virtual PC is free!.
I was reading through all of my RSS feeds in Outlook...
Wednesday, July 12, 2006 3:37 PM by Virtual PC Guy

# re: Virtual PC is free!

David -

I can't comment on dates for Beta at the moment

Kris -

Yes it is.  Search this blog for 'Vista' and you will find a number of posts about this

TAS -

No

Jace -

No - but you can download them and use them with VPC today

ikszkom -

Yup - pretty much

Richard -

1) No - this is a Vista thing only (though SA customers have downgrade rights).  2) VPC Mac is a seperate team and I cannot comment on their plans

Cheers,
Ben
Wednesday, July 12, 2006 3:40 PM by The Insider by Sidebar Geek

# Virtual PC is now free!

Microsoft has announced today that Virtual PC will be free to everyone - including Virtual PC 2007 which
Wednesday, July 12, 2006 4:22 PM by Heath Stewart's Blog

# Virtual PC 2004 SP1 Now Free

Virtual PC 2004 SP1 is free, and Virtual Server 2005 R2 has been for a while. These are great to use for testing install and maintenance scenarios.
Wednesday, July 12, 2006 9:32 PM by yag

# re: Virtual PC is free!

This is wonderful news.

Is the second Service Pack still in the works for Virtual PC? You know, the one with the speed optimizations ;)

Thanks
Wednesday, July 12, 2006 11:29 PM by とっちゃん's Blog

# VirtualPC も無償化

VirtualPC も無償化
Wednesday, July 12, 2006 11:39 PM by PatriotB

# re: Virtual PC is free!

Grrr.. just weeks after I purchased VPC 2004. :(
Thursday, July 13, 2006 12:15 AM by jace

# re: Virtual PC is free!

Ben:

How would one go about using the Virtual Machine Additions for Virtual Server 2005 with VPC?

Perhaps a blog entry on how to do this? Or can someone else outline how to do it?

Thank you.
Thursday, July 13, 2006 4:05 AM by Jonathan

# re: Virtual PC is free!

jace: VM Additions is just an ISO that sits somewhere in Program Files. When you choose "Install VM Additions" in VPC/VS, all it does is mount that ISO in the guest machine's CD, and let autorun work.

So, you can just download VS, extract the ISO from there, and mount it to your VPC guest OS yourself.
Thursday, July 13, 2006 6:57 AM by Jonas

# re: Virtual PC is free!

Here was I getting my hopes up, too.  Of course the Mac version isn't free.  That would be silly.  That would be... nice.  What WAS I thinking?
Thursday, July 13, 2006 9:55 PM by Norman Diamond

# re: Virtual PC is free!

Thursday, July 13, 2006 4:05 AM by Jonathan
> So, you can just download VS, extract the
> ISO from there, and mount it to your VPC
> guest OS yourself.

What extraction tool did you use?

I found a tool that displayed the contents of an .msp file so I could see that an updated VM Additions tool was there, but the tool didn't actually do an extraction.  I found another tool that could do extractions from .msi files but not from .msp files.

Of course I could install Virtual Server in order to install its patch afterwards and then take a copy of the resulting ISO file that contains updated additions.  But for some reason I thought there was a simpler way to extract the ISO file, and I just hadn't found an appropriate tool.
Friday, July 14, 2006 12:25 AM by palmit.commentary

# Virtual PC 2004 Now Free!

Virtual PC 2004 is now free. Go download it now. Or, take a look at the DEMO.You can use Virtual...
Friday, July 14, 2006 11:34 PM by Blog du Tristank

# VPC is now Free!

Late to the party as usual, but hey, that's alright!  So all our virtualization solutions are now available...
Saturday, July 15, 2006 12:03 AM by Blog du Tristank

# VPC is now Free!

Late to the party as usual, but hey, that's alright!  So all our virtualization solutions are now available...
Monday, July 17, 2006 11:57 AM by Jerome Lacoste

# re: Virtual PC is free!

Q: Why are you giving Virtual PC away for free?

<sarcasm>
 Because VMWare, the market leader, is also free on servers and has a free player ?
</sarcasm>
Tuesday, July 18, 2006 7:40 AM by John Kessler

# re: Virtual PC is free!

We use VPC as part of an OS/2 based product we sell. VPC allows a piece of OS/2 software we currently offer to run on any PC.

We currently have five new, unopened, shrink-wrapped boxed sets of VPC in our stock. Is there any way to return this now unnecessary product?

I would also be interested in seeing Microsoft's licensing terms for redistribution of this free software. My plan is to burn the new free installer on a CD, give it a part number, and distribute it at no or minumal charge with our software.
Tuesday, July 18, 2006 11:51 AM by A virtually free PC at FactoryCity

# A virtually free PC at FactoryCity

PingBack from http://factoryjoe.com/blog/2006/07/18/a-virtually-free-pc/
Tuesday, July 18, 2006 5:53 PM by Virtual PC Guy

# re: Virtual PC is free!

Yag -

We have announced that we are working on Virtual PC 2007.  We have made no announcments about any SP2 for Virtual PC 2004.

John -

I have not been able to get an answer on redistribution of the free Virtual PC.  But if you have stock as a retailer - you should be able to return that to Microsoft.  If, however, the stock was purchased as a consumer there is no way to return it at this stage.

Cheers,
Ben
Thursday, July 20, 2006 11:23 AM by Akuma

# Great news!!!

That's a great news Ben!!!
But I've an interesting question for you. Now that VPC 2004 is free, what happen with VPC 5.2 and previous versions? Let me explain: the system requirements for Virtual PC 2004 is the need for Windows 200x/XP running as host, but I still have some Windows 98 and ME computers running as host. Is this new about freeing VPC the include of previous versions (like for example Connectix VPC 5.1) that works on previous Windows versions?

Thank you very much for your answers in advance.

Greets.
Akuma.
Saturday, July 22, 2006 10:39 AM by Dan

# re: Virtual PC is free!

Norman: ISOs are not meant to be extracted as archives.  They are files that contain all data needed to burn a complete CD image, including boot sector.  You either burn them or, in this case, you mount them as a "fake" drive letter which the OS thinks is a real CD.

However Virtual PC will take care of the CD mounting for you, just select "Install VM Additions" from the menu and then access the CD drive on your virtual machine and run the Setup tool for the appropriate guest OS.
Monday, July 24, 2006 1:19 PM by Mario Tremblay

# re: Virtual PC is free!

I had to pay 200$ to get this software and now they gave it for free???? MS$ is just a bunch of stinking thieves...

I was thinking of buying MS Office, but I think I am going to get a illegal copy instead.  Why waste money when MS$ will probably give it for free in a few years...
Monday, July 24, 2006 9:29 PM by egdam blade

# re: Virtual PC is free!

I must be dreaming
Tuesday, August 01, 2006 7:18 AM by Ryan Heath

# re: Virtual PC is free!

I downloaded VPC2k4SP1 today, installed it but it wont run.

I get what is described here http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb%3Ben-us%3B889508, but the workaround doesnt work for since I do not have a product key. Wasnt the product free now? ...
Thursday, August 03, 2006 5:30 PM by Kirk

# re: Virtual PC is free!

Ryan, when you run the Virtual PC file from the MS Downlaod the key is already there. I imagine you can run the original install and write it down.
Thursday, August 03, 2006 5:30 PM by Kirk

# re: Virtual PC is free!

Ryan, when you run the Virtual PC file from the MS Downlaod the key is already there. I imagine you can run the original install and write it down.
Wednesday, August 30, 2006 8:48 AM by James O'Neill's blog

# Virtual PC round-up

Three bits of news that I should mention although if you monitor the Virtual PC home page, you'll know...
Wednesday, September 27, 2006 8:11 AM by Edgardo Rossetto .NET » Blog Archive » Virtual PC 2004 ahora es gratis

# Edgardo Rossetto .NET &raquo; Blog Archive &raquo; Virtual PC 2004 ahora es gratis

PingBack from http://edgardorossetto.net/2006/07/12/virtual-pc-2004-ahora-es-gratis/
Sunday, January 13, 2008 7:07 PM by Can Live » Blog Archive » Microsoft Virtual PC for Windows is Free but not Mac version

# Can Live &raquo; Blog Archive &raquo; Microsoft Virtual PC for Windows is Free but not Mac version

PingBack from http://canlive.net/microsoft-virtual-pc-for-windows-is.html

Saturday, February 09, 2008 6:18 PM by Microsoft Virtual PC for Windows is Free but not Mac version | Etixet

# Microsoft Virtual PC for Windows is Free but not Mac version | Etixet

PingBack from http://www.etixet.com/microsoft-virtual-pc-for-windows-is.html

Thursday, February 14, 2008 5:57 PM by Microsoft Virtual PC for Windows is Free but not Mac version | Technology

# Microsoft Virtual PC for Windows is Free but not Mac version | Technology

PingBack from http://canlive.net/microsoft-virtual-pc-for-windows-is-2.html

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