Virtual PC is free!

re: Virtual PC is free!

David — Wed, 12 Jul 2006 20:06:41 GMT

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.

re: Virtual PC is free!

Kris — Wed, 12 Jul 2006 20:21:50 GMT

Is it possible to run Vista on Virtual PC 2004 SP1 today? I have not had any luck with it.

Awesome

SuperJason — Wed, 12 Jul 2006 21:08:30 GMT

That's going to make a lot of people legal that run multiple virtual machines. Good call MS.

re: Virtual PC is free!

TAS — Wed, 12 Jul 2006 21:18:42 GMT

Is the Mac version free also?

re: Virtual PC is free!

jace — Wed, 12 Jul 2006 21:25:38 GMT

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

Thank you!

re: Virtual PC is free!

ikszkom — Wed, 12 Jul 2006 21:33:04 GMT

i guess this also means that virtual pc express has been canceled

re: Virtual PC is free!

Richard Tallent — Wed, 12 Jul 2006 21:59:55 GMT

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.

re: Virtual PC is free!

Virtual PC Guy — Wed, 12 Jul 2006 22:37:04 GMT

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

re: Virtual PC is free!

yag — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 04:32:42 GMT

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

re: Virtual PC is free!

PatriotB — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 06:39:56 GMT

Grrr.. just weeks after I purchased VPC 2004. :(

re: Virtual PC is free!

jace — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 07:15:18 GMT

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.

re: Virtual PC is free!

Jonathan — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 11:05:06 GMT

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.

re: Virtual PC is free!

Jonas — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 13:57:51 GMT

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?

re: Virtual PC is free!

Norman Diamond — Fri, 14 Jul 2006 04:55:26 GMT

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.

re: Virtual PC is free!

Jerome Lacoste — Mon, 17 Jul 2006 18:57:28 GMT

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>

re: Virtual PC is free!

John Kessler — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 14:40:28 GMT

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.

re: Virtual PC is free!

Virtual PC Guy — Wed, 19 Jul 2006 00:53:35 GMT

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

Great news!!!

Akuma — Thu, 20 Jul 2006 18:23:30 GMT

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.

re: Virtual PC is free!

Dan — Sat, 22 Jul 2006 17:39:47 GMT

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.

re: Virtual PC is free!

Mario Tremblay — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 20:19:23 GMT

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...

re: Virtual PC is free!

egdam blade — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 04:29:25 GMT

I must be dreaming

re: Virtual PC is free!

Ryan Heath — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 14:18:49 GMT

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? ...

re: Virtual PC is free!

Kirk — Fri, 04 Aug 2006 00:30:00 GMT

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.

re: Virtual PC is free!

Kirk — Fri, 04 Aug 2006 00:30:04 GMT

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.