Microsoft has just enhanced its free offerings of Windows XP. The Redmond Company is showing great generosity with XP giving the operating system away at absolutely no charge. And this is not even the first time for Microsoft. Following the availability of Windows Vista, Internet Explorer 7 and Virtual PC 2007 Microsoft has initially bundled Windows XP with IE6 and Virtual PC 2004.

This initiative has evolved with the availability of Virtual PC 2007 that fully supports Windows Vista. Back in December 2006, Microsoft made a gift to developers with the availability of Windows XP SP2, IE6 and Virtual PC 2007 packaged as a free download.

Yesterday, April 17 2007, Microsoft has upped the stakes yet again. Users will be able to download no less than two pre-activated copies of Windows XP.

“Just wanted to give you a quick update that we’ve dropped two new VPC images that you can use with the free copy of Virtual PC 2007. The first is a refresh of the Windows XP SP2 + IE6 image. The second VPC image is Windows XP SP2 + IE7. You asked, we listened, and here it is. It’s built identically to the IE6 VPC, except just before packaging up the image, I installed IE7 on the machine. You can now test the features of IE7 on XP,” revealed Pete LePage, Microsoft Product Manager.

Not only is Microsoft now delivering Windows XP SP2 + IE7 as a VPC image, but the original Windows XP SP2 + IE6 image was updated to eliminate issues with the company's anti-piracy mechanism. “A few people were encountering a non-genuine Windows warning from the Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) Notification Tool. We did not install the WGA Notification tool (Tool) on the image this time around. As we’ve mentioned in previous blog posts, these images have had their product keys deactivated, thus they don’t pass the WGA tests,” LePage added.

Both VPC images are available as free downloads here, but the copies of Windows XP are time bombed, and August 17 2007 is the expiration deadline. But before August, Microsoft will make available yet another set of Windows XP SP2 + IE VPC images.