14 DAY TRIAL // Not only are free downloads of Windows XP and Windows Vista from Microsoft not going anywhere, but the company is currently cooking new releases which will be available soon.
The software giant has made somewhat of a tradition from offering free virtualized copies of XP and Vista to developers building websites requiring testing on multiple versions of Internet Explorer.
Some devs have undoubtedly already taken advantage of Internet Explorer Application Compatibility VPC Images.
Back in June 2010 Microsoft released no less than 5 virtual machine images with free copies of XP and Vista to the Download Center.
Those releases, as all trial software from the Redmond company, were time-bombed, and have already expired.
But don’t think for a minute that Microsoft has abandoned the project, because this is not the case. Additional Internet Explorer Application Compatibility VPC Images are coming.
“At the beginning of this fiscal year, we changed the process that we use to create the VHDs,” Microsoft’s Pete LePage explained.
“First, we brought the work in house and are building them internally instead of using a vendor to do it.
“Second, we found out a little too late that the old system we used for time-bombing had been retired and spent some time working to figure out if there was a replacement program in place or how we could continue to support the Windows XP VHDs.
“Thankfully we were able to figure out a new process, but with any new process, there are always some hiccups. And this time, there were more hiccups than I had expected.”
LePage revealed that he had already wrapped up the last steps for putting together VHDs on October 11th, and that he had moved on to the release project.
The new free copies of XP and Vista packaged into Internet Explorer Application Compatibility VPC Images are expected to drop today, October 13th.
“The big change between these images is that this Windows XP SP3 installation is a “trial sku” instead of the “full package product” (FPP),” LePage added.
“That means that we don’t have to use the complex time-bombing process any more – though because it’s a trial sku, they do still expire after 90 days.”
The Internet Explorer Application Compatibility VPC Image are available for download here.