There are two versions of Windows XP Service Pack 2 that Microsoft will deliver as free downloads, cooking over at the Redmond company. Both releases are scheduled to become available in no more than a day. Microsoft has produced an extensive collection of free downloads associated with some of its top products and certainly its flagship software. Examples of the company's main cash cows, be them Windows Vista, Windows XP SP2 or the Office 2007 system are available as free downloads. Microsoft has even gone as far as to produce a bundle between Windows Vista Enterprise and the Office 2007 Professional System.

Following the release of Internet Explorer 7 back in October 2007, in a move catalyzed by customer input and the availability of the company's virtualization technologies for free, Microsoft produced two virtual hard disk images of Windows XP SP2 in conjunction with Internet Explorer 7 and Internet Explorer 6. The Redmond company is on the brink of updating both images as the expiration date for the VPC images is closing in. The previous versions of the IE Application Compatibility VPC images are time bombed for August 17.

Microsoft missed August 10, the initially planned release date for the updated VPC images, but Pete LePage, Product Manager, Internet Explorer, Developer Division, promised on August 14 that the new downloads will go live "VERY shortly." LePage pointed to today, August 15 as the release date and this means that by tomorrow you will be able to load the refreshed IE Application Compatibility VHD files into your copy of Virtual PC 2007.

While the IE plus Windows XP SP2 virtual machine images are addressed at web developers, Microsoft's free offerings go beyond that, with a free VHD of Vista Enterprise and Office 2007, in addition to the image containing just the Enterprise edition of the company's latest operating system. And of course, since December 2006, users have been able to download and test drive all the editions of the Office 2007 System, for a total trial period of 60 days.