The third beta for Windows Server 2008, formerly code-named Longhorn, was made available for download at the end of April. With the release, Microsoft managed to reach the first public milestone of the product. Since then, the Redmond company's last 32-bit server operating system has been accessible to all testers. Currently, Microsoft plans to release Windows Server 2008 to manufacturing by the end of 2007 and to launch the final version on February 27, 2008, in Los Angeles concomitantly with Visual Studio 2008 and SQL Server 2008.

The company is now offering an alternative to downloading and deploying the Windows Server 2008 Beta 3 ISO image. In this context, Microsoft is leveraging virtualization technology in order to streamline the test drive process of Windows Server 2008 Beta 3. A pre-configured virtual hard disk image is up for download. The VHD is meant to be integrated into Virtual Server 2005 R2.

"Windows Server 2008 builds on the success and strengths of the award-winning Windows Server 2003 operating system and on the innovations delivered in Service Pack 1 and Windows Server 2003 R2. However, Windows Server 2008 is far more than a refinement of predecessor operating systems. Windows Server 2008 is designed to provide organizations with the most productive platform for powering applications, networks, and Web services from the workgroup to the datacenter with exciting, valuable new functionality and powerful improvements to the base operating system. This is a pre-configured VHD image that requires Virtual Server 2005 R2 installed on your system", Microsoft informed in the overview and system requirements of the VHD image.

The VHD for Windows Server 2008 Beta 3 is a download weighting in at a maximum of 2852.2 MB, so you will have to plan ahead in order for everything to work out smoothly. Microsoft has broken up the virtual hard disk image into five separate archives in order to streamline the download process.

Windows Server 2008 VHD can be downloaded from here.