Microsoft has revamped and re-released its offerings involving a couple of free copies of Windows XP Service Pack 2. Despite the fact that Microsoft's Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer said a firm NO to an open source Windows operating system, during the question and answer round at the company's annual Minority Student Day in Redmond, Windows is available as a free download directly from the Microsoft Download Center. Being the adept of a business strategy focused on commercializing proprietary software, Ballmer opined that Microsoft wouldn't be able to survive by embracing an open source model in which the operating system would be made available at no charge.

And yet, there are always exceptions that confirm the rule. As an integral part of the company's push into the virtualization market, and in an effort to support web developers with the transition between Internet Explorer 6 and Internet Explorer 7, Microsoft made available two Internet Explorer Application Compatibility VPC images containing free copies of XP SP2.

The downloads essentially offer users the possibility to download and run two pre-activated copied of XP SP2 as VPC Hard Disk images. According to the company, the two images are set up to streamline concomitant testing of websites on IE6 and IE7 on XP SP2. At this point in time, the images offered are set to expire on April 1, 2008, less than a month away.

However, the images feature as of the beginning of March a new release date: 3/2/2008. But there is no word from the company pointing to the eventual implementation of changes in the Virtual Hard Disk images. Pete LePage, IE Senior Product Manager, is working to make available new Internet Explorer Application Compatibility VPC downloads by April 1, and has revealed that Microsoft also plans to offer Windows Vista or Windows Vista Service Pack 1 bundled into a VPC Hard Disk image plus IE7.

Internet Explorer Application Compatibility VPC Images are available for download here. You will need Virtual PC 2007, also a free download, which you can grab here.