Some versions of Windows XP and Microsoft Office have already expired. But fortunately, Microsoft already has set up solutions in place to offer users an alternative. Taking it one step at a time, the first product that expired as of April 1 2007 is Windows XP Service Pack 2.

However, this is a special case associated with the IE6 Virtual PC Image. The original IE6 Virtual PC Image was released at the end of November 2006. This was a Microsoft solution making use of the free VPC2004 in order to enable developers to run Internet Explorer 7 and Internet Explorer 6 side by side on the same machine. Both Windows XP SP2 and VPC2004 were delivered free of charge, however the catch was that the IE6 Virtual PC Image had only a limited availability. IE6 Virtual PC Image has expired as of yesterday April 1.

Internet Explorer 6 Application Compatibility VPC Image was made available at the end of March. "A VPC hard disk image containing a pre-activated Windows XP SP2, IE6 and the IE7 Readiness Toolkit. This VPC image will expire on 07/23/2007," Microsoft revealed.

"Take note that a free download of Virtual PC 2007 is now available, replacing VPC2004. I didn't make any major changes to the image other than adding the latest security updates. I also managed to reduce the download size to just under 400 megs, shaving off almost 100 megs from the previous image size. This image is time-bombed to July 23rd , but we will continue to release these images as long as they are needed. They are time-bombed because you get them for free," explained Pete LePage Product Manager, Microsoft.

On another note, Microsoft Office 2007 beta 2 has expired as of the end of March. But if you want to continue using Office 2007 for free, then you will be able to download and install free trial versions of the product.