In-Depth

Virtual Vista Versions Revealed

Microsoft will offer free trials of Windows Vista and Visual Studio 2005.

Want to toy around with Windows Vista or Vista with Visual Studio 2005 but not pay for them? Microsoft is making it possible to take a 30-day test drive of either product through the magic of virtualization.

David Kim, associate product manager on the Windows Client team, mentioned on the Vista blog that the company has built virtual images of a Windows Vista Enterprise Edition and Windows Vista with Visual Studio 2005. All that's needed to run them is a virtual machine on a PC, something like Microsoft's version, Virtual PC 2007 or VMware. Once loaded, the products will behave like normal applications — for the 30-day period.

Vista Enterprise is the top-level version of the OS, meant for use in large environments. Although Microsoft has touted Vista's strong adoption in the market, there has been a lot of questioning of its claims. Making it available as a virtual image could spur sales — assuming, of course, the experience is positive.

Developers may be excited by the Vista with VS 2005 option. Currently, Microsoft supports Vista for three Microsoft development products: Visual Basic 6.0, Visual FoxPro 9.0 and VS 2005, but only with the Service Pack 1 Update for Windows Vista. Versions of VS 2003 and earlier aren't supported by Microsoft. Earlier development products may work with Vista, Microsoft said, but it won't support them.

The reason? According to Microsoft, "Visual Studio 2003 or earlier would require many changes that make that experience worse." The virtualized products can be found here.

About the Author

Keith Ward is the editor in chief of Virtualization & Cloud Review. Follow him on Twitter @VirtReviewKeith.

comments powered by Disqus

Featured

  • Visual Studio 'Tea & Technology' Video Miniseries Starts Next Week

    The goal of the miniseries is to provide an insider's snapshot look at some of the people who contribute to shaping the Visual Studio IDE every day.

  • Microsoft Releases OpenJDK 21 Build for Java Jockeys

    Microsoft today announced its "Microsoft Build of OpenJDK 21," taking advantage of new features and functionality in Java 21.

  • 'Dev Home' Update Leads Developer Goodies in AI-Powered Windows 11 Update

    Along with today's new AI-powered Windows 11 update come new goodies for developers, including a new edition of Dev Home, a preview offering described as a "control center" providing coding-focused features and functionality.

  • Community Dev Gives VS Code Python Some YAPF

    The latest update to Python in Visual Studio Code includes a new extension for Python formatting that was contributed by a member of the open source community.

Subscribe on YouTube