One the day that VMWare have release their virtual server technology, free of charge, Microsoft have released Virtual PC 2004 with Service Pack 1, as a free download. Even better, Microsoft state that their next Virtual PC, to be released in 2007, should also be a free download.

Virtual technology enables you to run other operating systems on your computer. For instance, instead of trying and testing software on your computer, why not install a virtual PC for this purpose? This means that you can freely install as much software as you wish, without the installation affecting your everyday computer – you can decide what software you like to use, before you install on your computer, for real.

Virtual technology has other benefits, such as enabling a software developer to test their software, on different operating systems, before release. For instance, there’s no reason why you can’t host a copy of Windows Me, Windows 2000 and another copy of Windows XP, for testing purposes.

With virtual technology, you can simply switch back to a previous state. You can install your virtual operating system and save the current state (ie the current installation) and then switch back to that, at a later date, if your virtual operating system becomes unstable.


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