IE7 Virtual PC Image and IE6 Virtual PC Image Refresh
Hello! Just wanted to give you a quick update that we’ve dropped two new VPC images that you can use with the free copy of Virtual PC 2007.
The first is a refresh of the Windows XP SP2 + IE6 image. A few people were encountering a non-genuine Windows warning from the Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) Notification Tool. We did not install the WGA Notification tool on the image this time around. As we’ve mentioned in previous blog posts, these images have had their product keys deactivated, thus they don’t pass the WGA tests.
The second VPC image is Windows XP SP2 + IE7. You asked, we listened, and here it is. It’s built identically to the IE6 VPC, except just before packaging up the image, I installed IE7 on the machine. You can now test the features of IE7 on XP.
Just a reminder that both images expire on August 17th, 2007.
PEte LePage
Product Manager
Comments
Anonymous
April 17, 2007
Cross posted from the IE Blog Hello! Just wanted to give you a quick update that we’ve dropped two newAnonymous
April 17, 2007
Why do they expire if you're just going to release new ones again after? What's the point?Anonymous
April 17, 2007
@Paul Freeman-Powell: Because if they don't expire, people will use them as a general-purpose operating system instead of just for testing purposes. Think about it: Microsoft is giving out free images of XP SP2... if they don't expire, what will prevent thievery? Nothing.Anonymous
April 17, 2007
@Wraith Daquell That doesn't really make that much sense though, as the image still runs for 3mo fine, what's to stop someone from simply backing up their data and moving to the new image once its released... Seems more like Microsoft is just trying to make Developers jump through hoops, when it would make more sense just to have IE follow standards.Anonymous
April 17, 2007
@ M. Moss & Paul Freeman-Powell Please use your brains before posting.Anonymous
April 17, 2007
Yes, one can back up their data and move it to the new one every three months--but how many people actually want a copy of Windows XP that bad? They can download a copy from Bittorrent for less hassle than that. My point is, it's so much hassle that practically nobody (if anybody) will be able to actually do it. I even tried backing up the VHD using WinImage running inside the virtual machine, just to see if it was even possible to restore it by then using the backed-up VHD afresh (since the readme said it was the VHD that was time-bombed, not the actual Windows copy)--but when I saw how slowly the progress bar was ticking by, I thought, this is such a waste of time, nobody would try it! And since new ones are being released every 3 months, there's no legitimate reason even for developers who need this VHD to jump through those hoops.Anonymous
April 17, 2007
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April 17, 2007
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April 17, 2007
A parallels image would be great. Do you can offer such a image with the next update, too? I run a Windows XP installation in my parallels, but I don't want to run one virtual machine in another one. It would be really helpful for me to have such a prepared image directly usable for parallels.Anonymous
April 17, 2007
@Brian LePore The IE6 vs IE7 image is about 50megs bigger, not 500 megs bigger. The size difference, and the difference between the version between the last time we dropped it and today really comes down to the process I use to clean the images. I posted on my blog (http://blogs.msdn.com/petel/archive/2007/04/05/compacting-xp-vpc-images.aspx) instructions for compacting images. In the previous images, I didn't follow these steps exactly, and thus the file sizes would change on a regular basis, depending on what I deleted and what I didn't. From now on, I've got a very documented/regimented process for doing this, and it should help to maintail consistient file sizes. As for the IE6 vs IE7, I didn't clean the IE7 image after I installed IE7, so there is likely all the IE7 uninstall bits there as well.Anonymous
April 17, 2007
This is very cool. To help web developers who have IE 6.0 or 7.0 installed on their computers, and needAnonymous
April 17, 2007
This worked very well. Virtual machines for IE 5.01 and 5.5 would be very helpful also. We still have clients who expect to be able to access our web applications using these "older" browsers.Anonymous
April 18, 2007
As for the fears of thieving an OS from the image, I do find it quite funny. WinXP, with IE6? who would want this?.. outside of developers needing to test on it. It would be like handing out OS2 and WinME discs for free. Sure, you wouldn't make any money, but no one would want them either. I have yet to see any reason why an "image" needs to be protected. You're not getting the operating system, you're getting a limited testing environment, thats it.Anonymous
April 18, 2007
"On an earlier post to this blog, I saw comments requesting IE 5.01 and IE 5.5 VHD images similar to this one--and I must say I second the request." A customer calls in tech support, "This website doesn't work for me. Everything looks wrong!" The technician tells her with haste, "Do not touch the computer! I will alert an emergency technician!" He picks up the phone and dials Microsoft, "Hello, this is Microsoft Tech Support." "My client just tried to visit a website, and it looks wrong!", he explained. The Microsoft Employee paused for several seconds, then replied "Oh, no! We have to mobilize our website editors to quickly contact the owner of that website! We can't have our old and unsupported software from many years ago not displaying a website. Think of the kids!" ... Or you go to Windows Update and install the newest version which is relatively quick and free.Anonymous
April 18, 2007
"WinXP, with IE6? who would want this?.. outside of developers needing to test on it. It would be like handing out OS2 and WinME discs for free. Sure, you wouldn't make any money, but no one would want them either. I have yet to see any reason why an "image" needs to be protected. You're not getting the operating system, you're getting a limited testing environment, thats it." Yeah, who would want a free operating system that works perfectly fine. Let's just pay a free hundred dollars instead! Money is never an issue... (What prevents them from installing another browser, regarding the IE6 comment)Anonymous
April 18, 2007
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April 18, 2007
@Jason: WindowsXP is still for sale lots of places. Shop.microsoft.com has it, for one: http://www.microsoft.com/products/info/product.aspx?view=22&pcid=2abf99cd-a5e4-469c-802e-55ca8ec542d5&crumb=catpage&catid=ea710cad-37b0-4975-bcd6-abfee19961df#HowToBuyAnonymous
April 18, 2007
PeteL: I had said 500 because the download page listed the Download size between 443.4 MB - 934.7 MB*, and hadn't looked into downloading til I got to work today. I see that the difference is choosing one or downloading both. Why would someone want to download both? At home where I have XP SP2 with IE6 I would obviously just download the one with IE7. At work with Vista/IE7 I would just download the IE6 one. Why not list the download size between 443.4 MB - 491.4 MB? That seems more accurate to me. Thank you for your explanation.Anonymous
April 18, 2007
Oh wow, I just installed the IE6 image and I see you did include the installs for the JS debugger and the toolbar. Wow. Thank you. Now if only I could get the JS debugger working on my Vista/IE7 work machine I'd be in heaven. :)Anonymous
April 18, 2007
Just one word. Fantastic. ok one more ThanksAnonymous
April 18, 2007
I second the request for a Parallels version. Virtual PC doesn't run inside of Parallels either...Anonymous
April 18, 2007
Sorry if this may seem like a stupid question, but what is Parallels?Anonymous
April 18, 2007
Despite what one of the comments here said, not all Windows users can download IE6 or IE7 from Windows Update and be done with it. Windows 95 and 3.1 users can't do any better than IE5.5 or 5.01, respectively. Granted, hardly anyone uses Windows 3.1 today, but I imagine a number of people still use Windows 95, at least for maybe an old secondary computer, and that may not warrant all Web developers writing for IE5 compatibility, although it still means that it's a good idea for developers to get an idea of how those users will see their web site. Also, are you going to say the same thing about IE6 once IE8 comes out? What happens then to all the Windows 2000 users? Windows 2000 is still quite a capable operating system, and systems running it, I've found, can run many of the applications that are common today, and are thus still in heavy use, and I imagine by the time IE8 comes out, it will probably have about the market share that Windows 98SE has today--and would a web designer want to mess things up for that share of a market, which is mostly comprised with home users who either 1) don't have the money for a newer computer, or 2) don't see any reason to upgrade. How many web designers would want to exclude them? Granted, as of now, they're fine and dandy with IE6, but likely some new kinds of web content will come out for IE8, and they won't display well at all in IE6. But then of course, considering that IE7 and IE6 both render pages quite similarly, if not exactly the same (since IE7 was mostly a security and features upgrade), we might not have to worry about all that until IE9, because even with IE8, web designers will still have to develop for all the IE7 users (and thus IE6 users).Anonymous
April 18, 2007
Parallels Workstation is a virtual machine that is available for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X. Up until very recently, it is the only virtual machine that works properly on Intel Macs (Virtual PC doesn't work on Intels, as it accesses the hardware at such a low level, that the built in PPC emulator can not compensate for). It is still the only commercial virtual machine on Intel Macs.Anonymous
April 18, 2007
Thankfully, they're not offerig IE6 on XP Starter time-bombed edition. That would be minimalistic.Anonymous
April 18, 2007
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April 19, 2007
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April 19, 2007
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April 19, 2007
Ehm, I would create one image with ie6 and a differencing disk (based on that ie6) with ie7. You probably also need a differencing ie6 vdisk, that holds the user updates. My setup would look like this: readonly vdisk(ie6) writable diffdisk(ie6) 0 MB writable diffdisk(ie7) 50 MB What do you think?Anonymous
April 24, 2007
What would be required for a Mac user (G5) to be able to use the IE7 Virtual PC Image and the IE6 Virtual PC image for checking website designs? Would I need to purchase Virtual PC 7 for the Mac, install it, then download the IE7 and IE6 virtual PC images?Anonymous
April 25, 2007
I too would really appreciate a Parallels compatible image. I have installed my copy of XP Pro on my main parallels virtual HD, but would really like to test IE6 without tracking down a PC that hasn't been updated.Anonymous
April 25, 2007
Virtual PC is now free, as of sometime between 3-6 months ago (I forget when it happened, but I guess it doesn't really matter). I assume that both the Windows and Mac versions of Virtual PC are free, although I can only say for sure about Windows. But yes, you would have to download and install Virtual PC, and download the images, which you can then run (I forget if they come with a .vmc file preconfigured, or if you have to manually set up a virtual machine to use the image as its hard drive [.vmc files hold the virtual machine settings, so if the image already comes with one, then you simply have to "attach" that virtual machine to Virtual PC's console]).Anonymous
April 27, 2007
Parallels users: You can use Parallels Transporter to convert VMWare and Virtual PC images to Parallels.Anonymous
February 07, 2008
Recently I have come across the need to run both IE6 and IE7 side by side in the same environment (in order to test some web pages behavior). My starting point was Windows XP SP2 with IE7 already installed. There a couple of different ways to do thisAnonymous
June 07, 2008
Hello! Just wanted to give you a quick update that we’ve dropped two new VPC images that you can use with the free copy of Virtual PC 2007 . The first is a refresh of the Windows XP SP2 + IE6 image . A few people were encountering a non-genuine Window