How often have you wished you could run two or more operating systems simultaneously on your computer? A lot of people indeed do that, but doing so isn’t easy for a non-geek. Now you can do it, and for free, courtesy the software giant Microsoft. Yes, the company's latest version of Virtual PC 2007 is now available for free download from its website.

In simple terms, Virtual PC is a virtualization suite for Microsoft Windows operating systems. Virtual PC emulates a standard PC and its associated hardware. Thus, it can be used to run nearly all operating systems available for the PC. With virtual technology, users can simply switch back to a previous state. They can install their virtual operating system and save the current state (ie. the current installation) and then switch back to that, at a later date.

Users can use the virtual machine to run OS such as MS-DOS, Windows, and OS/2. They can run multiple OS simultaneously on a single physical computer and toggle between them as easily as switching applications-instantly, at the click of a mouse! In fact, the choice of the OS can be made from a simple drop-down menu.

It has another very important purpose. For instance, instead of trying and testing software on their computer, users can install a virtual PC for this purpose. This means that they can freely install as much software as they wish, without the installation affecting their everyday state of the computer. They can thus decide what software they would like to use, before installing it on their computer, for real.

The 2007 version adds support for Windows Vista as a host, as well as Windows Vista as a guest. The PROGRAMME is available in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions, and is supported on all versions of Windows XP (except Home and Media Center Editions) and Windows Server 2003. The file is a 30 MB download and requires a 400 MHz or faster (1 GHz recommended) processor and enough RAM to support the desired configuration for the guest operating system plus the host. According to Microsoft, users can “install up to four copies of the OS in virtual machines on top of Windows Vista Enterprise with a single license.”

http://infotech.indiatimes.com/quickiearticleshow/msid-1662113.cms

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Farooque Shaheen,
Caritor India Pvt Ltd.
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