Microsoft and Citrix VHD files for labs
Microsoft and Citrix offer some resources to create your online labs.
Nowadays vendor have a battery of programmers alkl around the world developing more code, for more programs, and even more patches, updates, hotfixes, rollup packs, Service packs, features packs, and other R2 upgrades.
The online way for a IT Professional to keep track of the new technologies – and how they interact – is to build labs at home or at work.
Microsoft, Citrix and other vendors offer VHD files for free download, so you can use them on your preferred virtualization platform. Most files are VHD, but can be converted to other filesystems like VMDK from VMware.
VHD
Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 SP2 – Compatible up to Windows Vista. Windows 7 is not supported. There are articles which tell you how to get it working on Windows 7. See my links below.
Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 SP1 – An older version, but runs on Windows 7, ánd you can use Microsoft Windows 2008 server (32-bit only!)
Microsoft Virtual PC – The latest and last version of Virtual pc. Hyper-V will completely replace this product line. Unfortunately Hyper-V is not something you can easily have working on your cleint machine.
Here we’ll try to keep track of the VHD files released by Microsoft and Citrix. Note that these files have lifecycles, so at some point they will be replaced, and downloads will not work anymore.
Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 SP1 VHD
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=14901
This download comes as a pre-configured VHD. This download enables you evaluate Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 SP1.
Quick details
| Version: | 1.0 | Date published: | 8/4/2010 |
| Language: | English | ||
Files in this download
The links in this section correspond to files available for this download. Download the files appropriate for you.
| File name | Size | |
|---|---|---|
| EX07SP1.part01.exe | 700.0 MB | Download |
| EX07SP1.part02.rar | 700.0 MB | Download |
| EX07SP1.part03.rar | 700.0 MB | Download |
| EX07SP1.part04.rar | 700.0 MB | Download |
| EX07SP1.part05.rar | 700.0 MB | Download |
| EX07SP1.part06.rar | 700.0 MB | Download |
| EX07SP1.part07.rar | 559.0 MB | Download |
| ReadMe.mht | 72 KB | Download |
| Test Drive Program WS 2003 EULA.xps | 306 KB | Download |
Overview
Download this fully configured virtual machine of the latest release of Exchange Server 2007 SP1. Evaluate the new capabilities of Exchange Server 2007 SP1, which deliver the advanced protection your company demands, the anywhere access people throughout your organization want, and the operational efficiency you need.
System requirements
Supported operating systems: Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows XP Service Pack 2
A virtualization product that supports the VHD format is required to use this virtual machine. Microsoft Virtual PC or Microsoft Virtual Server are provided for free and can be used with these VHD based virtual machines. Please refer to the Virtual Server 2005 R2 System requirements page here.
In addition to the System Requirements for the virtualization product, you will need additional disk and memory resources for running the virtual machine. This VHD is pre-configured to use approximately 10GB of hard disk space and approximately 512MB of memory.
Instructions
In order to use this evaluation package you will need to have Microsoft® Virtual Server 2005 R2 installed on a physical machine. If you do not have Virtual Server installed you can get this product free of charge from www.microsoft.com/virtualserver. Details of how to install Virtual Server 2005 R2 are included in the download and documentation that accompanies the product.
Internet Explorer Application Compatibility VPC Image
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=11575
Quick details
| Version: | 4.3 | Date published: | 11/9/2012 |
| Language: | English | ||
Files in this download
The links in this section correspond to files available for this download. Download the files appropriate for you.
| File name | Size | |
|---|---|---|
| Windows_7_IE8.part01.exe | 700.0 MB | Download |
| Windows_7_IE8.part02.rar | 700.0 MB | Download |
| Windows_7_IE8.part03.rar | 700.0 MB | Download |
| Windows_7_IE8.part04.rar | 553.9 MB | Download |
| Windows_7_IE9.part01.exe | 700.0 MB | Download |
| Windows_7_IE9.part02.rar | 700.0 MB | Download |
| Windows_7_IE9.part03.rar | 700.0 MB | Download |
| Windows_7_IE9.part04.rar | 700.0 MB | Download |
| Windows_7_IE9.part05.rar | 700.0 MB | Download |
| Windows_7_IE9.part06.rar | 700.0 MB | Download |
| Windows_7_IE9.part07.rar | 131.6 MB | Download |
| Windows_Vista_IE7.part01.exe | 700.0 MB | Download |
| Windows_Vista_IE7.part02.rar | 700.0 MB | Download |
| Windows_Vista_IE7.part03.rar | 700.0 MB | Download |
| Windows_Vista_IE7.part04.rar | 700.0 MB | Download |
| Windows_Vista_IE7.part05.rar | 700.0 MB | Download |
| Windows_Vista_IE7.part06.rar | 679.1 MB | Download |
| Windows_XP_IE6.exe | 415.5 MB | Download |
Overview
- In order to help web designers and web developers test their websites in older versions of Internet Explorer, we’ve provided the following VHD with Windows set up with the specified version of Internet Explorer. The images are patched with the latest security updates and are otherwise clean installs of the operating system with very few modifications.
- Filename: Windows_XP_IE6.exe
- Contains: Windows XP SP3 with IE6 VHD file and was fully patched to October 2012. This image also contains the install files for IE7 and IE8. If you want to have separate base XP images for IE7 and IE8, you can copy the VHD, rename it, and install the other desired version of IE.
- Expires: This image will shutdown and become completely unusable on February 14, 2013.
This download page contains different VPC images, depending on what you want to test. These images are specifically designed to run on Microsoft Virtual PC, and may or may not work in other hosting environments.
Due to the size of the Windows 7 and Windows Vista VHDs, it is split across several files, you’ll need to download all files for that version of the Internet Explorer and uncompress them to the same directory to unpack the VHD file.
The password to login to all of these images is Password1 and the username will be present when you first login.
*Note: You may be required to activate the OS as the product key has been deactivated. This is the expected behavior. The VHDs will not pass genuine validation. Immediately after you start the Windows 7 or Windows Vista images they will request to be activated. You can cancel the request and it will login to the desktop. You can activate up to two “rearms” (type slmgr –rearm at the command prompt) which will extend the trial for another 30 days each time OR simply shutdown the VPC image and discard the changes you’ve made from undo disks to reset the image back to its initial state. By doing either of these methods, you can technically have a base image which never expires although you will never be able to permanently save any changes on these images for longer than 90 days.
Windows XP Image
Windows Vista Image
- Contains: Windows Vista SP2 with IE7 VHD file and was patched through March 2011. The install files for IE8 and IE9 are also available for install on the image.
- Filenames: Windows_Vista_IE7.part01.exe, Windows_Vista_IE7.part02.rar, Windows_Vista_IE7.part03.rar, Windows_Vista_IE7.part04.rar, Windows_Vista_IE7.part05.rar, Windows_Vista_IE7.part06.rar, Windows_Vista_IE7.part07.rar
- Expires: See *Note above
Windows 7 IE8 Image
- Contains: Windows 7 SP1 with IE8 VHD file and was patched through March 2011. The install files for IE9 are also available for install on the image.
- Filenames: Windows_7_IE8.part01.exe, Windows_7_IE8.part02.rar, Windows_7_IE8.part03.rar, Windows_7_IE8.part04.rar
- Expires: See *Note above
Windows 7 IE9 + Tools Image
- Contains: Windows 7 SP1 with IE9 VHD file and was patched through March 2011. This image also has the ACT Toolkit 5.6, IECTT, and Expression Super Preview software installed.
- Filenames: Windows_7_IE9.part01.exe, Windows_7_IE9.part02.rar, Windows_7_IE9.part03.rar, Windows_7_IE9.part04.rar, Windows_7_IE9.part05.rar, Windows_7_IE9.part06.rar, Windows_7_IE9.part07.rar
- Expires: See *Note above
System requirements
Supported operating systems: Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP
You will need a minimum of 3.0 Gig hard drive space free to expand the VHD file.
You can download the latest version of Virtual PC at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/.
