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• November 11, 2003 •
Microsoft announced the release to manufacturing (RTM) of Microsoft® Virtual PC 2004, a desktop virtual machine solution to help technical professionals migrate legacy applications to Windows® XP. Scheduled to be available by the end of 2003, Microsoft Virtual PC offers customers a cost-effective safety net to ease their migration to Microsoft Windows XP Professional and a tool to help accelerate the development, testing, deployment and support of PC applications. Microsoft Virtual PC 2004 allows enterprise customers to run multiple operating systems on one PC, so employees can run critical legacy applications on an interim basis while information technology (IT) professionals proceed with the migration to Windows XP Professional.
"Our enterprise customers have told us that virtual machine technologies are crucial for their migration needs," said Rob Short, corporate vice president in the Windows division at Microsoft. "Microsoft Virtual PC allows those customers to benefit from the gains in reliability, security and productivity of Windows XP, while also being able to run their critical legacy applications."
Microsoft Virtual PC 2004 marks Microsoft's entry into the Windows-based virtual machine arena. The product is built on virtualization technology that Microsoft acquired in February 2003 from Connectix Corp., a company at the forefront of virtual machine development since 1988. Microsoft Virtual PC 2004 reflects Microsoft's commitment to develop innovative software virtualization solutions for the Windows operating system platform based on Connectix products and technologies. Since the Connectix acquisition, Microsoft rearchitected Virtual PC and conducted rigorous testing to ensure that the product meets Microsoft's security and reliability standards.
New features of Microsoft Virtual PC 2004 include support for as many as four network adapters per virtual machine, all through the graphical user interface; Extensible Markup Language (XML) file-based configuration of virtual machines to ease the copying of a virtual machine to another computer; and support for up to 4 GB of memory. More memory makes it possible to run more operating systems simultaneously and improves the performance of operating systems with larger memory requirements.
Key features carried over from the former Connectix product include Virtual Machine Additions, which provides a high level of integration between host and guest operating systems, including integrated mouse, time synchronization, cut-and-paste, drag-and-drop, and folder sharing; Undo Disks, which allows users to delete any changes they make to the virtual hard disk during a session; and Differencing Disks, which lets multiple users and multiple virtual machines use the same parent virtual hard disk at the same time.
Microsoft Virtual PC also runs most x86 operating systems in the virtual machine environment with no need for custom drivers. This extensive compatibility positions customers to migrate legacy applications and consolidate desktops for dramatic cost savings.
Virtual PC Availability and Pricing
Microsoft announced pricing for Microsoft Virtual PC 2004, offering savings for enterprise customers. Microsoft's version of the software will be available for an estimated retail price of $129 (U.S.),* a drop from the former Connectix price of $229. Microsoft Virtual PC 2004 will be made available later this year through Microsoft's existing retail and volume licensing channels. It also will be included in Microsoft's MSDN® subscriptions, and volume discounts are available through Microsoft's Open, Select and Enterprise Agreement volume licensing programs. Microsoft will offer a free** upgrade to current Connectix Virtual PC customers when Microsoft Virtual PC 2004 is released later this year.
* Reseller prices may vary.
** There may be a media fulfillment charge for some customers.
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