Download Microsoft Windows Vista 30-Day Evaluation VHD

Microsoft has made a special evaluation version of Windows Vista available in its own Virtual Hard Diskformat. This makes it possible to test the operating system for thirty days in the virtualization programs Virtual PC and Virtual Server. In this way, system and network administrators can test applications in Windows Vista without the need for a separate system. Windows Vista 30-Day Eval VHD can be completed by filling in this page downloaded as a preconfigured image file and takes up roughly 10GB of hard disk space and 1GB of memory when run:

For organizations with complex desktop infrastructures, whether large or small, Windows Vista Enterprise is the operating system designed specifically to help realize a better return on IT investments. In this VHD, you’ll have the opportunity to road-test new and improved features including management (eg MUI, BDD, etc…) usability (eg Search, Navigation, etc…) and security (UAC, Windows Defender, etc…) , enhancements to the Windows Vista platform.

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 1024MB of memory.