Vista's Virtual PC Express To Enable Running Legacy Versions Of Windows
Tuesday, 28 February 2006 by Michel Roth
A Microsoft spokesperson told TG Daily this afternoon that Virtual PC Express, a feature of Microsoft's new Enterprise and Ultimate versions, will be designed to run older editions of Windows as a subsystem.

"Virtual PC Express will be able to run any previous version of the Windows operating system," the spokesperson wrote. "Customers who have annuity agreements with Microsoft automatically are granted a second license to install Windows as well as downgrade rights. This enables a customer to install an older version of Windows on top of Virtual PC Express without having to acquire an additional license."

Recently, Microsoft has made volume licensing exceptions for enterprises installing multiple instances of Windows Server 2003 on a Virtual Server system which is capable of running all those instances on a single processor. But today's statement indicates that, while subscription and volume-licensed users won't have to purchase a new license for XP to run virtually, retail users may still need to, as Microsoft will apparently consider a virtual PC to be a PC.

Read more here.

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