Microsoft finally made the much anticipated release of Virtual PC 2007 Release Candidate available, but with little fanfare. The announcement keeps the product on track for a final shipment in the first quarter. New features found in the release include support for Microsoft Windows Vista as both a host operating system as well as a guest operating system. Supported versions include Windows Vista Business, Windo Microsoft finally made the much anticipated release of Virtual PC 2007 Release Candidate available, but with little fanfare. The announcement keeps the product on track for a final shipment in the first quarter.New features found in the release include support for Microsoft Windows Vista as both a host operating system as well as a guest operating system. Supported versions include Windows Vista Business, Windows Vista Enterprise and Windows Vista Ultimate. It also includes support for 64-bit host operating systems, however there is no support for 64-bit guest operating systems. Support for such guest operating systems is not expected until Windows virtualization arrives after Longhorn Server.Support has also been added for hardware assisted virtualization, which includes support for virtualization technology from Intel and AMD. By default, hardware assisted virtualization is enabled if the feature is enabled on the physical computer. You can turn this assistance on or off for each virtual machine by modifying the virtual machine settings. This build also adds built-in support for network installations. It’s now possible to install an operating system on a virtual machine over the network. The virtual machine network adapter includes support for PXE (Pre-Execution Boot) boot. This means that when the appropriate network infrastructure is in place, you can perform a network installation of a guest operating system without the need for a PXE boot floppy disk.Last summer, Microsoft announced that Virtual PC 2007 would be free. The latest Virtual PC 2007 RC can be downloaded, here. Software Development