Remember the Microsoft Test Drive program that we talked about back in November? The one where you can try out some of Microsoft's software as a demo but instead of installing it on your own machine, you could download the entire thing - preinstalled - as a virtual appliance type package? It sounded very much like a VMware appliance then and may sound like one even more with the latest news. Those same "test dri Remember the Microsoft Test Drive program that we talked about back in November? The one where you can try out some of Microsoft’s software as a demo but instead of installing it on your own machine, you could download the entire thing – preinstalled – as a virtual appliance type package? It sounded very much like a VMware appliance then and may sound like one even more with the latest news. Those same “test drive” Microsoft virtual machines are now making their way over to the VMware Virtual Appliance Marketplace. I know, you are asking yourself, “but aren’t these images Microsoft virtual machine images?” The answer is, yes. VMware’s VMTN reports that “The files offered on Microsoft’s site may be downloaded, extracted and opened with VMware virtualization products (no need to install MS Virtual Server). Conversion is automatic. Simply open the .VMC file and VMware Workstation, Server, or Player will perform the conversion for you.” I don’t think this is quite what Microsoft had in mind when it created the Test Drive program, but evidently, VMTN is claiming that these demos are also quite handy as VMware Virtual Appliances. The new appliances showing up at the Appliance Marketplace are: Microsoft Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise Edition Virtual Appliance Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Virtual Appliance Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Enterprise Edition Virtual Appliance Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server 2006 Virtual Appliance Internet Explorer 6 Application Compatibility Virtual Appliance Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 Evaluation Virtual Appliance Software Development