In case you missed the hoopla, Virtual PC is now a free product. You can download it at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtualpc/default.mspx It's not a trial, it's fully functional. As far as running Vista / IIS  7 in it, there are some new beta2 additions you can and should install. It appears they are on http://connect.microsoft.com so you'd have to be in a beta program to get to them. Seems odd since Beta2 can be downloaded publicly. Sign up for the Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 Beta if you’re not already in it.

At any rate, I am delighted that Microsoft is making this stuff avail for free. This follows the dramatic success of the Express editions for Visual Studio.

Of course, the entire virtualization thing is huge now and internally, there is a lot of activity around that. Be aware that in order to get the latest virtualization technology in Longhorn Server, you will have to have the 64 bit version. That's something I don't think is widely known, but is not a secret. Of course, we got ways to go on LH Server, but in Microsoft time, a year is almost tommorrow.

I should right about working at Microsoft as a time compression experience - it's weird.

-brett