Run IT on a Virtual Hard Disk – Test Drive Program

The Microsoft Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) format is the common virtualization file format that provides a uniform product support system, and provides more seamless manageability, security, reliability and cost-efficiency for customers.

Featured VHDs

Using the power of virtualization, you can quickly evaluate Microsoft and partner solutions through a series of pre-configured virtual hard disks (VHDs). You can download the VHDs and evaluate them for free in your own environment without the need for dedicated servers or complex installations.

• Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise Edition x64 (Full Install)
  You will have the opportunity to try the new and improved features and functionality of Windows Server 2008 R2 free for 180 days. Windows Server 2008 R2 builds on the foundation of Windows Server 2008, offering new virtualization tools, Web resources, management enhancements, and Windows 7 integration. Tools such as Internet Information Services (IIS) version 7.5, updated Server Manager, Hyper-V platforms and Windows PowerShell version 2.0 combine to provide greater control, increased efficiency and the ability to react to front-line business needs faster than ever before.
• Microsoft Windows 7 Enterprise
  Windows 7 has many new features and file management enhancements — like Jump Lists and improved taskbar previews — to help speed you through everyday tasks. Windows 7 is designed for faster and more reliable performance. With 64-bit support, you can take full advantage of the latest generation of powerful PCs and processors. New features like HomeGroup, an updated Windows Media Center and Windows Touch make new things possible.
• Exchange Server 2010 for Windows Server 2008
  Evaluate the new capabilities of Exchange Server 2010, which helps you achieve new levels of reliability and performance and delivers features that help to simplify your administration, protect your communications, and delight your users by meeting their demands for greater business mobility.

VHDs by Product

Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise Edition x64 (Full Install) Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise Edition x64 (Core Install) Windows Server 2008 Standard Ed. x86 (full install) Windows Server 2008 Standard Ed. x64 (full install) Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Ed. x86 (full install) Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Ed. x64 (full install) Windows Server 2008 Standard Ed. x86 (core install) Windows Server 2008 Standard Ed. x64 (core install) Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Ed. x86 (core install) Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Ed. x64 (core install) Office Communications Server 2007 R2 for Windows Server 2008 Microsoft Windows 7 Enterprise 90-Day Eval. x86 (full install)

Exchange Server 2010 RC for Windows Server 2008 Exchange Server 2007 SP1 for Windows Server 2008 Exchange Server 2007 SP1 for Windows Server 2003 R2 SQL Server 2008 Enterprise Evaluation for Windows Server 2008 Windows Server 2003 R2 System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R2 for Windows Server 2003 R2 Office SharePoint Server 2007 for Windows Server 2003 R2 Forefront codename “Stirling” for Windows Server 2003 R2 System Center Essentials 2007 SP1 for Windows Server 2003 R2 Office Communications Server 2007 R2

Learn More About VHDs

VHD Product Overview Learn about the VHD Test Drive Program, get an introduction to virtual machine technology, and read about key features and benefits of using VHDs in this overview.

Frequently Asked Questions about VHDs Find general information about using VHDs, virtual machine technology, requirements, and more in the VHD FAQ.

Become a VHD Test Drive Partner The Microsoft VHD Test Drive Program provides Microsoft’s partners a convenient and simplified process for creation of application images, facilitates its widespread distribution by making it available as a free download and enables accelerated evaluation and testing of these applications by customers.

VHD Image Format Specifications With the VHD format now available as a freely available specification, Microsoft is contributing to the continued expansion of the virtualization market by fostering interoperability among all commercial software solutions, including open source.

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 VHD (Download)

Overview

The Microsoft VHD Test Drive Program provides customers with an enhanced server-based software evaluation experience that’s faster, better supported and more flexible. You can now access the entire catalog of pre-configured Microsoft and partner products and solutions in the VHD format and start evaluating and testing today from www.microsoft.com/vhd.

This download enables you evaluate Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 is an integrated suite of server capabilities that can help improve organizational effectiveness by providing comprehensive content management and enterprise search, accelerating shared business processes, and facilitating information-sharing across boundaries for better business insight. Office SharePoint Server 2007 supports all intranet, extranet, and Web applications across an enterprise within one integrated platform, instead of relying on separate fragmented systems. Additionally, this collaboration and content management server provides IT professionals and developers with the platform and tools they need for server administration, application extensibility, and interoperability.

This fully functional pre-configured VHD provides you a trial software will automatically expire after 30 days.
This is a preconfigured virtual machine contained within the Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) format. Virtual Server 2005 R2 is required to run this VHD. This is a refreshed image. There are no component changes except the expiration date has been extended to 2/2011. Please refer to the system requirements section for more details.

Download from: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=67f93dcb-ada8-4db5-a47b-df17e14b2c74

New Training on Channel 9

Are you trying to find more information to help you prepare for certifications?  Perhaps you would like to go a little deeper on some of the technologies.  Channel 9 has always been a great go-to place for developers looking for the latest information and now, they’ve added some great training content as well.

Channel 9 launched three new training courses created by developers for developers.  Channel 9 has always been about giving direct access to the engineers and future technologies from Microsoft.  These courses allow developers to get started on learning about emerging technologies at their own pace. 

 

Office 2010 Workshop

Discover how Office 2010 Beta is a broadly extensible platform for building information worker productivity solutions and see how developing for Office with Visual Studio 2010 makes this easy.

See online presentations with demos that will help you get started developing solutions from Add-ins to full featured Office Business Applications (OBAs) using Visual Studio 2010 with Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 as the core platform. 

Explore how to build solutions on SharePoint 2010

See how SharePoint 2010 is a major step forward as a development platform.  Learn how SharePoint 2010 provides the business collaboration platform for developers to rapidly build solutions using familiar tools such as Visual Studio 2010 through this self-paced course. 

Windows Server 2008 R2, “Not your average R2!”

Explore this significant Windows Server release via a self-paced training course of videos and hands-on-labs with a focus on performance, web, management, and other server solution scenarios.   Learn about developing applications for “many-core” scale, enable efficient “trigger-started” services, explore new Windows PowerShell features, create integrated solutions with the File Classification Infrastructure, build Web Platform extensions, and automate your dev-test environment with VHD and Hyper-V API’s.

Download Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 RC today, plus access VHD and Exchange Online

For all of you waiting for the Release Candidate of Microsoft Exchange Server 2010, your wait is now over.  You can now download the Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 RC trial software on the Microsoft Exchange Trial site.  Be sure to check out the Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 system requirements before installing.  For some additional information on Microsoft Exchange Server 2010, you can also:

• Read the Exchange 2010 Product Overview
• Review the Exchange 2010 FAQ
• Watch Exchange 2010 Videos

In addition to accessing the RC trial software on the Microsoft Exchange Trial site, you can also try out Virtual Hard Drives through the Microsoft VHD Test Drive Program.  You can now access the entire catalog of pre-configured Microsoft and partner products and solutions in the VHD format and start evaluating and testing today.

Also available on the Microsoft Exchange Trial site is your chance to try out Microsoft Exchange Online, which enables you to try all the messaging and calendaring functionality you need with none of the administrative burden.

You can also access the Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 RC through this TechNet site as well.

Thank you and have a wonderful day,

Source: Eric’s Blog

Everything you ever wanted to know about VHDs

The Virtual Hard Disk Getting Started Guide is 61 pages of great info outlining all the relevant scenarios, configurations, and options for using VHD files. This was release about 3 weeks ago but I missed it at the time due to training and TechReady9. The guide outlines basic scenarios like booting Windows 7 or Server 2008 R2 from VHD as well as more advanced scenarios like migrating at VHD between physical and virtual environments, etc. If nothing else this is worth a quick read of the table of contents because you will likely see things in there that you didn’t realize you could do with VHDs.

Here is the official description of the doc:

“Windows Server® 2008 R2 and Windows® 7 is the first version of Windows to provide native support for virtual hard disks (VHDs). This guide describes the scenarios that guided the development of this feature, detailed steps about how to employ the functionality (including image creation, deployment, and maintenance), and the associated tools, scripts, and APIs.”

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=d2afacbb-5af6-45c2-b275-932116e27b0b