Attention developers: new IE6 and IE7 VPCs based on XPSP2 with the latest patched are planned for release on 10 August 2007
A common request by developers is that they want to run IE6 and IE7 side by side for testing purposes. To address this need (and help developers avoid having to use the various hacks that almost/kinda/close enough met the developers' need to run IE6 and IE7 on the same machine) the IE team started offering, for free, Virtual PC images of XPSP2 with IE6 or IE7 pre-installed. The VPCs are already activated, and can be used with Microsoft's Virtual PC product, which is also free.
The IE VPCs are time-bombed, and the last released build is due to expire on 17 August 2007. Pete LePage has announced that a new IE6 and an IE7 VPC image, based on Windows XP SP2 + the latest patches is planned for release on 10 August 2007.