A few months ago I bought a copy of VMware, and now I can’t imagine how I tested my software without it. Previously, I’d create separate partitions for each version of Windows, which required rebooting into the desired OS in order to test – a tedious way to do things.
As this screenshot illustrates, testing is a breeze now. I can quickly start up Windows 95, 98, ME, 2000, XP, 2003 and even Longhorn without ever rebooting.
This also simplifies testing my site on different versions of Internet Explorer (although this has become easier anyway thanks to this handy tip).
You mentioned you are using Longhorn for testing. I did a search on Microsoft’s site looking for a free beta version to download. I was not succesful in my search. Did Microsoft stop allowing the download or is it only available to a certain group of users? Any help would be appreciated.
Longhorn is available to MSDN subscribers, but there isn’t a public beta.
VMWare does indeed rock. I use it to run Windows once a month or so on my Linux laptop.