Some of you have been following my rants about Vista, so you know I'm not tickled about upgrading. But I want you to forget about that for a minute and test drive a virtual version of Vista.
Microsoft's set up a site that gives you remote access to a fully working version of Vista. It works well even a slow broadband connection.
Don't worry: There's no installation and no risk of hosing your PC.
Start Exploring
Everything's available to try. Open the Start menu and click any application, including all the Office 2007 programs. Try a game. Play with the Document Explorer or Built-in Diagnostics. Or reconfigure the Sidebar. You can also explore Vista's insides from Control Panel -- check out the administration tools, performance information, and fiddle with (and change) settings in Device Manager. Cool, no?
And just to reiterate -- you can't do any harm to the online version because it's a virtual machine. [Thanks for the lead, Leo!]
Test drive requirements and Microsoft's disclaimers
Prepare for a short wait as the components load
Annoying message: Check "Don't ask me again" and click OK
Dig into the Start menu
Go ahead -- try Word 2007
Mess with the Device Drive -- you can't do any harm
Whether you upgrade or not, you have to admit -- this is fun.
Hey Steve,
No it doesn't. At least not for me. I get some silly comment about 'being outside their geographic area'. Well, true if that means outside the US as I live in the EU, but my guess is that Microsoft expects to sell a few copies of Vista here as well? Strange behaviour ...
Hi Steve,
Well I tried it out a few minutes ago. Hmm, I can only hope that the poor performance of the Vista test drive was due to too much network traffic. Too many users logged in at the same time? Interesting, yes. Fun? No way.
Hans
Steve,
No, this is not fun. It does not work and why do I find that this is not a surprise. Oh well, at least I know what to expect from Microsoft. Another quality product!
Mark
Tolls: Unfortunately, the site didn't say anything about location restrictions.
Hans: The site's getting lots of press, so it wouldn't surprise me if the site was overloaded.
Mark: The site probably figured out you're trying using a Linux box. Seriously, it could be a browser problem, bandwidth limitation, or solar flares.
The best article I have seen concerning Vista and Office 2007 deployment was found here. http://www.itwire.com.au/content/view/8586/53/.
"The 20 page report "Microsoft Vista and Office 2007, Interim Report with Recommendations on Adoption and Deployment" was authored by the British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (Becta) and released late last week."
Worth reading.
STILL A P.O.S. I've been trying to get drivers for VurlentVista since last September. Marvelous jaub billy, can't wait to spend $379 on this one.
Well, I just tried the "Virtual Vista" and it did not work all that well for me. It started out slow (I have a broadband connection) and it did not offer enough to show people about the O.S. I have had Vista Beta and RC1, installed on a couple of different test machines and I for one am not all that impressed. I will be staying with my XP Pro install and will have to wait at least until the first Vista Service Pack as been released before considering the purchase of the full O.S. once it has been released to the public. I recommend the same to some of the others out there wanting to get this O.S.