Internet Explorer 6 Application Compatibility VPC Image is a Virtual PC (VPC) hard disk image and available for free download from Microsoft. The VPC image contains a pre-activated Windows XP SP2 installed with IE6 and the IE7 Readiness Toolkit to help facilitate testing and development on IE 6 to IE 7 websites transitions. Developers or users have to install Microsoft Virtual PC in order to load the image, which will launch a virtual machine installed with Internet Explorer 6 on Windows XP SP2, so that users can launch IE7 and IE6 simultaneously with IE6 in the VPC on the same computer without the need to purchase additional Windows license. With the VPC image, users can upgrade to IE7 on their computer without compromise on the ability to use IE6 as and when needed.

Internet Explorer 6 Application Compatibility image for Microsoft Virtual PC will expire on 1st April 2007, and supports Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista and Windows XP. Microsoft Virtual PC 2004 for Windows XP and Windows 2003 or Virtual PC 2007 for Windows Vista needs to be installed and has a minimum of 1.5 Gig hard drive space free to expand the VHD file.

Internet Explorer 6 Application Compatibility VPC Image can be downloaded from here. If you want test Virtual PC without taking too much time or spending money to purchase Windows license to install Windows on the virtual machine, the VPC image is a easy and free way to have a new virtual machine complete with operating system.

Update: IE6, IE7 and IE8 on Windows XP or vista Application Compatibility VHD Images