Add Vista Premium/Enterprise features to XP (or Vista)

(filed under 'send to blog')

[posted by Liberty Miller, July 31 2007]

You can add features that are unique to Vista Home Premium and Vista Ultimate if you have Windows XP or Vista Business. For example:

Virtual computing

Vista Enterprise and Ultimate include Virtual PC, which lets you run multiple PC-based operating systems ( e.g. Linux, Windows XP on Vista, other Windows versions...) from within Windows. This can give you backward compatibility with older software, a second environment in which to surf the Web more safely, and more.

XP users can download this feature for free directly from Microsoft {link}. Users of other Vista editions other than Enterprise and Ultimate may want to try out the free VMware Player {http://www.vmware.com/products/player/} ...

Taskbar Thumbnail Previews for XP (free)

"Visual Task Tips {link} is a lightweight shell enhancement utility. It provides thumbnail preview image for each task in the Windows Taskbar, as seen in the upcoming Microsoft Windows Vista."

continue: read more at windows secrets >>

Cisco Makes Strategic Investment in VMware

[ Cisco.com Posting Date: 2007-July-27 ]

Abstract: Cisco Systems Inc., the biggest maker of computer-networking equipment, will buy $150 million worth of shares in the initial public offering of VMware Inc. This represents an "equity stake" in the company.

Quoted from PR Newswire:

Cisco today announced that it has made a strategic investment of $150 million in VMware, Inc. [Editor - makers of VMware Player, see above], the global leader in virtual infrastructure software.

Cisco’s purchase will give the company about a 1.6 percent ownership stake in VMware and is intended to strengthen intercompany collaboration toward accelerating customer adoption of VMware virtualization products with Cisco’s networking infrastructure. In addition, the investment is intended to accelerate the development of customer solutions that address the intersection of virtualization and networking technologies.

"We see the network becoming an increasingly important component in how customers deploy, manage, and secure their data center resources in a more virtualized manner," said Ned Hooper, Senior Vice President, Corporate Business Development. "By collaborating with VMware and others, Cisco can help ensure that the network and the server virtualization are more tightly coupled to allow customers to more easily scale these environments."

This investment continues Cisco’s long-standing strategy of investing in companies primarily with strategic intent and with the interest to stay close to market transitions.

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