Microsoft VPC IE image expiration

Question

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=21EABB90-958F-4B64-B5F1-73D0A413C8EF&displaylang=en

The IE6/7/8 XP SP3 images made available for testing from Microsoft are set to expire tomorrow(!) April 30. I'm a little concerned that Microsoft has not posted new images up yet since I use these fairly often as an easy way to test for IE6/7 compatibility issues that come up.

Does anyone else here have experience with these VPC images over a longer time frame to know that they will actually post new images tomorrow so there's no lapse? Or does anyone know of a good way to get this to the attention of the right person at Microsoft and make sure an image refresh happens?

Otherwise, does anyone have a good suggestion on how to test IE6/7 on the same machine that doesn't involve these free images?

Answer 1

I'm using a fairly old image that expired a while ago. It tends to run for a while and then giving a message about being expired, and then again in about an hour it resets itself. If your version does the same, I'd say it's not a problem really, just restart and off you go.

Answer 2

As far as I know all VPC images have an expiration date of some sort. So, when they expire, they start rebooting every 2 hours, but other than that they work fine. A message pops up after an hour or work, which means you have another hour left. To work a little longer, you can pause the VPC (Action -> Pause) each time you don't need it for a while.

When the MOSS 2007 VHD that I was using for a while expired, I think it took them a month or so to put out a new one.

As for testing for IE 6/7/8, check out Expression Web SuperPreview - it's pretty cool. More detailed description here.