That sounds useful.

This gets me though:

> The VMs provided by Microsoft will not pass the Windows Genuine Advantage and cannot be activated.

I mean, there's a workaround, but where's the love from Microsoft? Don't they want me to be able to test on their browser so my sites will support it?

This is really not a big problem. A non-activated version of windows will run for a while before rebooting. It's mildly annoying to have to reboot every now and then in extended testing, but it works sufficiently well.

Microsoft's suggested solution is to just start from the raw image each time you start the vm. This way it will run without problems for 30 days. The images come pre-setup so you don't need setup time unless you want to install some extra debugging tools.

Windows 7 (and Windows Server 2008) have had a supported option to extend the evaluation period to 120+ days. This has been around since 2007.

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2007/01/extending-the-windo...

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/bott/vista-hands-on-9-use-vista-fo...

> This gets me though:

Why? They have no reason to pass WGA, and this is only mildly annoying for actual users, as a development VM I don't remember it ever causing me any issue.