Microsoft announced the much anticipated release of Virtual PC 2007 Release Candidate 1 on Microsoft Connect.

The release of Virtual PC 2007 introduces the following features:

• Support for Windows Vista as a host operating system - This release of Virtual PC 2007 has support for Windows Vista as a host operating system. The following versions of Windows Vista are supported: Windows Vista Business, Windows Vista Enterprise, Windows Vista Ultimate.
• Support for Windows Vista  as a guest operating system - This release of Virtual PC 2007 has support for Windows Vista as a guest operating system. The following versions of Windows Vista are supported: Windows Vista Business, Windows Vista Enterprise, Windows Vista Ultimate.
• Support for 64-bit host operating systems - This release of Virtual PC 2007 supports 64-bit host operating systems. However, there is no support for 64-bit guest operating systems.
• Support for hardware-assisted virtualization - Virtual PC 2007 includes support for virtualization technology from Intel and AMD. By default, hardware-assisted virtualization is enabled if the feature is enabled on the physical computer. You can turn this assistance on or off for each virtual machine by modifying the virtual machine settings.
• Built-in support for network installations - It is possible to install an operating system on a virtual machine through the network. The virtual machine network adapter includes support for PXE boot. This means that when the appropriate network infrastructure is in place, you can perform a network installation of a guest operating system without needing a PXE boot floppy disk.

The following are supported host operating systems:

• Windows XP Professional
• Windows XP Professional Tablet PC Edition
• Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition
• Windows Vista Business
• Windows Vista Enterprise
• Windows Vista Ultimate

This release of Virtual PC 2007 introduces support for Windows Vista as a guest operating system.

The following are supported guest operating systems:

• Windows 98 Second Edition
• Windows 2000 Professional
• Windows XP Home Edition
• Windows XP Professional
• OS/2
• Windows Vista Business
• Windows Vista Enterprise
• Windows Vista Ultimate

The following operating systems that were supported in Virtual PC 2004 SP1 are compatible with this release but are not supported:

• MS-DOS 6.22
• Windows 95
• Windows 98
• Windows Millennium Edition
• Windows NT Workstation 4.0

Support for 64-bit host operating systems
This release of Virtual PC 2007 supports 64-bit host operating systems. However, there is no support for 64-bit guest operating systems.

Thanks to Richard Cardona for the news!