Redmond (WA) - Responding to developers’ wishes to be able to run both Internet Explorer 6 and 7 side-by-side, Microsoft has launched a Virtual PC (VPC) image of Windows XP Service Pack 2, Internet Explorer 6, and the IE7 Readiness Toolkit.

"The VPC image runs in a virtual machine that offers all of the functionality of a full IE6 installation without giving it any access to its host machines hard drive, registry, etc. You can make as many modifications as you want to the virtual machine without affecting your host installation at all," wrote IE product manager Pete LePage in the IE blog.

The The IE6 VPC download has what LePage calls a time bomb and will cease to function on April 1, 2007.