Windows licensing for web developer

Question

I need to test my website on Windows, now and in the future. I don't yet have Windows. I just need the software, but don't mind purchasing hardware to get the software. What's the cheapest ethical way to do this?

Some options:

• buy a used computer on eBay. Will I be able to upgrade to future versions of Windows if I also upgrade the hardware, including everything but the hard drive? I'm considering a $100 box on eBay with Windows XP Pro.

• buy Windows XP Pro (about $140 on eBay), and pay for upgrades as time goes by.

• use a screen capture service on the web. (These are either too expensive or don't offer enough control, in my experience).

UPDATE: I bought a sealed version of XP Pro from a reseller on Amazon.

Answer 1

Download Virtual PC: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=b07c9ef0-265a-4237-ae3b-25bc8937d40f&displaylang=en

and use this:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=7c2b5317-a40f-4e86-8835-d37170c5923e&displaylang=en

Edit: And if you don't have Windows, Virtual PC may work on Wine.

Answer 2

browsershots.org should work for basic needs, although it just shows how it looks, not any of the functionality.

Answer 3

VMWare Server is available for free, and is available for Linux. You'll still have to pay for Windows, but you won't need additional hardware.

Also, consider that in addition to XP, you may also want to test on Vista and Windows 7. Virtualization is a good way to go here.

Answer 4

Another free solution is VirtualBox, from Sun, which is able to install on Windows XP Home (which VMWare Server will NOT). Possibly not what you need given you are non-Windows, but in any case it's another option.

Answer 5

A home Windows licence only costs that much if you buy a shrink wrap copy. The version bundled with new PCs (OEM) is much cheaper - if you are willing to buy the hardware as you say, the cost of the Windows licence could be as little as $25 of the total cost.

For $299 you can get a good netbook; This one has 160GB of harddrive space, Windows XP Home, 1GB of memory, and is plenty fast for web browsing (I've also run SQL Server for testing on one upgraded to 2GB). If the resolution becomes an issue (1024x600), just plug in an external monitor. As a bonus, it's a tiny machine, so it doesn't take up lots of space like another desktop.

EEE 900HA XP

Answer 6

AS mentionned, you can get the Microsoft free VPC Image. Then you convert them to VMWare Images (the server version is free) with VMware vCenter Converter