Dugie’s Pensieve

The The TechNet Australia Blog posted yesterday that WSUS 3.0 is the number 1 download from TechNet.  Which is kinda cool, it just goes to show that free doesn’t necessarily mean it’s crud.

So I thought I’d check where WSUS ranks overall at Microsoft Downloads - and it come in overall at number #53.  Then I saw that Virtual PC 2007 trumps it at number #19!

Anyway, I thought that was quite interesting, so I did a quick search for virtualization related resources and published them below.  A few surprises:

    The Top 3 Downlaods

• #1 -  Windows Internet Explorer 7 for Windows XP SP2
• #2 - Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats
• #3 - .NET Framework Version 2.0 Redistributable Package (x86)

     Virtualization Downloads

• #19 - Virtual PC 2007
• #78 - Windows Vista VHD
• #126 - Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1
• #305 - IE App Compat VHD
• #365 - Exchange Server 2007 VHD
• #367 - Windows Server 2003 R2 VHD
• #720 - ISA Server 2006 VHD
• #870 - Visual Studio 2005 Team Suite VHD
• #928 - SQL Server 2005 VHD
• #937 - System Center Essentials 2007 VHD
• #1143 - Virtual PC Demonstration with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 VHD
• #1230 - SQL Server 2005/Exchange 2007 VHD
• #1315 - System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2007 Beta 2 VHD
• #1494 - Visual Studio Team System Basics Training VHD
• #1803 - Visual Studio 2005 Team System VHD
• #3618 - VHD Specs
• #3737 - Virtual Server and the HP BladeSystem
• #5417 - VHD Overview Whitepaper
• #6079 - VHD Test Drive Datasheet

      Miscellaneous Downloads for some perspective

• #42 - Halo for Windows Trial Version
• #43 - Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit Tools
• #44 - SyncToy v1.4
• #56 - WSUS 3.0
• #6398 - Secure Your Computer Best Practices

Now, that’s very very interesting, you can make your own assumptions, but I’d be as bold to say that Virtualization is a very powerful enabler and tool for the IT Pro.  To quote Isaac Asimov, “Hmmm that’s funny….”.