As far as I can tell there has been no official evaluation DVD for Vista since RC1 (correct me if I'm wrong) - you can build a evaluation build of any version of Vista from any Vista media, but what if you can't get access to your company media and need to start testing - or you're looking to check it out for professional development.  Microsoft's "VHD Test Drive" site to the rescue ...

Microsoft has a site full of Virtual PC virtual trial editions and Vista is one of them.  The download is 1.6 GB in 95.8 MB chunks via a multipart self-extracting RAR archive.  I found that the free download manager FreshDownload was able to use the download links just fine.

You will need to download and install Microsoft Virtual PC (30MB) to run the virtual machine.  I have not heard, nor tested if these VHDs can be converted to VMWare disks (please drop a line if you have done this).

You must register to download any of the VHDs on the test drive site.

Visit Site Download Vista (1.6 GB in 95.8 MB chunks)

Topic: Engineers Toolbox, Virtual Machines, Windows Vista