The other day I was installing a Windows Server 2003 R2 32-Bit virtual machine to install Microsoft Exchange Server 2007. After installing the OS and then set it up as a Domain Controller it was time to install Exchange Server 2007. So I inserted the Installation DVD only to get a "This installation package is not supported by this processor type" error. So I decided to look for the requirements on Exchange Server 2007 only to find out that I needed a 64-bit OS. You see I'm the kind of guy who likes to get his hands dirty so I get right to it instead of reading the manual first. Sometimes I pay for that and this was one of those times.

So the first thing I tried was reinstalling the 64-bit version of the OS, but I couldn't because either my host is running a 32-bit version of Vista or because of a limitation with Virtual PC 2007 (don't know which one is the problem yet). Anyway, I started searching for Exchange Server 2007 32-Bit and found out that Microsoft has released a 32 version for testing, development, teaching, etc purposes. The next thing I needed was to get my hands on the installation files. So I searched my big pile of DVDs I got from my MSDN subscription and I couldn't find it. I then went online to see if I could download and I had no luck there either. So I did a little more reading and found out that you can download the 32 bit evaluation version of Exchange which according to the comment of this blog never expires (even though it says it will do).

HUGE DISCLAIMER

The 32 bit version of Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 was not intended for production purposes. Do not under any circumstances install the 32 bit version for a production environment. The 32 bit version is only intended to be used for development, test, and teaching purposes.

Happy development, testing, and teaching!