The tools were originally slated to ship in early 2010, but Microsoft hopes to give customers the software in late October for use in across corporate desktops.

The catch is that the is only available to volume licensing customers with Software Assurance contracts.

The news of the early release was announced by Ran Oelgiesser, senior product manager for MED-V, on the MDOP blog.

Windows 7 is slated to ship to commercial customers on Oct. 22, but corporate users with volume licensing contracts have had access to Windows 7 since last month.