Windows 7: I have a stupid question.... ha ha ha

Presently I have VMware player 4.0.4 running Win 8 RP.
Can I " create a new virtual machine " and test run a " trial " version program but without a guest OS installed ?

t-4-2

Does this Trial version program say what OS it requires to run? It will require an OS, most programs do. If it is multiplatform, you could potentially install linux... maybe ubuntu, and install it there.

http://www.ubuntu.com/download

If the program can run with a "live" version that can boot on itself with a CD or USB drive, yes you can (in fact in those cases, the program includes a small "micro" OS to boot from there). Otherwise you would need to install also an operating system into a second virtual machine.

Just remember that a virtual machine, regardless what program was used to create it, behaves just like a normal computer, and if the program runs without an operating system on a real computer, it will on a virtual machine.