Favorite VM

I like virtual box better, it's tools seem to work a bit better than V PC. But they are both pretty amazing.

Hi there
For testing / running a lot of Virtual Machines (and it's FREE) is to use VMWARE SERVER -- these have the advantage that the VM's can be started as SYSTEM SERVICES (means the VM's can be started after HOST boot without a user having to logon and start them manually) and can be run in the background -- this also means that USERS of the VM's do NOT need an account on the machine(s) actually HOSTING the VM's.

Drawback is that there's no 3D support yet so you can't enable full aero on W7 Virtual machines.

You could also use VMWARE PLAYER (Free) V7 which DOES have 3D support but you can't take snapshots.

For software testing and deveoping I'd tend to go for the vmware SERVER -- I like the idea of VM's in the background and that you can use them without needing an account on the host. Starting and stopping VM's when the Host is re-booted is fine as well since you can start / stop these VM's with System services -- no need to manually start the VM's after booting up the HOST.

To the OP -- running a SERVER ITSELF as a VM (such as a virtual W2K3 / W2K8 server) is also great -- this also means that a user can logon to an APPLICATION on the (Virtual server) without needing an account on the server itself as well.

A great way of testing corporate software -- such as SAP / ORACLE / SQL systems where you can have the database system running on a Virtual server with a front end GUI (such as SAPGUI) running on the users remote workstation.

Very powerful and flexible method of testing (and even running) complex software is via Servers running as virtual machines themselves.

Cheers
jimbo