Seeing as many people reading this probably have dabbled in website creation, I thought I'd pass on my recommendation of Microsoft's Virtual PC 2007. Earlier this year, Microsoft released their latest offering of Virtual PC which is now free to download and use from their site.
I've been using it daily for the past few months, as I find it an invaluable tool for a Web Designer. The uses aren't limited to us either, as Virtualisation is fast becoming the best solution for many IT situations.
I use Virtual PC 2007 for testing different Operating Systems using the one PC. In the past I would have set-up a dual-boot system, requiring a reboot every time I needed to use a different O/S. But Virtual PC allows you to work from within the one host operating system, with several guests too. At work I simply use Vista Business as the host, with XP Pro SP2 as the guest - with the former containing IE7 and the latter having IE6; Firefox; Opera; Safari and Netscape all installed.
This allows me to test a website in a range of browsers, as I'm developing it. Previously Web Designers would have created a site to work well in their preferred browser and then added additional styles/fixes to accommodate the other browsers available. This may work well for some, but it's great to fix errors or issues as soon as they occur in a browser, rather than waiting until the final stages of development.
Tonight I decided to bring Virtual PC 2007 to my desktop PC at home. I have Vista Ultimate (64-bit, as VPC 2007 is available in 32 and 64-bit flavours) as the host, with XP Pro SP2 as the guest (with Opera, IE6 and Safari). The RC of Server 2008 is also on there, but mainly to see whether it'll be a feasible upgrade to my Fileserver in the near future.
I'll soon be adding Windows 2000 to the mix, with the (now)prehistoric IE5 for that extra conformity with my sites. Ubuntu 7.04 is also lying around, awaiting a Virtual HDD of its own.
Virtual PC allows you to run a whole range of operating systems from within your host. If you've got an old DOS/PC game or legacy application lying around, then you can install a compatible guest operating system and relive those retro moments. Perhaps you need to code for a certain environment or test a recently developed game/application too? VPC stores the guest operating systems within Virtual Hard Drives, which can be moved from PC to PC if required. These files adapt to the size that the operating system requires, allowing you to store several within the one partition on your physical drive.
Once you've got Virtual PC installed (a short and simple process I should add), you can either boot from a CD within Virtual PC, or drag n' drop an .iso of the operating system to begin installation.
Virtual PC 'emulates' a PC, allowing you to use the operating system as if it was installed as the host (with a few limitations though). The difference between this and a multi-boot set-up though, is that your Virtual PCs wont harm the host operating system, as files cannot be accessed directly from one to the other (shared folders can bypass this). The benefit? You could use the guest O/S to test new software, safe in the knowledge that any virus or spy ware caught wont be passed on to your primary operating system.
I'll leave you with the following screenshot:
That's slickhouse.com shown in Firefox > IE 7 > Safari > Opera. The observant of you will spot the one issue I'll need to sort soon in Safari. If you've got a few GBs of hard-drive spare and are wanting to relive the joys (and annoyances) of XP and its siblings, then go and download Virtual PC for free.