VMWare is one free virtualization program, Oracle's VirtualBox is another. Both make it easy to play with Windows 8, Linux and other machines. I use both machines at home with about 8 different virtual machines to use. I probably spend the most time on either Windows 8 or Ubuntu. I also have Window Virtual PC but only use the Win XP version on that.
May have to play with hyper-V server, but would need to work in CMI (command line interface) and I don't feel like learning it at this time.
We use VMWare to run an old windows 2K machine that has old immunization software.
I haven't used it for other purposes yet, but am considering running it as remote desktops to log into from the opposite office.
