I am running the latest virtual box. I meant to install most of my software to that, so all the extra stuff that installs along with your programs would not be slowing down the system while not in use.
Also it reads iso files, so I don't have to bother with discs.
However, because the virus scanner slows down the machine anyway I didn't bother making a virtual install for web surfing.
If some of the software you want to try is really nasty use a different machine with a basic install. Easy to fix.
I found Win 7 became as unstable as XP after new software and hardware came along.
