Best way to play old DOS games?

[md99]

I've got a lot of old stuff in my collection that I haven't played in years. Games like Prince Of Persia, Monkey Island, Tomb Raider and so on. I know most games these days can be played on current OS's via patches and all sorts of lengthy workarounds but I don't think its worth the hassle.

Could I partition my hard drive and stick something like Win 98 on it or would there be any possible conflicts using such an old OS on modern hardware?

 

[md99]

If you really can't be bothered with compatability patches and whatnot, you could always use a VM install rather than make a new partition.

Makes more sense actually. Is the installation procedure as straightforward as installing any piece of software on my OS? None of my current data is at risk of being lost or anything like that is it?