Creating a virtual machine

[Goose]

I was wondering if anyone knows of a good noob friendly guide on creating a virtual machine? I've done some googling but come up short.

The reason i want to do it is twofold - I'd like a have a look at Windows 7 and i want to be able to run suspicious files in a safe environment as Sandboxie doesn't work on 64bit OS's.

Which leaves me with two final questions. Am i actually able to download and install Windows 7? I've never actually used a pre-release version of Windows before.

Finally, is a virtual machine a safe environment for running iffy files given that its still on the same physical hard drive?

Cheers.

 

[Goose]

Thanks for that but it appears that Virtual PC doesn't work on Vista Basic

 

[Goose]

Gi
VM is good for testing iffy files... just make sure the VM does not have network access.

I've installed Virtualbox and i'm now installing Windows 7. By network access do you mean having a network adapter activated or do you mean accessing my host machine?

I hope that makes sense, i've no idea what i'm doing really.

[Edit] During the Windows 7 setup it asks for my location (Home Network, Public Network etc.) and i chose home network. Is that going to connect to my host PC?