Create a Secure Virtual Computer

There are many reasons you may want to create a secure, isolated test environment. You may need a place to check suspicious web sites and e-mails for viruses. You may need an isolated environment for forensic analysis of compromised hard drives. Or you might simply want a computer with all the default settings and software for testing web sites or applications without any development tools, addons, or other customizations affecting how the system works.
In these situations, the ideal solution is often the use of a virtual computer. This has several advantages over buying a dedicated computer for testing.
Advantages of Virtual Computers

• If the Operating System is compromised, the virtual computer can be reset with the flip of a switch.
• Because the virtual computer operates in a sandbox, the risk to your main system is limited.
• The virtual environment can be closer to a default installation, without any settings changes or background applications that you may have on your system affecting your tests.
  

Links
Download Microsoft Virtual PC
Download the Windows XP Test Image