I don't have much experience with virtual machines, but I will be needing to use them soon. My concern has to do with networking. Our corporate LAN uses MAC filtering to lock down each port. The one time I tried VirtualPC it caused a port lock because VirtualPC created a new, virtual MAC address that caused a conflict. BTW -- The MAC filtering is not under my control.

I know my two main choices are VirtualPC and VMWare. Does one or both of them have a setting that will keep it from screwing up the MAC address, so the MAC within the virtual environment stays the same? I can't even start experimenting until I get this part straightened out.

Oh yeah, we also use static IP addresses, so the virtual environment must use the same IP info that is on the real PC.

With vmware you can set the mac address by hand in the config file, or you could even script it.

Just use NAT mode for the network adapter in VMware.

from the manual

Network Address Translation (NAT)

NAT configures a virtual machine to share the IP and MAC addresses of the host. The 

virtual machine and the host share a single network identity that is not visible outside 

the network. NAT can be useful when your network administrator allows you a single 

IP address or MAC address. If cannot give your virtual machine an IP address on the 

external network, you can use NAT to give your virtual machine access to the Internet 

or another TCP/IP network. NAT uses the host computer’s network connection. NAT 

works with Ethernet, DSL, and phone modems.

That's a way, if all your stuff can share the same IP.