VMware Player allows ready-made virtual machines to be “played”. The software is free for personal and non-commercial use, although licenses for the operating systems one wishes to “play” are necessary. It works with both 32-bit and 64-bit technology.

Users can drag and drop or copy and paste between the virtual machine and the Windows host. Access to CD drives, and USB devices is no problem.

The size of the allocated memory can be adjusted and NAT is supported. The current state of the guest system can be saved as a “snapshot” from which you can continue where you left off.

A number of pre-built virtual appliances, each tailored for a different purpose, are available for free download on VMware’s website.