Imagine being able to run another operating system on your computer, without having to reboot your machine or having to leave Windows. The options are endless. You could purchase a copy of Windows Vista and use it within a virtual environment, getting used to the new features and testing it with your hardware, before you decide to implement it on your work system.

Another option would be to install Windows XP on top of Windows XP, purely as a test bed for software you plan to install on your system. This has a number of advantages – you’re less likely to get spyware on your computer as software has been installed within a virtual ‘closed box’ environment. Your Registry is kept lean as software isn’t installed on your regular computer, unless absolutely necessary. Also, you can install just about any software title, uninstall, and then decide whether it meets your requirements, before you install on your work machine.

If you’re a software developer or tester, you can also install multiple operating systems. For example, you could have an old copy of Windows 98SE, Windows XP and the new Windows Vista, to test whether your software works successfully across each operating system.

VMware Workstation is desktop virtualisation software that is designed to allow people to run multiple operating systems, simultaneously, on a single PC. You’re not restricted to Windows-based operating systems, either. Why not use VMWare Workstation to host a Linux-based operating system? If you’re nervous about installing Ubuntu on your machine, why not first test it within your virtual environment.

New features include Unity, where you can show guest software on your existing operating system, as well as improved 3D graphics support and more. Another key highlight is support for a secure virtual environment, so you can now take your virtual OS on the road, on a USB key, use on a host machine and leave no trace behind on the host PC.

This latest 7.1 includes improved support for Windows 7 Aero, a number of performance enhancements, support for OpenGL 2.x and much more.

Note the download here will just take you to the download page on the VMware website, where you'll need to open a VMware account.