Originally Posted by
thecoldhandoftechnology
You might consider loading it on a virtualized hard disk instead of a Virtual Machine. The VHD runs the software natively on the hardware so the performance can be significantly better than a VM. While setting up the install takes a few more steps, the VHD leave a very light footprint if you decide Win8 isn't to your linking, or when the next version comes out.
+1 - Windows 7 and 8's ability to boot from VHD is very useful, and a great way to try out the real performance of an OS without taking the risk of a dual-boot setup mucking up partitions.
I used the steps outlined in this
article, and it worked very smoothly.