I tried installing Ubunto on a Microsoft Virtual Machine and WOW did i make things complex!!! My Ubunto ISO image would not be read by the VMC, so at first i thought that the VMC did not boot Linux images. [ Experienced users are probably laughing at me right now! ] Anyway, after creating a new VMC, and configuring the VHD, all that is needed to be done is to add the ISO image fom the CD menu in the VMC window!!!I have included a step by step process for newbies to create a new Virtual Machine on a winzoz OS, then install a Linux distro of ur choice.To create a virtual machineYou have to have Microsoft virtual PC installed on ur system first.

1. Open the Virtual PC application.
2. In the navigation pane, under Virtual Machines, click Create.
3. In Virtual machine name,
   type a name for the virtual machine. If you do not want the virtual
   machine configuration (.vmc) file to be created in the default virtual
   machine configuration folder, specify a fully qualified path to the
   location where you want to create the virtual machine.
4. In Virtual machine memory, type a value in megabytes for the amount of RAM used by the virtual machine(I personally recommend 40% of your actual RAM)
5. In Virtual hard disk, do one of the following:
   • Select Create a new virtual hard disk. Next, to set the size of the virtual hard disk, specify a value in Size, and then select either MB for megabytes or GB for gigabytes.
   • Select Use an existing virtual hard disk.
     If the virtual hard disk (.vhd) file is located in a folder whose
     location is specified in Virtual Server Search Paths, you can select
     the .vhd from Location. Otherwise, in File name (.vhd) type the complete path to the location of the .vhd file.(Here, you would preferably choose the Create a new virtual hard disk if you are installing a new or first time VMC, or if you want a single boot screen. And since it is a virtual pc, i advise creating a new VHD.)
   • Select Attach a virtual hard disk later to create a virtual machine without a virtual hard disk.
6. Under Virtual network adapter, in Connected to, select a networking option from the drop-down menu.
7. Click Create.
8. Choose Capture ISO image from the CD menu, and set the path and filename of your Linux distro.

The Virtual  machine will now boot as if you have an empty hard disk(if you selected Create New vhd) and all you have to do now is test and mount your GUI. If you have any detailed questions, just contact me.You can get the VCM from http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/but does anyone know any different virtual machines? i just used this one because it suddenly existed for me on a certain LT.