I used this guide to get a Virtual Machine running (using the free VMware Player) to work as a test environment
http://johnbokma.com/mexit/2005/10/2...indows-xp.html

It was my impression that virtual machines could be shut down and revert to their initial state.
This is attractive because it means I can have a stable base system then install my application and check that it works.
If it doesn't, I can revert back to the stable system, make changes to the installation procedure and test it again without worrying about the first installation contaminating it in any way.

However, when I close VMware player, all the changes to the virtual machine seem to be saved.
I can't see how to revert to the baseline, except for making a copy of the file (~3GB) and overwriting the original with the copy each time.

Surely there is better way than this. Anyone know how to do it?