In Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, you can native boot from a virtual hard disk without a hypervisor In response to my posts about managing multiboot with Windows 7 and Linux, Microsoft IT Pro ...
As long as pre-7 systems can't be booted via VHD, I suspect the VHD booting is going to be of fairly limited use now outside of testing & software development. Years from now, this feature will be ...