If I install WinXP as a VM on Ubuntu (using an ISO of my XP install disk), will I be able to do everything to the XP installation that I did to customize my normal XP installation before, and have the VM remember all of that when I reboot the computer and bring up the VM again?

Or is the VM always going come up as just the uncustomized install from the original XP Install disk?

Thanks --AnneF
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I use virtualbox. The guest runs as an independent operating system but you do not have access to all physical hardware on the host. All changes made within the guest are saved the same way as if it were running on a physical machine.

VM's in corp environments can be configured to "restore" at boot/connection as you are describing at the end. Basically giving the end user a clean fresh desktop without anything installed, configured, etc... except that what IT wants in that VM.

Most home users do not want this. So the use of VirtualBox or VMWare Player are used. see the post above for how they basically work.

Many distros have packages built for VirtualBox to be easily installed and configured to run with your kernel. That is also the VM software I use at home.