I'm starting to like these types of research projects -- I learn a ton of stuff, sometimes painfully, but its never time wasted.  Now I'm playing with SiteFinity by telerik -- which is why I needed the virtual PC.  Install is easy, download it from their site BUT there's a slight process involved.

Upon completion of my VPC, you have to install IIS (duh)

So I do.  I install sql server express with advanced services (I want the management studio) -- done and done.  Set the network service account to have write permissions to C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\Temporary ASP.NET Files (you'll get an error later).  Next, install the exe and away you go.

From here, it's stupid simple.  Click create project and you'll end up with a nice CMS template site to start playing with.