[viraptor]

Why N VMs? You had one before, you can have one VM with multiple apps (if you can even count office parts as multiple apps)

[darklajid]

Sorry, kinda mixed the "Need office" requirement I wrote about and my previous "Different VMs for different needs" (Office was one, a Windows product I build extensions for was in another, then the corporate environment tends to keep VMware images around to simulate a customer environment / to prepare a demo system for sales etc etc).

You're right. One VM could work for office and other utilities. Unfortunately for me it grew into a mess of VMs, fast.

[snagglegaggle]

If you can set up stuff in Windows VM, you can enable RemoteApp and freerdp can just show a seamless window. Kind of like parallels.

[fnenrjfkdke]

I think Qubes OS targets your use case. It has support for Windows 7 although I never got around to trying it out.