Microsoft provides a free copy of windows that is intended for testing IE11 and Microsoft Edge Legacy. The licence is valid for 90 days, and they recommend setting a snapshot when you first install the virtual machine which you can roll back to later. This makes it a perfect testing environment for free.

This guide provides instructions on how to set it up with ESXi and download file/registry monitoring tools.

Install and set initial snapshot:

• Download the VMware file from Microsoft to your local machine
• Extract the downloaded zip file
• In ESXi:
  • Create/Register VM:
    • Deploy a virtual machine from an OVF or OVA file
    • Name the VM Windows Test
    • Upload the extracted .VMDK and .OVF files
    • Specify the desired Target Datastore
    • Accept the License Agreement
    • Deselect Power on automatically
    • Confirm settings and Finish
  • Wait for the files to upload
  • Go to Virtual Machines on the sidebar and click on the current VM
  • Actions > Edit Settings:
    • CPU:
      • CPU: 2
      • Cores per Socket: 2
      • Enable Expose hardware assisted virtualization to the guest OS
    • Memory: 4GB
  • Edit notes to contain the password:Passw0rd!
  • Take snapshot called Reset Licence
  • Assign static IP:
    • Power on the VM, then shut it down again to generate a MAC address
    • Give the VM a static IP address from your router using the generated MAC address (found under Hardware Configuration > Network adapter 1) and desired hostname
  • Snapshots > Restore snapshot

• Open ESXi
• Sidebar > Virtual Machines > This VM
• Snapshots > Restore snapshot
• Power on the VM and open the web console
• Wait for VMware Tools to ask to restart and either click Yes or let it restart automatically
• Log in, entering Passw0rd! as the password
• Open Windows Update and wait for windows to finish updating
• Restart and log in again
• Optionally, download file and registry monitoring tools:
  • FileActivityWatch:
    • Options:
      • Deselect Capture Read Events
      • Advanced Options:
        • Don't Capture files that match: C:\Windows\WinSxS\*
        • Don't Capture the selected processes: MsMpEng.exe,svchost.exe
  • RegistryChangesView
  • Then just run them anytime to monitor changes, such as when installing a program

• The licence will last 90 days from now

• 
• Download a new VMware file from Microsoft
• Delete old snapshot
• Replace the old one?
• Take snapshot called Reset Licence

• Windows Update?