Virtual machines in 10 years

Could I do this all for free using Virtual Server to create the image and player to use it on the desktop?

It's obviously difficult to predict the future, especially when it comes to IT solutions. While there's certainly no guarantee that you would be able to access these formats in the future, your best bets related to virtual machines are to use either Microsoft's or VMware's virtual hard disk formats. Future plans for these platforms will certainly provide a way to migrate to newer VHD formats, as they're made available. As far as host support goes, it's quite likely that you'll need to upgrade the VM formats at least a few times over the next few years.

I am curious, though: Would it be possible to use a format other than a VM for this data? For example, you could take a backup of the entire file system and store it in a more stable format (such as a .ZIP file). That file could then be restored to a virtualization solution 10 years or so from now. I hope this information is helpful.