I have recently found that it is very easy to use Vagrant to configure Virtual Machine (VM) so users can have a consistent OS environment. To start with this flow, you will have to install (1) Vagrant software, and (2) VirtualBox. It is best to have the guest additions installed as well (it will bring in a lot of nice features to your VM).
I have uploaded a video on how to do this in a Windows 7 OS. This is primarily used for the PYNQ framework where users can build customized images for their own boards:
The entire flow is nothing but a single command:
$ vagrant up
As mentioned in the video, there is a tricky part of rebooting the VM; instead of rebooting directly in the VM, users should use
$ vagrant reload
Otherwise the synchronized folder will not be visible in the VM. I will continue to polish this flow, perhaps merging it to the mainline repository in the near future.