When doing SharePoint 2010 Beta development, you have a few options for setting up your development environment, including running a virtualized development environment on Windows Server 2008 R2 in Hyper-V, configuring a Windows 7 developer environment workstation or configuring a Windows 7 VHD for direct boot.

When setting up my own development environment, I found the following resources helpful:

1. Virtualized Development Environment in Windows Server 2008 R2 and Hyper-V - In SharePoint 2007, it wasn’t really practical to develop on a client OS, so a lot of developers used Hyper-V to host a virtualized development environment.  With SharePoint 2010, there are some new client workstation development options I’ll mention below, but using Hyper-V to host your development environment is still a great choice, particularly if you’re interested in replicating your production environment with multiple servers.  If you chose this option, here are some resources you’ll be interested in:
• Hyper-V Getting Started Guide – New to Hyper-V?  This guide will help you get Hyper-V installed and create your first virtual machine.
• 2010 Information Worker Demonstration Virtual Machine (Beta) – From Paul Stubbs blog, these preconfigured SharePoint 2010/Office 2010/Visual Studio 2010 virtual machines will get you writing code quickly.  An extra bonus to using these VMs is that the second VM has Office Communications Server 2007 R2 and Exchange 2010 installed so it’s easy to add UC features to your SharePoint 2010 and Office 2010 solutions. 
• Setting Up the Development Environment for SharePoint Server – If you’d like to install SharePoint 2010 directly onto your own VM, this guide from the SharePoint 2010 docs is a great resource.
2. Windows 7 as a SharePoint 2010 Development Workstation – New to SharePoint 2010 is the ability to run SharePoint on Windows 7 for development purposes (not for production caveats listed in the documents below).  Developing “on the metal” is easy to set up and doesn’t require anything more than a Windows 7 x64 machine. 
• Setting up Windows 7 for Office & SharePoint 2010 Beta Development – After a quick Bing search, I found Beth Massi’s process really helpful.  She’s got some great tips and tricks to add to the Setting Up the Development Environment for SharePoint Server included in the documentation.
3. Booting Directly to a Windows 7 VHD – New to Windows 7 was the ability to boot directly to a VHD without a host operating system running Hyper-V, etc.  This is a great option since booting directly to the VHD provides great performance and access to all the local resources on your computer (since it’s not virtualized) while providing all the benefits of virtualization (such as the ability to start over/roll back to prior versions of your VM).  I really like the idea of configuring a base Windows 7 VHD, putting all the pre-release products and tools I need on it and being able to roll back to the base version whenever necessary.  Configuring a VHD for native boot was a new process to me so I found the following documentation helpful:
• Understanding Virtual Hard Disks with Native Boot – New to native booting to a VHD?  This provides a quick explanation.
• Deploy Windows by Using Windows Setup – You can build a virtual machine in Hyper-V and use the VHD for direct boot. 
• Capture Images of Hard Disk Partitions by Using ImageX – Optionally, if you have a base image, you can capture it and install it to a VHD.
• Deploy Windows on a Virtual Hard Disk with Native Boot – This is the process to configure the VHD for direct boot.

Hope that helps you find and configure a SharePoint 2010 development environment that meets your needs.

Thanks,

Chris