Use a freely or commercially available Virtual Machine software to install and customise your choice of OS to fit your fancy. Then, snapshot that and use it as a basis for every new project.

I have also heard of something called Vagrant. I have never used it, but I have heard many good things about it, so you might want to take a a look at it.

~Thomas~ 

"Excuse me for butting in, but I'm interrupt-driven..."