[X-Newbies] Virtual PC

[Steven Rogers]

On Jul 31, 2005, at 12:41 AM, Tony Johansen wrote:

> Back to Virus issue, I had been under the impression that just  
> being on
> broadband made an OS vulnerable,

Right, but a properly configured firewall will eliminate that issue.

> that opening mail is not the only risk with Windows viruses. Not true?

There are some other possible issues, like getting infected files  
from other sources, like someone's burned CD, disks moved from other  
machines, and even web surfing.  But the odds are low. Primarily  
reading mail is the way you're going to find a virus file.

> Or does the emulated environment form a sort of
> insulation from the internet, especially if the emulated OS is not  
> being
> used at the time.

If the emulator is not running, it isn't vulnerable.

> I guess the question falls to, if the internet is disconnected  
> while using
> the emulator, and Windows programs not used while internet  
> connected, is
> that sufficient protection on its own?

The environment is vulnerable when the OS is running - doesn't matter  
whether a windows program is running or not. If you want to make it  
completely invulnerable, you have to pause the emulator.

You probably want to load the spyware cleaning software also. Those  
generally don't do anything harmful, but they can be performance  
robbers. Generally, running the emulator raises all the gnarly issues  
that are involved in running Windows. The emulator is emulating the  
hardware. On top of that is a regular licensed copy of windows, just  
like any other, with a registry, and all that other fun Windows stuff.

SR