Viruses/Newsgroups...Virtual machine or Duel boot ??

nyck

When downloading from newsgroups ive been hit by viruses in the past ,so set up a dual boot system so i wouldn't affect my main machine..
Ive bought a new PC and thought about going the Virtual Machine route as its easier and quicker to set up .
If i downloaded a virus on the virtual machine could it spread to the main system or contained within the Virtual machine.

thanks

Geodark

Rule of thumb I go by is... if you can browse to your PC from the VM then any malicious code can as well. Is your VM the same OS as the host? ie, is one windows and one ubuntu? if not, can you have it so it is. that rules out any OS specific virus from infecting both.

JJ_Egan

Win 10 and  Windows Sandbox is what i would use .

nyck

Geodark said:

Rule of thumb I go by is... if you can browse to your PC from the VM then any malicious code can as well. Is your VM the same OS as the host? ie, is one windows and one ubuntu? if not, can you have it so it is. that rules out any OS specific virus from infecting both.

My main PC is using Win 10 pro .... Ive used ubuntu in the past but found it difficult so would like to stick to windows...I have used virtual box on work laptops in the past

anotherquestion

Sandboxie is a good bet to use here, isolates part of your computer from the rest, if you did happen to get a virus and you are running your browser in the sandbox then it will stay here and wont harm your computer, you can empty the sandbox at any time.
The windows sandbox I find is slow and I think is only part of windows 10 pro.
I use Sandboxie all the time, its now totally free no nag screen to buy.

a

you should be fine with virtual box providing....
you keep a set of disk capture or snapshots. if your virtualpc gets a virus, you can roll it back to a previous capture, but will also lose all your downloads too, but is a small price to pay. you can also copy the original (minimal install setup) virtualpc as a backup

The weakness is shared areas like usb or  shared directories or other PCs open ports. if the data is copied to a shared area, then if that area (or usb) is accessed and run on windows, the program then could spread.

For some web browsing i use sandboxie, but do not think it is for you as the data you potentially will be downloading will be huge. You can  use thin provisioning on a virtual PC to make your disk automatically grow, but it does not shrink.

I do not know what you are doing, but am surprised you went with newsgroups, as even with a vpn they are less private.

If you download exes, and do not open the files for about a month, by then virus checkers should have updated their pattern and you should be ok, but there is no guarantee. Also you could build a second VM and after snaphot, install your stuff, but viruses do not always act immediately

I'v used hyper-v, virtualbox, vmware server and workstation. VirtualBox supports the most different varieties of OS.