A quick Q. about Win7 Pro (XP VM)

[DB83]

With all the current discussion about what 'could' happen to XP systems come next April, as I mentioned in the recent topic, I must consider an upgrade to my aging single XP PC.

Now it had always been my intention to go with Win7 Pro to take advantage of the XP VM mode to, hopefully, continue to use certain software that is know not to work properly beyond XP.

The question is quite simple (the answer may not be).

Will XP in a Win7 VM benefit from the advantages of Win7 security or will running that VM still leave me open to issues as if I was simply running XP post 4/2014 ?

Or

Would Win8.1 be a better option since there is, I believe, a third-party VM available. But, again, are the security issues still the same ?

[loster]

Only advantage with a VM in this situation is that you can restore to a given state with ease. Yes you can probably avoid getting the host computer infected but if you copy files back and forth there is a potential for infection transfer. If you connect the xp machine to the internet after support ends it will most likely get infected as security holes go un-patched and antivirus and firewalls discontinue support.

[jagabo]

As far as I can tell, most of the host computer's protection does not apply to the VM. For example, I have a hosts file which blocks most malware and advertising sites. The XP VM pays no attention to that.

But if you're going to use XP Mode you don't need to worry much about security if you don't browse and download files in XP. I run XP in XP Mode, VirtualBox, and VMWare and never have problems. And if you have problems you can just restore the virtual disk. I often try out software by installing it to a VM. After I've tried it I restore the VM disk image -- it's just one file copy.

But there's not much software that runs in XP Mode that doesn't run natively in Win7. Most of the stuff that doesn't work in Win7 is hardware related -- no drivers. And those usually don't work in a VM either.

I do run Borland C in XP Mode on my Win7 64 bit system (old client software). That's one case of a program that won't run natively.

[sanlyn]

As a user of XP Service Pack 1 who maintains current high-quality antivirus on 4 XP SP1/Sp2 computers that spend a lot of time all over the internet, and having never had even a teeny bit of adware hit any of these computers, all I can say is: Microsoft has done one hell of a great marketing job. Anyone who thinks MS knows jack about virus/malware/rootkit/etc is MS's greatest asset. I continue to afford to buy updated PC and a/v equipment with the money I make delousing Win7/8 totally updated Norton-loaded and McAfee/stricken PC's. The record to date for infections found in this endeavor was a Win7 PC this past spring on which MalwareBytes found and removed over 1100 malware files and registry entries. The installed antivirus was a fully loaded Norton Internet Security Suite that had been completely disabled by a rootkit.

Meanwhile I'll be updating one XP PC to Win7 Pro as a dual-boot system. "Security" is not a consideration. RAM access is the main issue.

[jagabo]

Keep in mind that you can disable the NIC in the VM. So if your legacy software doesn't require network or internet access you can do that and be safe.

[El Heggunte]

To anyone who manages to be even more paranoid than I ---
--- just use Puppy Linux for surfing on the Internet, problem solved

[DB83]

Thanks for the responses, guys. Much appreciated.

The software I would be using - including some pretty old Ulead capture/video editing tools - do not require any net access so it is good to know that I can disable the nic in the VM.

[jagabo]

old Ulead capture/video editing tools

A capture tool will be hardware related. That is least likely to work in a VM -- especially XP Mode. Try VMWare on your current computer. VMWare has the best guest hardware support at this time. If you can't get the capture software to work there you probably won't get it to work in a VM under Win7 either.

[DB83]

OK. I'll try that. Got a little time before I bite the bullet.

BTW the 'capture' device is an AVC300. The other capture card is a 2007 vintage Hauppuage WinTV PCI.