Windows 7: Virtual Pc & XP virus

Does my virtual PC and XP need it's own dedicated antivirus installed? or is the antivirus installed on windows 7 pro I'm running cover the virtual elements too?

brian

No, the AV running in Win 7 doesn't cover the virtual machine. Some people feel you don't need an AV in a VM but I am in the camp that feels you do so I always install a dedicated AV in the VM.

For all intents & purposes,a virtual machine is exactly like having another physical machine so it should be treated accordingly.

Once again I did not include all the information. My virtual XP is only used for 2 programs and will very rarely be on the internet. Should I still add a AV program

Rarely is not the same as never, so yes, install your AV software or install Microsoft Security Essentials if you have Norton, McAfee, AVG, Avast or any of the other bloated AV programs around.

Is this XP Mode or Virtual Box or VMware or ???

You can set the XP virtual machine to revert back to the state that it was when you started it. That might be enough protection for you given your usage.

Instead of trying to figure a way not to use a anti virus why not just install MSE and be done with it.

My employer pays for my VM OS licenses and I use them mostly in a commercial setting. So maybe my usage pattern is too different from most users - thus installing AV may be best.

But to address your question (why not just install MSE):
The VM will need more RAM assigned. (only have 3.8GB in the host to work with). The VM cannot easily be frozen. The XP SP2 VHD goes from 3GB to almost 6GB when fully patched to SP3 and with MSE - this impacts the time that it takes to start. (I start/stop them several times per work day.)

These XP VMs mainly for two apps or for testing stuff. No Java (unless testing that). Firewall is on. I run 4 VMs at once; all chewing away on the same two apps. Each VM is assigned one CPU core and run at a low process priority via Prio - so as to not slow down the host too much.

WDO shows the VHDs to be clean... but again, they are frozen.

Since your employer pays for your OS licenses (as does mine) and I assume your VMs connect to the company network, I would be surprised if your IT department didn't require you to run an AV on those VMs. My company requires ANY machine that connects to the network to have an AV installed.

Boy oh boy this company is working back in the stone ages. Cutting up cpu cores and ram allocations in such a fashion. I understand the reason for your concern about a anti virus much better now. The fact still remains in my opinion is if these computers are connected to the Internet they will get infected sooner or later. It's passed time for a hardware (equipment) upgrade in a serious way. Their method must bring a lot of joy to the I.T. department.

I might not have been clear on one point. These VMs are frozen. If they got infected, it would clear when the VM is shut down. Each VHD is read-only, so not even a possibility of me committing a change to the VHD unless I really meant to do so. If I installed MSE - then "The VM cannot easily be frozen." Is what I meant to convey.

The fact that they are frozen is why IT allowed an AV exception; otherwise, I would have to install a rather bloated corporate Symantec AV tool.

These VMs run minimized on my office workstation for short periods of time. I think that splitting the CPU cores makes the host more responsive; I could be wrong. The IT dept does not support these VMs. This is just my setup to do my work faster - using the stuff that I can get my hands on and things that I've learned on my own. So it is I that is in the stone ages :-)

My apologies if I've taken this thread too far from the OP's world - but obviously, I think that there is room for discussion about AV tools inside frozen VMs. If the OP decides to run a VM without AV protection, then the OP should also isolate that VM from the host's hard drive and freeze the VM.