is web browsing in Virtual Machine safer????

That's quite possible! The advantage of any VM however is that the entire virtual hard drive the OS goes on is a file stored on the host drive that can deleted with a simple right click avoiding any spread onto the host OS which would 7 or another Windows version.

While many opt to run Linux on a VM or one of the previous versions which could include the new XP Mode you still would want to take precautions. There are trojans out for FireFox as well as seen for Internat Explorer. Adding protections on a VM whenever possible is a good idea.

You certainly won't want to be transferring any files over to the host without some type of malware detection inplace. It looks like you got a few things covered there however.

May i suggest implementing a steady state architecture? Once you power off the vm and boot it back up its back to the way it was before. Any trace it was used is wiped. Much similar to a program like deep freeze. This will wipe virtually and spyware, malware, virus, or curious friend who uses your computer.

That depends on the virtual program being used where you can save machine states. The Oracle Virtual Box has that option while a custom onto a vhd in VPC won't at times.

If you have different people running your machine the option for different VMs for each would be another idea. Once they done you simply nuke the VM they used to insure nothing can be spread anywhere else.

While these schemes may be safer overall, they are a bit extreme and really not necessary. It's kind of like wearing a bullet proof vest to the office everyday, yes you're protected, but not really needed.

@strollin,
Would you rather to not be wearing that vest when you boss fires that unstable employee and he come back two hours later with an m-14?

I've been using this for a month. I love it!!!!


Sandboxie - Sandbox software for application isolation and secure Web browsing

With the ever increasing number of malwares in all forms floating around on the web not having any protections inplace is like having a big sign placed right in front of you saying "anything welcome"!

A sandbox application like that to browse in an isolated form is one idea. When planning out the present build one thing looked at was web filtering when going with a different av software that included a good firewall which has proven itself so far by completely blocking out garbage sites.

Before when simply running a search without one protection enabled the first link in the results saw a trojan waiting! Regardless of that being seen on the host or a VM the lack of having the protection used at the time enabled left everything wide open.

New sites spring up the time that appear to be "nice and friendly" until you arrive at one and "WHAMO"! Surprize!