Can i get a virus from xp while in running vista?

[Nvidiaguy07]

i was wondering if i somehow get a bunch of viruses on my XP partition can they somehow transfer to my Vista partition?

im guessing for the most part no.

im wondering because i plan on letting my younger siblings use XP and if it gets infected no big deal because i will primarily be using Vista 64.

 

[Billb2]

Yes. If there's an infected program on the computer and you run that program with either operating system you get the virus. How are you going to keep then from opening your Vista programs in XP, and what about you opening their XP programs in Vista? There are other types of malware that don't spread through programs usage, for example, a boot sector virus.