POLL: Do you put anti-virus, ad-aware, Spybot, etc. on a Parallels's WinXP partition?

[MotionMan]

Yet another in the long line of inane MotionMan Mac questions...

Do you put anti-virus, ad-aware, Spybot, etc. on a Parallels's WinXP partition?

MotionMan

 

[speg]

if i'm using parallels its usually for one very specific task and that's it. No need to bog it down.

 

[Kaido]

Yes, of course - it's just Windows (i.e. still suspectible to Internet crapola). A simple approach:

1. Firefox + Adblock Plus plugin
2. Windows Firewall
3. Windows Security Essentials
4. SmartDefrag

All free and don't require user interaction to run, and don't bog down your system.

 

[MotionMan]

Yes, of course - it's just Windows (i.e. still suspectible to Internet crapola). A simple approach:

1. Firefox + Adblock Plus plugin
2. Windows Firewall
3. Windows Security Essentials
4. SmartDefrag

All free and don't require user interaction to run, and don't bog down your system.

Do you need to defrag a virtual drive?

MotionMan

 

[bearxor]

Absolutely not to Antivirus. Then again, I don't install antivirus in any other machine I have running Windows anyways, so....

 

[secretanchitman]

i used to back in the day. now i just say forget it. i go osx-style and am anti-virus free

 

[MotionMan]

I guess, as long you have a backup of the Parallels install, you could always nuke the infected install.

MotionMan

 

[u3laptoper]

In a virtualized environment, the virus are confused as much as you do.

Try to not connect to internet and not to install programs from unknown source. The same goes true for STD, practice hygiene.

If you suspect the parallel volume is virus ridden, erase and install. But it's always easier to have a clean backup volume sheltered away.

 

[Ka0t1x]

I don't bother with AV on a virtual machine. I get everything needed installed then set a snapshot point. Any time I want to use the XP VM, I will restore to the snapshot before using.

 

[MotionMan]

Where are the files for the Parallels install kept so I can make a backup copy?

MotionMan

 

[Nothinman]

I guess, as long you have a backup of the Parallels install, you could always nuke the infected install.

MotionMan

That's provided that you notice it. If you get infected with a sly bot that doesn't break any existing apps you might end up with a zombie VM, keylogger, etc and not even know it.

 

[Ns1]

I installed MSE, that's it.

 

[Kadarin]

No, because I use Windows on my MBP only for specific tasks.

 

[TheStu]

If I do, I do it out of habit. I haven't run an XP VM in quite some time, I usually just use a 7 VM if I need Windows quick.

 

[n0cmonkey]

All of my systems run anti-crapware whether they are physical machines, virtual, OS X, windows, linux, or BSD. Anything less would be stupid.

 

[SKORPI0]

I have ESET NOD32 in Vista SP2 via VMware Fusion 3.02 via a Bootcamp partition.