As in the title really, how safe is the host operating system from Malware and viruses etc when running a virtual machine in VMware Player, if a VM got a virus could that spread to the host machine?
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 2.66Ghz, Overclocked to 3.3Ghz
Motherboard
Gigabyte GA-EX38-DS5
Memory
8GB XMS2 4GB DDR2 PC2-8500
Graphics Card(s)
Gigabyte 660GTX 2GB
Monitor(s) Displays
Samsung SMS27B970D
Screen Resolution
2560x1440
Hard Drives
1xSAMSUNG SSD 840 Pro Series Basic 2.5" - 512 GB - Boot drive
2xSamsung Spinpoint F1 750GB
PSU
Corsair 520HX
Case
Antec P182
Cooling
Zalman 9700NT
Internet Speed
12Mb/s
Other Info
I did a fresh format and install of Windows 8 64 Bit Pro. Sorry but I couldn't live without a start button so I have installed the Start8 start menu which is great. I try sometimes not to use it but find metro frustrating to find programs as I have many. I will use Metro for apps only and desktop of serious computing.
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 2.66Ghz, Overclocked to 3.3Ghz
Motherboard
Gigabyte GA-EX38-DS5
Memory
8GB XMS2 4GB DDR2 PC2-8500
Graphics Card(s)
Gigabyte 660GTX 2GB
Monitor(s) Displays
Samsung SMS27B970D
Screen Resolution
2560x1440
Hard Drives
1xSAMSUNG SSD 840 Pro Series Basic 2.5" - 512 GB - Boot drive
2xSamsung Spinpoint F1 750GB
PSU
Corsair 520HX
Case
Antec P182
Cooling
Zalman 9700NT
Internet Speed
12Mb/s
Other Info
I did a fresh format and install of Windows 8 64 Bit Pro. Sorry but I couldn't live without a start button so I have installed the Start8 start menu which is great. I try sometimes not to use it but find metro frustrating to find programs as I have many. I will use Metro for apps only and desktop of serious computing.
Just an addendum here -- if for example you are using an XP machine as a Virtual machine for running legacy hard/software you should be perfectly safe so long as you do NOT connect it to the Internet or even network it to other machines -- keep it isolated.
Actually these days the VM is probably MORE likely to become infected FROM the HOST if they are on the same network !!!!.
Thanks Jimbo, I have all operating systems from Win 95 to Win 8.1 as virtual machine for nostalgic reasons, I'll disable all the really old one's from the Internet to be safe
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 2.66Ghz, Overclocked to 3.3Ghz
Motherboard
Gigabyte GA-EX38-DS5
Memory
8GB XMS2 4GB DDR2 PC2-8500
Graphics Card(s)
Gigabyte 660GTX 2GB
Monitor(s) Displays
Samsung SMS27B970D
Screen Resolution
2560x1440
Hard Drives
1xSAMSUNG SSD 840 Pro Series Basic 2.5" - 512 GB - Boot drive
2xSamsung Spinpoint F1 750GB
PSU
Corsair 520HX
Case
Antec P182
Cooling
Zalman 9700NT
Internet Speed
12Mb/s
Other Info
I did a fresh format and install of Windows 8 64 Bit Pro. Sorry but I couldn't live without a start button so I have installed the Start8 start menu which is great. I try sometimes not to use it but find metro frustrating to find programs as I have many. I will use Metro for apps only and desktop of serious computing.