Upgrading Windows on a Linux laptop

[Tim]

On Sun, 2014-05-11 at 19:36 -0400, Doug wrote:
> 2. If I do, is XP still subject to viruses like it was when it stood
> alone?

Yes, it would be.  The virtual machine acts as a "virtual machine."  It
emulates an actual machine as much as is possible.  So what runs, runs,
including malware.  You can install to it, etc.  Which should answer
this question:

>      2a: If so, can Windows malware-killers be downloaded and used?

An advantage (just one of many), to using virtual machines is that you
could set up a virtual machine, and make several copies of the image it
uses.  You use only one of them.  If it gets stuffed, you simply dump
the damage one, and copy one of your unadulterated back-ups into place.
Giving you a very rapid recovery method, so long as you didn't care
about keeping any contents you'd saved between the initial creation of
the image, and when you stuffed one up.

I would not use XP on the wild internet, any more.  The risk is strong,
and no real solutions will be around.  A *disconnected* XP box in an
office that's used as a standalone computer, can keep on running until
the machine fails due to old age.  It'll have the same faults it always
had, but couldn't be exploited remotely.  And I do mean disconnected, an
XP box on a LAN that isn't being actively used with the internet is
still exploitable.

-- 
[tim at localhost ~]$ uname -rsvp
Linux 2.6.32-431.17.1.el6.x86_64 #1 SMP Wed May 7 23:32:49 UTC 2014
x86_64

All mail to my mailbox is automatically deleted, there is no point
trying to privately email me, I will only read messages posted to the
public lists.

George Orwell's '1984' was supposed to be a warning against tyranny, not
a set of instructions for supposedly democratic governments.