Discussion in 'sandboxing & virtualization' started by Rico, Sep 24, 2008.
Can VM Ware Player be used, for 'safe' surfing using FF or IE on XP. What are the drawbacks to using?
VMWare player runs a completely separate installation of an operating system (you ideally need the full VMWare to create an OS image although there are workarounds!). Nothing can get out of the VM although you can copy and paste files from the VM to you're real machine so I guess some caution still has to be exercised.
you can run a small linux distro that runs firefox or opera in vmware, that way no windows malware will run against it.
the vmware image is in a folder, so you can just copy that folder to make a backup and delete the one you have been using and replace it with the backup every so often. i haven't used vmware for a bit, but i think there's a 'snapshot' option which probably does the same thing?
Yeh vmware player can work well for what you asked. The only drawbacks is the system requirements and demand on system resources.
You will also need an XP virtual machine, vmware player cannot be used to create one. You would need to use something like vmware converter, server or workstation in order to make one.
The other alternative is go to the vmware website and download one of the pre-made virtual appliances which you can use with vmware player..