1. A computing device having device hardware, an instantiated operating system, and an emulator instantiated on the instantiated operating system, the emulator issuing actual hardware commands to the instantiated operating system and the instantiated operating system in turn issuing corresponding actual hardware requests to the device hardware based on the actual hardware commands, the computing device hosting a virtual machine on the emulator, the virtual machine executing a guest operating system and an application instantiated on the guest operating system, the application issuing guest hardware commands to the guest operating system and the guest operating system in turn issuing corresponding guest hardware requests based on the guest hardware commands by way of any of a plurality of paths including: a path to non-existent virtual hardware, the emulator intercepting each such guest hardware request for the non-existent virtual hardware and processing such guest hardware request with a corresponding actual hardware command, a path to the instantiated operating system, the instantiated operating system processing each such guest hardware request with a corresponding actual hardware request, and a path to the device hardware, the device hardware directly processing each such guest hardware request wherein the path to the device hardware is employed for pre-defined types of guest hardware requests and prevents the instantiated operating system from issuing corresponding types of actual hardware requests to the device hardware, and wherein the instantiated operating system instead issues such corresponding types of actual hardware requests to the guest operating system by way of a path thereto, the guest operating system processing each such actual hardware request with a corresponding guest hardware request.