- this is where it is quite confusing! You are saying that if, in W7, I run an XP installed programme (or even one installed under W2000) which uses the internet, the Win7 'security', plus patches will not protect the machine?
Surely the onus is on M$ to ensure that any internet activity actioned via the W7 OS is protected as much as possible?
Recalling Pinguin's post earlier, why is 'dual-booting' relevant in all this? Surely as far as the machine is concerned it is running the selected OS and is technically 'oblivious' to any other installed OS, be it Mac or Linux etc?
Ok, first things first. When you run a OS in a virtual machine, its a valid OS and is therefore vulnerable to all attacks. So you have to be careful.
Host OS = Windows 7
Guest OS = Windows XP (XP mode running under Win 7)
Win XP mode is 'sandboxed' which means its independent of the host OS (in this case win 7) and any vulnerabilities should remain in the 'sandboxed' guest OS.. However, XP mode maps all you host OS drives, so any corrupted files opened in XP mode can affect your host OS. BUT, if you are running a fully patched host OS with good virus protection, you host OS should be secure enough to prevent any attack. Your guest OS however still remains vulnerable.