Protecting Windows

[iMACGuru]

I broke down and installed Parallels 3.0 and Windows XP. I do need MS Access, MS Publisher, MS Money, and IE for my work.

I was going to do all that on my Windows notebook but running everthing from my iMac is so much easier. Parallels installed so easily and works great.

My question is do I need all the protection I run on my PCs? I use Norton Internet. Or do I just need anti-virus? This issue is the reason I was hesitating putting Windows on my iMac.

Thanks for all the input I have received from members of this forum.

 

[xj6jaguar1985]

You know....
That's a really good question. I would imagine you would need an anti-virus and stuff since you're pretty much making it a typical PC. My gut instinct would say yes you need an anti-virus program.

 

[MacFanBoy]

In a virtual machine running windows you need anti-virus else your virtual machine and only your virtual machine will become infected.
You mac side will not be infected.
However, when running virtual machines you can take snapshots and then use them as a back-up.
I personally wouldn't use the internet on the windows virtual machine.
There are ways of fooling most web pages that safari or firefox is ie7
by changing the user agent via menu option or add-on.

 

[macgig]

You need to protect the windows part as if you were running a real pc...

 

[ErikJenkins1187]

Just keep away from sites that have viruses on them (IE Pr0n, etc), that's the easiest solution. I haven't used an AV on my home Windows machine in years and have never had a virus, spyware yes, virus no. There are plenty of freeware Spyware removal tools out there.

 

[iMACGuru]

I finally decided to install AVG anti-virus, which comes with a free version for home use. It includes spy-ware and has auto-update. I'm sticking with Windos XP firewall. I've been experiencing at least six viruses a year in my years of experience with Windows XP. Fortunately, Norton anti-virus caught them.

Thanks for your replies.