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Thread: Safer browsing through XP Mode in win 7 ?

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    Question Safer browsing through XP Mode in win 7 ?

    Hey, the virtual xp mode offered in win 7 versions pro and higher looks like it could be used as an additional security layer perhaps ?

    Theoretically, would a user be safer from most browser based threats by running their browser virtually ? - xp mode/win 7 even has provision to do this without having to open up the virtual desktop it's self.

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    Re: Safer browsing through XP Mode in win 7 ?

    Consider what you're saying. "XP" and "Safe" together. This is a world of madness.

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    Re: Safer browsing through XP Mode in win 7 ?

    Quote Originally Posted by directhex View Post
    Consider what you're saying. "XP" and "Safe" together. This is a world of madness.
    touché

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    Re: Safer browsing through XP Mode in win 7 ?

    Assuming that you turned off the drive-mapping integration features, the only "safer" aspect is that your browser data would be mostly isolated from the rest of your PC, so a drive-by download may only infect the virtual session. A good method would be using a Sandboxied Firefox (of course +noscript+adblock) inside XP Mode with no saved browser passwords. That would be okay, but still not foolproof. Quite a few bits of malware detect whether they're running virtualised and don't install on them - Sandboxie+VirtualPC together would be detected as such.

    This would also perhaps not protect against keyloggers on the host PC depending on how they coded and recorded things.

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    Re: Safer browsing through XP Mode in win 7 ?

    remember windows xp doesnt have any security software installed plus its xp so using the host for web browsing is far safer.

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    Re: Safer browsing through XP Mode in win 7 ?

    You can get the same isolation by using sandboxie Link instead of running a virtual machine. I sandbox my firefox all the time and it works beautifully.

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    Re: Safer browsing through XP Mode in win 7 ?

    You'd be better off running a VM with a basic version of linux just for web browsing if you're going to go to the trouble of using XP mode.

    But both of them are an overkill for people with common sense and a little bit of computer knowledge.
    I don't mean to sound cold, or cruel, or vicious, but I am so that's the way it comes out.

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    Re: Safer browsing through XP Mode in win 7 ?

    Quote Originally Posted by directhex View Post
    Consider what you're saying. "XP" and "Safe" together. This is a world of madness.
    He means Virtual XP Mode, which puts Windows XP in a guest VM and essentially sandboxes it off from the Windows 7 host. That is not madness.

    Quote Originally Posted by lodore View Post
    remember windows xp doesnt have any security software installed plus its xp so using the host for web browsing is far safer.
    You install security software on the guest Windows XP VM. The firewall is enabled by default and all you need is Microsoft Security Essentials for the VM.

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    Re: Safer browsing through XP Mode in win 7 ?

    Quote Originally Posted by 12GaugeShotty View Post
    He means Virtual XP Mode, which puts Windows XP in a guest VM and essentially sandboxes it off from the Windows 7 host. That is not madness.
    And once the virtual XP environment is infected with $DEITY-knows-what, how safe is it?

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    Re: Safer browsing through XP Mode in win 7 ?

    Quote Originally Posted by 12GaugeShotty View Post
    He means Virtual XP Mode, which puts Windows XP in a guest VM and essentially sandboxes it off from the Windows 7 host. That is not madness.



    You install security software on the guest Windows XP VM. The firewall is enabled by default and all you need is Microsoft Security Essentials for the VM.
    I think people just pointing out that even if you have a "virtual OS" within your Win7 host you might as well have a safe reliable VM OS, for example a well maintained Linux distro over using XP.

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    Re: Safer browsing through XP Mode in win 7 ?

    Virtualization would work, but it's way overkill if you just want to sandbox your browser. Check out the link I posted earlier and a fascinating new world of sandboxing will be presented to you less 100 times the trouble

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    Re: Safer browsing through XP Mode in win 7 ?

    darn, that Sandboxie looks really really good, gutted that it doesn't support 64bit
    cheers for the link btw Zsev.

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    Re: Safer browsing through XP Mode in win 7 ?

    Sandboxie and your choice of browser - sorted.

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    Re: Safer browsing through XP Mode in win 7 ?

    Quote Originally Posted by directhex View Post
    And once the virtual XP environment is infected with $DEITY-knows-what, how safe is it?
    Who cares? It only infects the virtual guest. Delete that VHD and make a new one.

    Quote Originally Posted by Barrichello View Post
    I think people just pointing out that even if you have a "virtual OS" within your Win7 host you might as well have a safe reliable VM OS, for example a well maintained Linux distro over using XP.
    I don't think that Linux integrates into the host OS the way that Virtual XP Mode does with Windows 7. That's why. Applications run like they are a part of the host OS even though they are not. If something like Antivirus 2009 infects the guest OS, you just wipe it and create a new VM. It will not touch the host OS at all.

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    Re: Safer browsing through XP Mode in win 7 ?

    I've not done any testing as to how secure Virtual XP is, but I suspect that with the integration features that you speak of enabled there have got to be some hooks into the host OS which could be abused by malware. TO be honest you're probably better off with UAC enabled, th browser running in protected mode and some decent anti-malware running. That way you have the benefit of your browser running with least privilege (I suspect that the user account you run under in vXP is still an administrative one) without the overhead on your system of running an instance of Windows XP.

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    Re: Safer browsing through XP Mode in win 7 ?

    Is Sandbox really worth the sign up fee? Even if it is a one time fee?

    I have had a quick look at the website and read through quite a lot of the stuff on there and the idea behind Sandboxie is good and I can see how it would benefit user's...
    Quote Originally Posted by TAKTAK View Post
    It didn't fall off, it merely became insufficient at it's purpose and got a bit droopy...

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