Newby Questions use & Capabilities

This is for discussing general topics about how to use VirtualBox.
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RxTxAu
Posts: 6
Joined: 17. Aug 2019, 18:09

Newby Questions use & Capabilities

Post by RxTxAu »

I have some newby questions. I have read the manual but I am not sure of the answers.
  1. If I have Guest Operating Systems being run within a Windows 10 Host & use the Guest to connect to the internet, does it go through my Windows 10 Firewall & Security Software or do I need individual security software on every Guest.
  2. If it normally requires individual Security Software on every Guest then is there any way to get VirtualBox to use the Host Security Software? This could be especially important if you are running an old Operating System that no longer has Security available for it.
  3. How do you safely move the entire VirtualBox Directory & all of its Virtual Machines Directories?
  4. How can you turn off Internet Access of a VM?
  5. My wife loves playing games & I am trying to put all her games on a VM so that they don't get lost if a drive or system fails, can be moved from one system to another, & so I don't fill my main system registry with a pile of Games entries. I wish to set it up for her so that she will only have to click on a Desktop Shortcut that will automatically run the Windows 10 Guest on VirtualBox & go to the Games Menu for her. How do I set that automation up?
Thanks,
Brian.
scottgus1
Site Moderator
Posts: 20965
Joined: 30. Dec 2009, 20:14
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Windows, Linux

Re: Newby Questions use & Capabilities

Post by scottgus1 »

1. Each guest needs its own antivirus. The host OS antivirus should actually not invade into the Virtualbox guests and you should enter exceptions in the host antivirus to not scan the guest files. FWIW Windows 10 comes with a really good antivirus built-in. Many other 3rd party AV can interfere with Virtualbox at the beginning. I use the built-in Defender AV on my W10 host.

2. Host antivirus could try to invade anything running on the host, including Virtualbox. Host antivirus trying to protect a guest OS (if it even can) would do things the guest OS would not know about and may corrupt the guest OS. See #1. If your guest OS is past end-of-life security-wise, you should keep it off the internet and not run files in the guest OS that were not scanned by the host antivirus beforehand. Unless you're trying to see how quickly an old OS can get pwned. 8)

3. See Moving a VM.

4. Depends on what connectivity with the host OS and your other PCs you want in the guest. If the guest should exist in its own universe with nothing else out there, have no network to the guest. If you want the guest to swap files with the host, use Guest Additions Shared Folders, good for file-swapping only. If you want the guest to talk to the host only, with full network capabilities not available with GASFs, use (wait for it :lol: ) Host-Only. If you want the guest to talk with other PCs and devices in your house/office network, block the internet to the guest at your router with its Access Restrictions or Parental Controls or whatever the router calls it. See the manual, section 6.

5.
RxTxAu wrote:so that they don't get lost if a drive or system fails
Running in a VM does not provide special protection against system or drive failure. You will still need to do regular backups. (FWIW the afore-mentioned "Moving a VM" tutorial is good interpreted as "Backing Up a VM".) Additionally, games need direct access to the host's video card, and Virtualbox does not provide that access. All the 'hardware' the guest sees (except for the CPU) is virtual and slower than real hardware. Guest Additions provides 2D and 3D acceleration that can assist a guest to get some video card boost, but it won't be enough for a powerful game. Unless she's playing something more advanced than Solitaire, she'll probably need to run her games on the host OS.

5a. You can set up scripts to launch a Virtualbox guest. You can actually get a desktop shortcut for a guest in the main Virtualbox window, right-click the guest and choose Create Shortcut on Desktop. You would need a startup script in the guest's Task Scheduler to start programs in the guest. There are Virtualbox ways to issue commands from the host OS into the guest OS if Guest Additions are installed, but that's a subject for another post.
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