Antivirus software on a VM

[bell2jd]

I'm new to running a virtual machine in linux, (or in any OS for that matter) and was wondering whether or not I should run anti virus software on my guest XP. if I can get away with not using it, I would love to, since it would take up processor cycles I would rather have available. I plan on just using the VM for playing my PC games, not surfing the internet, so I was thinking I might be able to just not use any. Any advice would be appreciated, and thanked for in advance.

[baggar11]

It may not be best practice, but I do it. As far as vm's go, I've noticed that it's disk i/o that speeds them down more than processing cycles. Make use of virtualbox's snapshots, in case your guest vm happens to catch a cold.

[Sasquatch]

Oh, please, read the Forum Posting Guide and search as asked. It's been asked dozens of times before. If you want to be safe, install an anti-virus application. If you pick the right one, you won't even notice it.

As for games inside the VM, not advised, especially for the more demanding games. If they require heavy 3D, you should be lucky to get 10 FPS. Best thing for games is either Wine, or dual boot with Windows. Don't bother with VMs.