Q: Boot Camp vs VMware Fusion 5
Is there any difference between Windows XP running in Boot Camp and running in VMware Fusion 5 on my MBP with regard to protection from malware? In other words, am I better protected by one rather than the other?
MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.5)
Posted on May 12, 2013 12:25 AM
It's completely the same, and here's why.
In Boot Camp, Windows is installed in a second volume of your hard drive. If you get malware and it tries to copy to another volume, it won't be able to do that, because Windows can't write in the OS X volume, so you are safe. Also, OS X isn't affected by Windows viruses. In a virtual machine, the Windows hard drive is a file stored in Documents folder that acts as a virtual hard drive, but Windows can't copy to the OS X partition even if you install the drivers that VMware Fusion provides.
Apart from that, as you want to run Windows XP, you won't get a big difference if you run it in Boot Camp, so you may want to use it in a virtual machine
Posted on May 12, 2013 1:04 AM