sharke


I think the "danger" of going online is greatly overestimated. You can't get a virus just by browsing. You have to download an executable and knowingly run it. #1, don't download anything suspiicious or unverified, and #2 don't run any executable before scanning it. In 20 years of using Windows based PC's I have only ever gotten one virus, and that was because I let my guard down and stupidly ran some BS I downloaded off of the Pirate Bay. 

PS this forum's language censorship is ridiculous. Note how I had to spell "suspiicious" just to stop it being censored!

Actually full-fledged viruses these days are relatively rare. What ARE rampant are Trojans/Worms/etc.

I am going to have to disagree a bit with some things that have been said.  I got viruses without downloading and running something.  One week after my PC technician told me it was not easy to get a virus, he got one on his studio machine and spent a week rebuilding.

I am not trying to scare anyone, but I do recommend caution.  There have been some pretty destructive things on Facebook, for example.

+1 to what konradh was saying. I have had similar experiences. Although a complete rebuild was not required in may case I wasted days just pulling a trojan out.

If you are running a serious income dependant studio a sep machine is the only answer. But even so you can still get into trouble and in my case the trojan mentioned above was due to a client bringing in an infected USB stick or USB drive. You can be off the net and still get into trouble that way and very easily might I add.

I have MS Essentials running all the time on my office machine and now before I just plug client USB sticks or drives in I do a scan first on another machine. You would be amazed how often MS Essentials has found and trapped something.

Didn't read through everything but a simple solution is to use VMware player to create a virt machine that you use for internet only. Create a virt C and D drive, make the C drive your system and unwritable. Save files to the D drive and copy/paste between systems when needed. The VMware player will put negligible load on your system when you don't have an active session (though I run mine and my DAW at the same time often with no ill effects).... 

edit - I use vmware but there are also plenty of other options (free and paid).

chrisby


Didn't read through everything but a simple solution is to use VMware player to create a virt machine that you use for internet only. Create a virt C and D drive, make the C drive your system and unwritable. Save files to the D drive and copy/paste between systems when needed. The VMware player will put negligible load on your system when you don't have an active session (though I run mine and my DAW at the same time often with no ill effects).... 

edit - I use vmware but there are also plenty of other options (free and paid).

Great alternative!

I always found that when I did the dual boot thing I ignored my DAW so vmware was a good compromise. Takes 10-20 secs to boot XP under win 8, I leave it up and if it causes me problems while running Sonar I shut it down for however long needed. Another good thing is that with the read only C drive it doesn't matter if you get a virus so no anti-virus sw required, if you do get a virus just reboot and its gone.

I have a C drive for OS, a D drive for audio files, and a separate Acronis partition that maintains a back-up image.  Without Acronis, I would have really been screwed.  Unfortunately, I had not kept it completely updated.  Experience is an expensive teacher.