Member Avatar for jfreeman1944

I have a computer dedicated to video editing - which is highly sensitive to all the mucking around an internet connection causes. I have Win XP and a DSL connection. Plenty of hard drives, memory, etc. What is the best way to prevent the internet from making changes? I have tried fire walls, spam blockers, etc. I wonder if a dual boot system - two Win XP or Win XP and Win 98 - would be workable. My thinking is that XP could be used for video editing and the other one for the internet which would keep the editing system clean. Any suggestions??

Thanks,
Jerry

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A practical approach balances isolation with recoverability. A key point for older installs: Windows XP reached end of support on April 8, 2014, so any XP system connected to the internet is exposed to unpatched vulnerabilities (Microsoft: Windows XP End of Support). That context changes risk calculations for a mixed editing/internet setup.

Dual-booting does provide separate OS environments, but it is not full isolation. Shared hardware, firmware, bootloaders and any volumes that both OSes mount remain common attack surfaces, and switching OSes requires a reboot. A safer, lower-friction option is to run internet activity inside a virtual machine (VM) hosted on a dedicated editing host. VMs can be configured with no shared folders, restricted networking, and quick snapshot rollback so an internet session can be discarded cleanly. Popular free hypervisors include VirtualBox.

Complementary to sandboxing, maintain an image-based fallback of the editing system so a clean state can be restored rapidly if needed. Periodic verified images or snapshots eliminate lengthy manual cleanup. Open-source and free imaging tools are available (for example, Clonezilla) and work well for full-disk restores.

This complements points raised in the thread: ’s physical separation idea is effective at the hardware level, but VM snapshots give similar protection without drive swapping; ’s emphasis on cleanup is well matched by keeping a verified image so cleanup becomes a one-step restore. For near–air-gap security, combine network segregation (or disabling the NIC), a host kept offline for editing, a disposable VM for browsing, and regular images of the clean editing environment.

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Member Avatar for alc6379

I have a computer dedicated to video editing - which is highly sensitive to all the mucking around an internet connection causes. I have Win XP and a DSL connection. Plenty of hard drives, memory, etc. What is the best way to prevent the internet from making changes? I have tried fire walls, spam blockers, etc. I wonder if a dual boot system - two Win XP or Win XP and Win 98 - would be workable. My thinking is that XP could be used for video editing and the other one for the internet which would keep the editing system clean. Any suggestions??

Thanks,
Jerry

Sure, you can do this. Just make two partitions on your drive.

If you do Win98 + XP, make sure that 98 is installed to C: and XP on D:. Install 98 first, and then install XP, which will cause XP to automatically detect the 98 install, and it should dual boot by itself. Doing two copies of XP should go the same.

Personally, though, if I were you, I'd look at doing some kind of hard drive caddy type solution, if you really want to keep each install "clean". Since dual-booting requires you to shut down or reboot anyways, just get some removable hard drive cages, and swap the drives back and forth when you want to use one OS or the other. That will really keep things "clean", because there will only be one hard drive at a time installed in your box.

Member Avatar for Catweazle

I think the best way to deal with this problem is to format and install fresh, install a good up to date antivirus program and both AdAware and Spybot Search & Destroy, with Spybot set to 'immunise', and then load Mozilla or Firefox and use that as a Web browser whenever possible. (Which is most of the time).

The sort of problems you describe are from unwanted intrusions, and those almost always occur through careless browsing and the use of Internet Explorer. The way to solve a problem is not to run away from it, but to confront and overcome it.

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