If you really want to lock down the VM there is a network setting in VWware called 'Host Only' which limits the VM to connecting with the MacOS in the same machine. I'm no IP guru so I'm not sure that this is totally secure but it does seem to block the internet for the VM. Just set the domain name servers in the TCP/IP properties to some arbitrary address (I've been using 11.11.11.11). I do this with some of my VMs since it is easier than setting up all the stuff. It used to be good back in the early 90's (before Peter Norton sold it to Symantec) but since then I have seen too many problems with it.Īnother anti-virus trick is to just do all your internet access on the Mac side. My old ThinkPad was infected by some malicious AdWare (or whatever it's called) and I had to do a low level reformat (complete overwrite/erase with random data) to get rid of it. I also use AdAware since it blocks some things that the virus guys don't. (It's also simple to copy and backup the VM.)įor viruses I've been using Avast and so far so good. You can carry a VM around in an external drive and run it on any Mac with VMware, and it is easier to erase and reinstall a VM than a Boot Camp partition and much easier than a reinstall on a Windows machine. The other great thing about running Windows in VM is that it becomes portable and disposable. Parallels does have an edge in performance from what I've seen, but it also hosed one of my Boot Camp partitions (it seems to be incompatible with more than one) causing the loss of an expensive software license (long story). I strongly recommend VMware over Parallels.

It's only $95 for a 4GB kit from Crucial. You can dedicate 1GB each and it runs ok but not great. I have 2GB on my MBP and it is barely sufficient for running two OSs at once.

Norton remove and reinstall mac