I searched the forums before i decided to post this … obviously the relevant posts were not satisfying.
All i seek is a comprehensive statement distilling the salient issues related to using Avast in a Virtual Machine: for example, Will Avast function in a Guest OS or Host OS? Should Avast be installed in the Host OS or in the individual Guest OS’s (or both)?
avast should be installed on both guest and host operational systems.
Why? Guest OS and Host OS are independent. So avast! can be installed independently in any combination. Possible interference is when VM contains infections and Host OS makes scan of the corresponding VM files (e.g. .vmdk)
Precisely.
The guest installation will prevent the virtual machine to get infected.
The hosts one is a must have.
But to be infected VM should have some independent channel to interact with outer world (e.g. Internet connection). But if VM is isolated it can not be infected unexpectedly. In any case we can revert to Snapshot to get clean Guest OS. AV can be used to investigate virus action in VM, but within one VM. Why we SHOULD use AV within ALL VM?
This is a myth… I’m not an expert on it, but there are ways to pass through host and infected guest.
Sure. This is a great advantage of the VM and why people can work “safe” with it.
Also, you can always rebuild it, or make a backup…
But antivirus is to avoid this, isn’t it?