 | By Mark Joseph Edwards Your most important programs run in the same environment as your operating system — which means if they pick up malware, Windows does, too. A free utility lets you run each app in its own virtual environment to prevent any interaction with your vital system files. |
Stay safe by siloing your running applications
Maintaining your PC’s security requires a multilayered approach. You probably use a firewall, antivirus software, spyware catchers, and spam filters. But there’s one security layer that’s probably missing from your system: virtualization.
The technology works by running one or more of your programs in a virtual PC environment, or virtual machine, that’s isolated from the rest of your system. That way, a malware infection can get no further than that virtual environment.
The Software Virtualization Solution (SVS) from Altris works a lot like a virtual machine at the application level. (Note that Altris was acquired by Symantec in January 2007.)
For example, if something goes wrong with a browser that’s running inside an SVS wrapper, you can simply reset the program back to its defaults and be rid of the problem.
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