Best way to quarantine Chinese bloatware? Dual boot/partition/VM?

techlevel0 · 03-10-2009, 10:16 AM

I'm trying to set up my new laptop (Windows Vista Home Premium), and I need to partition it into two environments, one for work and one for personal/gaming use. Normally I'd just partition the hard drive, and use different accounts, but I also use a number of Chinese programs, such as QQ instant messaging service, Xunlei, PPStream, JinshanCiba, etc. All of them are bloated and are memory hogs, bogging down the computer. QQ installs itself *everywhere*, and all of them (including many IMEs) require to phone home every 5 seconds.

Naturally, I don't want them anywhere near my work files, or where their firewall bypassing and multitudes of add-ons with shoddy security could open up backdoors. Security on Chinese programs is notoriously bad, beyond the programs just being bloated and such.

Would I be fine running a single installation of Windows with a partitioned hardrive, or is it possible stuff could migrate from her partition to mine? Should I install another OS for the Chinese stuff, or run her stuff on a VM? For simplicity's sake, I'd rather just partition the bloody drive, but I just wanted to make sure before I screwed myself and spent a month trawling the registry for add-ons.

My basic goal is to be able to use the Chinese software, without it affecting a secure work machine, and keep both settings on the same machine.

03-10-2009, 10:16 AM	#1 (permalink)
techlevel0 Registered User Join Date: Mar 2009 Posts: 1 OS: Vista Home Premium	Best way to quarantine Chinese bloatware? Dual boot/partition/VM? I'm trying to set up my new laptop (Windows Vista Home Premium), and I need to partition it into two environments, one for work and one for personal/gaming use. Normally I'd just partition the hard drive, and use different accounts, but I also use a number of Chinese programs, such as QQ instant messaging service, Xunlei, PPStream, JinshanCiba, etc. All of them are bloated and are memory hogs, bogging down the computer. QQ installs itself everywhere, and all of them (including many IMEs) require to phone home every 5 seconds. Naturally, I don't want them anywhere near my work files, or where their firewall bypassing and multitudes of add-ons with shoddy security could open up backdoors. Security on Chinese programs is notoriously bad, beyond the programs just being bloated and such. Would I be fine running a single installation of Windows with a partitioned hardrive, or is it possible stuff could migrate from her partition to mine? Should I install another OS for the Chinese stuff, or run her stuff on a VM? For simplicity's sake, I'd rather just partition the bloody drive, but I just wanted to make sure before I screwed myself and spent a month trawling the registry for add-ons. My basic goal is to be able to use the Chinese software, without it affecting a secure work machine, and keep both settings on the same machine.