Virtual PC OS a "safe" environment?

[NecessaryEvil]

I'm going to set up a Virtual PC image of Windows XP Pro on one of my systems.

I'll have a dedicated NIC for it, and I'll have a dedicated partition for the image.


The question is, is the Virtual PC environment a safe/quarantined one, in that if I get into some bad files(malware, virii, trojans, etc.) it won't affect my physical system? (Assuming no files/folders are shared, and the only physical media the system will be aware of will be CD-ROMs, which it cannot write to anyway).

Or, should I just run adaware and NAV in the virtual environment as well?

 

[XOR != OR]

Or, should I just run adaware and NAV in the virtual environment as well?

Bingo.

Viruses and the like are poorly written, most times. Who knows what would happen if a malfunctioning program fails in that enviroment?

Aside from that, it's literally just another computer on the network, so you must treat it as such.