Does loading an app on a virtual drive protect you from malware infections?

When I load experimental programs, I install them onto a virtual drive. I do this because I heard that, upon removal of that program, there is no trace of its installation left behind. I also heard that this can protect the system from malware problems. Is there truth to these claims? If not, is there any benefit to my using a virtual drive?

 

what sort of virtual drive are we talking about here?

i've used virtual machines to test out software and i have also used a sandbox application but not sure what you mean by virtual drive

 

if it's a virtual drive like ram disk (separate partition) then nope it won't really help, specially on malware that would cascade over different drives.

unless it's a sandbox/virtual machine then you'd get more protection

 

Are you talking about protecting the host system from viruses or malware? I don't know how common it is but I think it's possible. Virtual machines aren't invulnerable to this, especially if you have any shared folders. Also, with virtual machines getting more and more common, I'd imagine more people are looking to exploit any vulnerability we may overlook in a VM.

 

yup, I agree. it also depends on the malware/virus, if it looks for network drives then even if it was on a VM other VM's and your host OS could potentially get infected as well.

nothing beats having a good AV, firewall and being careful about the files you download