Can I install a virus on a virtual machine without harming my laptop? I just want to try it out if someone asks why I want to install a virus.
Basically yes, but you should really isolate the VM. So it's best not to have a network adapter on it, no shared folder or something similar.
I can't tell you in detail now, but I would say yes, it works, but with a lot of effort and with knowledge of the target system. It would have to be a very targeted attack and it wouldn't be worth it.
To be on the safe side, you can install a Linux environment on a bootable USB stick and then the VM. However, this is effort and costs you too much time.
You don't have to get the latest death trojan, you can play with a "harmless" virus.
Btw.: Tell me then how you deliberately get a virus from the network. I would be interested in that ^^
There's a harmless test virus Eicar. With this you could test whether the virus is detected in a virtual machine. And whether virus scanners can detect Eicar outside the VM.
