<i>Do your networking on the host outside of the VM and exchange files between the host and the VM through a shared folder.</i><p>This is what I do when I run Windows XP under VMware Fusion. Works like a charm for the few apps I need. I don&#x27;t care if my XP is unpatched, it can&#x27;t get to the Internet.<p>But I thought that Windows XP SP 2 (what I use) was the final version of Windows that didn&#x27;t need to check in with Microsoft periodically (every few weeks?) or it would stop working. At least that&#x27;s what Microsoft&#x27;s original plans were; perhaps they relaxed that requirement?