Platform differences with Windows 10

[ppppenguin]

I have tried VB and dual-boot in the past, but have sometimes experienced problems with both, which required drastic action to rectify. No idea what caused the problems. I am quite happy with W10 for general PC work, once the nasty bits have been zapped!

In contrast to your experience, I've had very little trouble when using VB to run XP in VMs. I've done this with both W7 and Linux as host. I admit I haven't needed virtualised OS's to use physical ports so I can't say if that might give trouble.

If you don't need W10 and can work with W7 or XP for your Windows needs it might be better. The earlier OS's don't, for the most part, try to do things that you don't want and aren't loaded with bloatware.