That's true, I run XP on virtualbox (linux host) almost every day, and could just make a throw-away copy with no network access. I'm embarrassed I didn't think of that.
Thanks!
Console emulators are virtual machines. I'm not sure what the GP is concerned about.
Virtual machines can be insecure if they contain bugs. When it comes to providing a secure execution environment, I trust Virtualbox more than I trust any JVM, most of which I trust more than I trust any console emulator.
The Java Virtual Machine is a virtual machine.
So you feel comfortable executing arbitrary Java off the web?