Handing laptops to friends

Slashdot has a request for information from an art student who wants to know how to let other people briefly use their laptop while still protecting the laptop from infection and the data from snooping. After glancing at the slashdot comments the answers can be roughly grouped into these categories.

• Setup a guest account and use quick user switching. This solution works on both Windows and Linux.
• Use VMWare or equivalent software. Start the VMWare and run all your questionable things including other people’s logins in it.
• Say “NO.” Don’t ever loan out your laptop, its yours not theirs and lending it is an necessary risk from the point of physical and data damage.