[[Unless I have missed something somewhere, the host OS must have access to the network if any of the virtual machines need access to the network. The host OS owns the hardware]]
Ok that’s what I thought-
[By investing the time to rebuild my Windows environment as a VM, I will never, ever, have to do it again. Ever. I now have the VM backed up on a USB drive. If my workstation were to catch on fire right now, I could replace it with any make or model of PC, and have my Windows environment back without having to re-install apps or drivers. Windows would never know the hardware changed. That measure of security alone was worth the investment of time to virtualize.]]
I’ve done something similar- I have a physical hard-drive duplicator (about $60) that does a fantastic (but slow) job of a 1 to 1 duplication-
I got my main drive (C drive) to where I want it- all the updates, tweaks, UI changes patches, drivers etc etc etc done, all software updated (things like photoshop, OnOne photo suite etc) and I duplicated the disk onto another hard-drive- (I’ll just miss any recent updates from here on out and have to redo them if I plop in the new backup hard-drive but the bulk of updates are all done)
The difference is that your image is married to your hardware. If you decide to buy a new system and retire your old one, odds are that your old Windows image will freak out on the new hardware. Even if you have driver files for the new system, you may not get a chance to install them...
Every time I have attempted to move a Windows hard drive from an old PC into a new PC, the Windows OS wouldn't complete the boot process without throwing up a blue screen.
When Windows is installed into a virtual machine, it marries the virtual machine instead of your hardware. The virtual machine file can be moved from your old PC to your new PC, and Windows will remain happy because it thinks it's still booting from the same hardware.