Foulestroupe - my point was that Pavane does not want to run the dodgy file, he just wants to examine it to find what damage it is designed to do. My reasonong is that it could possibly be accessed but quarantined by a non-windows operating system.

Another thought is that there are a number of windows programmes which create either a "sandbox" within windows, or a "Virtual Machine" which you can install an independently running copy of windows which only interacts with a virtual, software only, computer, not your real one. If I understand correctly, these are also supposed to prevent a virus rom havng any access to your Real windows system.

Quack!
GtD.