What Is Qubes OS?

Maybe this isn't the best place to ask this, but I'll try anyway:

I'm a consultant involved in cybersecurity who often has to build and run VMs to either test out software, run things in sandbox, or connect to TOR from a VM I'll never use again.

Having said that, I currently use Windows with VMWare Workstation, but I find it frustrating and would prefer something that's less frustrating and feels more built-in.

Is there a solution that anyone would recommend for this kind of thing? Internal networks, Windows and Linux sandboxes, etc. I use Microsoft office products regularly, and my workstation (Dell Inspiron with an i9, 64GB ram, 2tb SSD) is connected to a thunderbolt 4 dock with 2 1440 monitors. I'd prefer for a Windows VM to have passthrough to the monitors and be able to interact with the host OS via that VM, so I can still share my screen during meetings and while coordinating efforts.

If you just have a need for isolating Windows applications have you tried the Windows Sandbox functionality built-in to Windows 10 Pro and Enterprise version? https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security/threat-pro...

It’s very different. Can I open a PDF from Windows into Windows Sandbox with 2 clicks and close with 1 after reading, nearly instantaneously, without noticing the virtualization? Nope. Windows Sandbox is just a fresh VM, almost useless.

You can do exactly that. Setup a .wsb file that mounts your downloads folder to the VM desktop and disable network.

Open the .wsb (1 click) then open the PDF (1 or 2 clicks). When you're finished close the windows sandbox window and it'll all be gone.

Using a zero install PDF viewer, the wsb login command and a few lines script file one could also have the PDF automatically open in the Windows sandbox with a double click or using "Open with" from the context menu.

You could piggyback off MS Edge in the sandbox to open the PDF. Provided you don't need any advanced features, and just want to read it.

But yes that is a great idea.