How to avoid malware (abit...)

I was asked how to get an offline copy of a video from a popular online video site. 

The solutions that used to work no longer do as the sites are using multiple flash wrappers to try to obfuscate the video stream and prevent all the usual tricks from working. 

I had a troll of some of the online services that used to do the trick using some fairly straighforward javascript. They used to be ad-supported.  Now they have much fewer ad's and they all require Java for their functionality.... hello?

Could there be a correllation with the number of exploits recently found in Java?  Could it be possible?

Anyway, since I did not have time to fiddle... the solution is to create a clean vritual machine using your favorite VM base OS.  (Something XP or Ubuntu should do the trick) make sure you enable Undo disks. Create a shared folder for passing back and forth to the VM.

Then boot up the VM, pass your YouTube links to the VM via a shared folder in a text file. 

Inside the VM, open a browser, go to your favorite video file scamming website and download the files to the shared folder. (Install Java if required)

Shut down the VM and do not commit the changes to the VM. 

Tada.  Ofline copy saved, Malware deleted, problem solved. 

Now explain that to your grandma....