If you start fresh you should be fine. Just don’t browse the internet on it, or run sketchy ass software on it. And turn it off when you’re done. Behind NAT the only way for your device to get infected is for something else on the network infect it.

There is a lot of wisdom here, but be cautious…

“Back in the day” (when xp was still relevant), I installed a VM with xp on the cooperate LAN. …as it took eons to install all the patches and updates, this turned into a multi-day task. I didn’t browse the internet or do anything (because the patches were still installing/rebooting/ect).

When I came back to the office, the next day, the networking on the VM was disabled and I got a message from the local IT guy saying that my VM was part of a botnet and was spreading worms, so they had to quarantine it (by disabling the networking).

I literally did nothing with it, other than install updates. I assume someone in the office had a worm and it infected my VM during the night.

…so if you’re playing with xp (or any unsupported version of windows) - be careful.