[ubuntu] Laptop purchase & hard drive dual booting

Good moing. My husband said he would only buy me a new laptop IF I dont put linux on it and he hates anything outside of Windows first off and he says I will void the warranty if I mess with the partition and I asked the Geek Squad and they said yes that most manufacturers will void the warranty if I do that and I see too many problems in review sections of all laptops. So my question to you all is, if I put Ubuntu Mate in a Virtual Machine, will that be the same as messing with the harddrive, will it run as smoothly as if I had it on its own partition, will my windows be vulnerable to viruses, malware/spyware if I access something on Linux in the Virtual Machine and what type of processor and ram would I need to accomplish ruing Linux in a virtual machine for it too run just as sufficiently as if the harddrive was partitioned? I only use the computer to look at videos on youtube, access websites, chat etc (basic stuff). I have used VM in Linux but not through Windows. I dont use windows for SQUAT but once a year and thats to do my taxes because Turbotax isnt compatible with Linux.

Also, I was under the impression that linux didnt work with touchscreens on computers but I took Ubuntu Mate 16.04 on a flashdrive to BestBuy and booted the live version and guess what, the touchscreen worked on the HP I tried it on. Does linux now work with touchscreens? Also,