Malware infection and unwanted system changes are the biggest concerns by organizations and individuals. It’s easy to be infected nowadays if the anti-virus’ real-time protection failed to detect malicious behavior while a user is surfing or installing unknown programs. It’s also easy to have unusable system if an update or software installation contains bugs or incompatibility with existing applications.
The above problems will be solved by using ShadowMode, Try&Decide or Windows Disk Protection. For screenshots, please refer to below images.
1. ShadowMode feature in ShadowSurfer, ShadowUser and ShadowServer:
StorageCraft’s ShadowServer, ShadowSurfer and ShadowUser include a feature called
ShadowMode. ShadowMode will create a virtual volume so you can run your PC or server in a virtual state. Unwanted changes or malware infection will not affect the system if ShadowMode is enabled. If you will install software, updates or make a major change on the system but later realize that it is not what you like or the update has unknown or known issues, you can simply end the ShadowMode session and go back to the previous system state.
ShadowSurfer and ShadowUser are compatible on Windows 2000 and XP systems. Vista system is not supported yet at the time of this writing. ShadowServer will run on 2000 and 2003 editions of Windows Server. You can commit the changes on files, folder or entire system; continue a ShadowMode session across reboots; schedule automatic reset of the computer to previous state and schedule to enable or disable a ShadowMode session if you will use ShadowUser and ShadowServer.
2. Try&Decide feature of True Image v11:
Acronis True Image v11 is a back-up and disk imaging utility that includes Try&Decide feature. With Try&Decide, you surf, make changes on the system, download files or install software temporary or permanently because you have a virtual system in your PC without using another virtual machine or installing another operating system. This is possible if you will configure True Image to create Secure Zone, a hidden partition to store back-ups created using TrueImage. The Try&Decide feature will use the Secure Zone to store your virtual system. When you enable the Try&Decide, you can decide to:
- Discard the changes when on reboot - Try&Decide will automatically discard the changes on system restart. No infection or changes will be merged in the good system state prior enabling Try&Decide.
- Discard the changes after many hours or days – You can configure Try&Decide to discard the changes after 10, 20 or 48 hours but you need to ensure that Secure Zone has enough space to continue tracking anything you will modify or add in the system or disks. You will be alerted when the try mode stops due to unavailable free space in the Secure Zone.
- Apply Changes – If you are satisfied with the installation of software or updates, Try&Decide allow you to permanently merge the session.
- Autorun – You can configure Try&Decide to automatically start in Try mode each time your computer starts. This is useful if you often make changes, install software and you are not sure if the changes or software installation will have issues due to bugs or incompatibility.
Try&Decide also include an option to track or not the changes in the all visible disks or partition (not only the Windows partition or drive). It will also alert or warn you when the free space in the Secure Zone is near to finish. Please note that the Secure Zone must reside in the Windows partition to be able to use the Try&Decide feature. If your Acronis Secure Zone is in another drive or partition, you cannot use Try&Decide. Acronis True Image runs on Windows 2000, XP and Vista systems.
Note: Back-ups in the Secure Zone are not accessible using another program. If you want to copy a back-up image from the Secure Zone, you can try the work-around here.
3. Windows Disk Protection in Windows SteadyState tool
Microsoft is offering a free tool, Windows SteadyState to users to allow administrators to control the user’s access to the drive, internet, system and installed software. Windows SteadyState includes Windows Disk Protection feature that will cache changes on Windows or another partition. If Windows Disk Protection is installed and enabled, you can choose it to:
- Retain changes permanently - this is useful if an administrator is positive that the changes on the system should be applied to the system
- Remove changes at restart - if the computer has been infected or if the software has bugs or incompatibility with existing applications, discarding the changes reverts the system to previous state without having to use System Restore in Windows or no need to use anti-malware to clean the system.
- Retain changes temporarily – this is useful if you installed an update or software that requires a reboot before the software or update is applied in the system. It will also allow the user or administrator to know if the update or software will not have issues to the current system settings and state.
Windows SteadyState runs on workgroups or standalone computers but it is not compatible on a 64-bit computer. If Windows Disk Protection is enabled, it will use 50% of available disk space as ‘cache’. Users can change manage the disk space that Windows Disk Protection will use. The minimum storage space to be use by Windows Disk Protection is 2GB. Disabling Windows Disk Protection will clear the cache and removes the Windows Disk Protection’s driver.
In using any of the above programs, you can perform any operations in your system without putting your PC at risk. There is also no need to use another desktop or server as testing environment before applying in a production system or computers that you cannot afford to lose. Malware infections, unusable system state and software update impacts are never an issue to organizations and individuals that take advantage of Try&Decide feature in Acronis True Image, ShadowMode feature of StorageCraft’s ShadowSurfer or ShadowUser and the Windows Disk Protection feature of Microsoft’s Windows SteadyState.