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Returnil Virtual System Giveaway
$24.95
EXPIRED

Giveaway of the day — Returnil Virtual System

Returnil offers your users the ability to recover from harmful or unwanted changes with a simple reboot of the computer.
$24.95 EXPIRED
User rating: 367 147 comments

Returnil Virtual System was available as a giveaway on July 9, 2007!

Today Giveaway of the Day
$36.00
free today
Download music from 1000+ sites anytime and anywhere!

Returnil Virtual System is a powerful technology that clones a copy of your System Partition in memory and can create a file based Virtual Partition where you can save documents, data, and files while using the System Protection feature. Returnil Virtual System protects your computer from harmful viruses, Spyware and unwanted programs, preserves your computer settings, and ensures your Internet Privacy. Simply restart your computer to erase all changes.

When the Returnil protection is ON, your Windows system is running on a virtual partition meaning that every single change in the system partition actually takes place in memory. Therefore, all data and modifications will be lost after your system reboots. By restarting you PC, Returnil will discard all attempted changes made to your System Partition while Protection is ON.

When the Returnil Protection is OFF, you can install or remove any programs, create documents, install security upgrades and software patches, alter configurations, and update user accounts. All changes in the system partition will remain following a reboot.

System Requirements:

Operating System: MicrosoftR WindowsR XP/ 2003 Server/ Vista 32-bit; Processor and Memory by OS: XP (300 MHz; 128 MB), 2003 Server (750 MHz; 128 MB); Vista (800 MHz; 512 MB); 25 MB free HDD space

Publisher:

Returnil

Homepage:

http://www.returnilvirtualsystem.com/index_files/rvsbusiness.htm

File Size:

1.78 MB

Price:

$24.95

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The standard anti-malware solution for Windows.

Comments on Returnil Virtual System

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#147

Great software. The only problem is that Photoshop CS (legitimate copy) shuts down immediately after start and says it need a new install. Returnil seems to be incompatible with Photoshop's copy protection mechanism.
I would buy an updated copy of returnil when the developer is able to solve this problem.

Reply   |   Comment by Pixelmonster  –  15 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#146

WELL, It is December 2007 and I have been using this software for the last 5 months and have had NO - ZERO - NADA PROBLEMO!!!

I read with fascination how Mike Wood tried patiently to explain how things worked. And it seems that more often than not, he got the traditional FUD from many people. It was because of Mike's persistence that I decided to download this giveaway.

This is an incredible piece of software!!!

YES! You do have to remember to save the stuff you want to save to the virtual drive. My kids can only use the computer while Returnil-ized. It has saved so much time and effort because the deeper the crap they get into, the easier the power button makes the problems just vanish.

It is soooo fast toooo!

Again - Thanks to Returnil, Mike Wood, and the GAOTD team.

Reply   |   Comment by StarPilot  –  16 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#145

the lastest RVS 1.70 has been released.

http://www.download.com/Returnil-Virtual-System-Personal-Edition/3000-2144-10704691.html?part=dl-ReturnilV&subj=uo&tag=button

Great APP.

Reply   |   Comment by sulay  –  16 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#144

Reply to john #91:
i too had the "DEVICE IS NOT READY" after removing returnil from my startup, i simply put it back on, then changed Protection Mode to on, restarted, then it worked. after that i turned it off coz i didn't want it on all the time.
i advise u to see if there are any security programs not letting it add itself to the startup or something, not completely sure about this thou.

the bad thing is I got the

returnil error:
149011 (0xC000043)
189037 (0xC000043)

and i dnt wanna remove my firewall from the startup :( but ill try to c if its the real cause (comodo pro its good for advanced users & freee)
thanks for the HELPFUL comments posted here, coz a lot of them are just childish complaints. Great prog!
hope that helped if u got to read this comment.

Reply   |   Comment by Salism2  –  16 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#143

Pros:
I LOVE this software for the purpose of using it during a training process or for a internet cafe or childs compter playing and installing demo games etc. Once the PC is rebooted it wipes it clean. However you can still put programs that will keep traces and dump the log file to another network PC or hard drive.
When saving updates simply turn off the auto wipe protection feature, upgrade your PC and turn it back on... Very simple.
For all the usages I can come up with I give this software a 9 of 10 stars!


Cons:
Issues with this software. I still like to test as some have stated on this page under enviroments such as VMware. When running this under a simple VM session I received the following errors:

returnil error:
149011 (0xC000043)
189037 (0xC000043)

Then it says the security settings have changed when they have not. I haven't had the chance to see why this is happening but this is an issue because once I received this issue it has yet to work again when I started testing with it again.
Other then this issue I have not seen anything wrong with this product as of yet. Keep up the good work guys!!!

Reply   |   Comment by MrScreensaver  –  16 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#142

Dear goodness, you see what I mean? I'm showing as Jim after a colleague used my computer yesterday........ The last 2 comments were from me, Merril.......!!!

Reply   |   Comment by Merril  –  16 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#141

(CONTINUED as accidentally pressed submit...)

posted. I did not intend to offend you or berate the program, just highlight the implications to those who were new to such a concept - as I say, everyone else when the program is offered normally would understand as they would be purposefully looking for such a utility.

I wish you all the very best with your software and future programs, I certainly never intended my original post to upset (for want of a better word) you in any way or to contradict what you are trying to do. I admire your fight against malware and would actually be happy to advertise your program on the technical part of my site if you so wished. I get many questions about viruses etc and also offer a service to recover people's data for them in such an event so this would be appropriate to the site.

Finally, my last suggestion about building a beep into the program is one that, personally, I do think would be very helpful. If you had a short beep each minute which is on by default on start-up of the program but could be manually switched off after (so that people would have to deliberately disable it showing they know the implications) then this would be an alert that would not be missed by sight. In addition to the visual signals you already have in place, I think an audible alert would further help to prevent people forgetting the program's protection was on which is a real possibility for any user, seasoned in partitions and the like or not.

Thanks again for your replies Mike, may I take this opportunity to wish you all the very best with your program and future developments and if you would like me to add your banner to my site then let me know.

Best wishes,

Merril

Reply   |   Comment by Jim  –  16 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#140

Reply to Mike #147

Hi Mike,

Thanks for your reply. Mike, I understand that this program is very useful indeed, I downloaded a copy to a USB drive so that I can use it without accidentally leaving it on (I know that that would be something I would do having had to retype Caps Locked text on very many occasions!!) and it very much reminds me of how the local library runs their computers; at the end of their users' time, the computer automatically reboots and nothing they save to the system partition stays at all. Invaluable for such a purpose and also invaluable for a variety of tasks for all computer owners worldwide as your example uses protray.

My first post was not intended in any way to be "martyr"like, I just know how many people download from here and switch on regardless - they know the programs are mal/spyware and virus free and therefore know that nothing will harm their computer - whilst this in no way would harm their system either, without understanding of the purpose of the program, data loss is a real possibility which people risk overlooking.

I don't comment on every piece of software and when I do, I genuinely do not do so to contradict any piece of software's worth. I know through my own sites, products and programs that some people just cannot see good in anything and seem genetically programmed to complain needlessly, actively seeking out perceived flaws so that they can portray everything negatively. I actually normally only ever have good things to say about programs as archived records show, on this occasion and having seen so many comments in the past from people who do religiously download regardless as well as comments not understanding the software, I did feel that on some the definition of virtualisation was being lost which is why I

Reply   |   Comment by Jim  –  16 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#139

Reply to Ben Pieterse in post #145:

Hello Ben and anyone else with a similar issue,
Please contact us directly using the contact us form on our site and we will assist you with the re-install.

With Kind regards
Mike

Reply   |   Comment by Michael Wood  –  16 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#138

Reply to Merril in post #141:

Hi Merril,
I completely understand your position and applaud your efforts to help the other members here at GAOTD. It shows dedication and passion for what you are doing. My replies are also passionate because I believe in what we are doing and if we have gotten off on the wrong foot, I apologize. The important thing here is that we have covered allot of ground that is not normally a part of the GAOTD review process.

I see the potential RVS has to contribute to the fight against Malware that comes from being intimately involved in the Antispyware community. What do you see when you look through a “call for help” thread at a popular security forum? Mainly you see frustration, anger, fear, confusion, etc.

Seeing this and having been involved in helping users clean their systems, you start thinking seriously about finding a better way to provide everyone you can with a way to prevent these things from happening in the first place. However, to realize this, we have to overcome the years of misunderstanding about what virtualization actually is and how everyone, given the proper information and/or guiding hand, can use it effectively.

While we want users to have respect for the potential issues involved with this approach, we want to ensure that new/average users are not scared away from trying the software for themselves.

We also do not say or even recommend that anyone should use RVS protection 100% of the time. This is the strength of the concept; it can be used to enforce a current desired state (EX: Internet Café or Library), OR it can be used as a boot session shield when surfing the dark side of the internet.

With Kind regards
Mike

Reply   |   Comment by Michael Wood  –  16 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#137

Reply to Fubar in post #141:

Fubar,
“ …I’m all for companies bringing innovative solutions to market. Marketing, sales, and profits are necessary for companies to survive. RVS definitely has some positive aspects, and some potential uses.”

RE: Yes, we are a company, and as a result, there are some assumptions you can make regarding this fact. With this said however, you might be interested to know that this is not our primary goal. Our main mission is to research and develop targeted and easy to use technology that is relevant to a wide range of users and uses. Further, we do not want to be just another consumer product developer, as we also want to be a leading technology provider to other companies.

“…Apart from concealing your web surfing history, your primary arguments for RVS are that it protects your computer from Malware. While one would like to protect both programs and data, which is most important?”

RE: Our argument is that RVS protects your System Partition from unwanted and/or malicious changes while using the System Protection/Session Lock feature. Removing surfing history and activity traces are a nice side effect of our technology and not the primary mission of the software.

As for order of importance, I would not disagree with your argument that (all things being equal) Data protection is more important when you ask the question in this way. I would however disagree that this is the correct question to ask where RVS is concerned. It is important for the purposes of the debate to realize that protection of Alternate partitions is not “hard” for us to implement. It is as easy to clone the System Partition as it is to clone a Data partition or any other partition (internal OR external). RVS already has the ability to do this, but there are some very poignant reasons why we do not add this capability in the software that I have already expanded on.

Does this mean we do not see the validity of Data protection? Absolutely not, but there is no overriding reason to try and include every solution possibility within RVS and as a result, increase complexity at the expense of usability…

“…What they really want to avoid, though, is losing all (or any) of their data (OK, because of the one-time offer deal, they’d also like to avoid losing their GOTD programs).”

RE: This is exactly why everyone should make regular data backups or use automated backup solutions. The later is preferable as many users forget to make regular backups and as a result, are likely to get a very nasty wakeup call somewhere down the road when a disaster DOES occur…

“ … You speak at some length about how you’re a victim and how many other victims there are...”

RE: My first computer had a green screen and floppy disks instead of a HDD. Further, the “internet” meant you could connect with the school in the next town. Does this really mean anything in our current debate? No, it only means that you and I have been using computers since the late 1970’s

“ … You speak of virtualization as if it’s some grand new concept… something which a great many products have been able to do for a great many years.”

RE: I totally agree that the concept of Virtualization is not new. Our implementation of it is however. The real issue is in overcoming the years of bunk that have lead people to believe that it is difficult and/or dangerous to use.

“…Most of us browse the web while doing other tasks concurrently. So, we either have to leave RVS on and put up with all of the requirements and restrictions it places on us, or we can leave it off and be “unprotected”...”

RE: This argument assumes that using RVS is restrictive in some way. Again this is not true because you can do anything you want while protection is ON, including creation and saving of documents and data. The only thing to remember is that if you want to permanently save this data, you have to save it on an alternate partition. This is not a hard thing to do and I fail to see how this is restrictive…

With Kind regards
Mike

Reply   |   Comment by Michael Wood  –  16 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#136

I've downloaded the software and installed it. I later took it off and now wish to re-install, simply to find that I cannot because the installation time has expired.
Surely, they should use the time of download and let that count for something?

Disappointed,
Ben

Reply   |   Comment by Ben Pieterse  –  16 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#135

The large number of posts shows how vital this topic is. Whatever one thinks of Returnil, and whether or not it applies to your situation, the company is to be commended for making an original contribution in this area. And also for its willingness to communicate and explain Returnil to prospective users.

Reply   |   Comment by redmaledeer  –  16 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#134

And just to add, there is still the potential for anyone to forget the program is on regardless of coloured dots etc - how many times have you typed out website content etc and then realised the Caps Lock was on? No matter if you know what you are doing or not this is a real possibility.

The answer? If I were you I think a good addition to the software would be to have it make a short beep once every minute or so. Then people would be reminded to switch it off without losing more than a minute's work.

Reply   |   Comment by Merril  –  16 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#133

Reply to Mike #140

Thank you for your reply.

My original post did not mention in any capacity that your software is "dangerous" to use; I genuinely do not think it is. I do think you have perhaps misunderstood my original post at #54 - in short, if people came across your software when specifically looking for such a tool, or typed it in and came across it on download.com, or went along to their local stationers and bought it physically then of course they would understand all of the implications and would know what it does and how to use it. But this is not the case here. People download just because it is there to download without necessarily even having a need for the software - they do it because it is free for 24 hours only and want to take advantage of that, who wouldn't?

My post at #54 applied to THESE people only. People who were downloading not because they wanted it prior to the giveaway or have a need for it but because it is there. For them I do think that there is the potential for misunderstanding and data loss. Not other people who actively seek out such a tool - those who download daily on here regardless of what the software is. Those who have one computer used primarily to send jovial emails that start with "Fwd:" to friends yet download and install every single "Advanced LAN Network Solutions" software or the like just because it's free.

I do feel that I made this clear in my post at #54, the following being excerpts from that post



"From reading some of the comments on here I am a little concerned that some people are going to use it and lose a lot of data"

"if you don’t understand the implications of this program then don’t use it"

"I do fear that some people don't realise [the program's purpose] and stand to lose a lot of data"


Your original reply to this post also misquoted me in that you showed only the first part of a sentence which took what I was saying out of context - such as when I said that what the program is was not explained well (meaning for those new to such software) but then went on to briefly define it, you ended the sentence in a place which changed the whole syntax and stated that I had misunderstood the program's purpose.

Mike, I have no "fear, uncertainty and doubt" at all (and do still resent the condescending phrasing used in that sentence) - in the right hands this will be a useful utility. For many users of THIS site, though, who will blissfully switch on and forget about it because they have a new piece of software to run and the site would never give away anything harmful, then yes, I do think there is a strong potential to lose much work. The program is not physically dangerous for anyone and I never once said it is, but downloading without understanding - as so many people do - could easily cause disaster (I shudder to think of someone writing out and saving to their "My Documents" an essay/thesis, especially at this time of year, without realising the program is installed/on) and that was the only point I was making in post #54.

Best wishes,

Merril

Reply   |   Comment by Merril  –  16 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#132

Michael Wood, I'm all for companies bringing innovative solutions to market. Marketing, sales, and profits are necessary for companies to survive. RVS definitely has some positive aspects, and some potential uses. Apart from concealing your web surfing history, your primary arguments for RVS are that it protects your computer from malware. While one would like to protect both programs and data, which is most important? The data, of course. Programs can always be reinstalled. When a computer becomes infected with malware, what is the primary concern? Well, people don't want their computers to behave bizarrely, and they don't want their programs and data damaged. The drive can be wiped and the software can be reinstalled. That's a nuisance and time-consuming, so people want to avoid that. What they really want to avoid, though, is losing all (or any) of their data (OK, because of the one-time offer deal, they'd also like to avoid losing their GOTD programs). Having the most important data on a separate drive or partition does make it easier to wipe the system partition and reinstall. So, let's examine RVS and your arguments for it. RVS protects the system partition only. But only if protection is turned on. And how does it protect it? Well, by throwing away every last bit of changed programs and data--which is only a good thing if we're trying to conceal what we've been doing, or in the highly unlikely event that they have been damaged by malware (and especially for data, always a bad thing for those files which weren't damaged). Oh, wait, isn't that doing exactly what malware does? Isn't RVS doing exactly what it claims to protect us from? It's exactly the same as restoring your system partition from an old backup, throwing away all new information, just as if your system partition had been damaged, even when it hadn't. So, you're telling Merril and I that you define this as "not dangerous", "not damage". So if I lost several recorded TV programs which weren't going to repeat, at least not anytime soon, that nothing bad has happened and that I should be thankful that RVS has protected me from malware? Actually, I record my programs onto another drive. So, let's examine your argument that we should move our data onto another drive or partition. Between the more-important data and the less-important programs, which does RVS protect? The programs, not the data, because protecting the data would be, um, hard. So, how do the vulnerable noobs who don't know anything about computers or security, move their data over to another drive or partition? Does RVS do that for us? Um, no. Moving "My Documents", et al., will take care of some applications. We'll have to rummage through most of them and change default save paths. A great many applications use the Registry to specify the locations. While I could spend my life rummaging through the Registry and get some of that straightened out, how are the vulnerable noobs going to manage? When upgrades and new software are installed, we'll have to fix them, to. For some applications, we could avoid some headaches by installing them on the data partition, if they permit that. Oh, wait, we can't do that, then the programs won't be protected by RVS. Then there are all those endless other things, like critical system logs. OK, by messing with the registry, those could probably be moved. And what about all of the programs that don't have a convenient registry entry and dump their files into the system partition anyway? Oh, well, too bad. And when an application screws up and crashes our system, and we contact support and they say "send us the log file from the system drive", we say "Oh, I have this RVS software which protects my system, and it threw it away--if there's an old log file, can I send that instead?" And what about all of the endless customization we can do with Windows and applications? Oh, that's in the registry. We'll have to live without that, or we'll have to go unprotected while we change things. And what about all of the programs that need to update? Well, we'll have to figure out what all of those are, and try to force them to manually check for updates while we have our precious program protection turned off.

You speak at some length about how you're a victim and how many other victims there are, and how we're all losing this epic battle against malware. I first started programming a couple of decades before you were "victimized". Yes, malware is real. In my lifetime, the only thing which I've personally experienced that might be some sort of malware was a script which my AV software quarantined from a web page, and I didn't bother to check whether it was a false positive. Yes, hard drives do fail, everyone should back up their data. Personally, I've never experienced a hard drive failure at home or at work (although I did see plenty of bad floppies back in the day). Who's spreading the FUD? You speak of virtualization as if it's some grand new concept. For one thing, it's not, and for another, the ultimate result of RVS protection is that it simply returns your system partition to an earlier state (and only a single earlier state), something which a great many products have been able to do for a great many years.

Most of us browse the web while doing other tasks concurrently. So, we either have to leave RVS on and put up with all of the requirements and restrictions it places on us, or we can leave it off and be "unprotected". Does RVS do anything at all to identify malware? No. While we're unprotected, if we browse the web and pick up some malware, or a software installation or update screws up our computer, does RVS have a way to restore our computer to an earlier state? No. RVS has some positive uses, but it's at most a small and highly restrictive security tool. Which of us is "over the top"?

Reply   |   Comment by Fubar  –  16 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#131

Reply to Merril in post #128:

Hello Merril,
FUD = Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear,_uncertainty_and_doubt

What we are trying to accomplish is to bring awareness that Virtualization is mature, is not dangerous, and when used properly will bring a much-needed layer of protection they have not had access to before.

My objection to your posting is that it seemed overly alarmist where a simple warning would have sufficed. Yes, it is true that any data saved to the System Partition will be lost at reboot when System Protection is on. This does not mean it is dangerous however and this is why I called FUD.

I have extensive experience with the Antispyware movement. First as a victim in the late 1990s, then as a privacy advocate and help forum volunteer, next moving on to become a support forum administrator, and then joined an Antispyware company while serving (in order) as Technical Writer, Public Relations, Technical Sales, and then moved on to head the company’s Malware Research Department.

During this time, I became frustrated with the fact that the fight is not gaining ground. More and more people are infected every day; many of them are repeat victims. This is unacceptable to me when there are solutions and ideas out there that would have helped prevent or at least minimized their exposure.

For too long the industry has shied away from concepts like Virtualization because they have bought into the hype that it is too difficult to understand and even harder to setup and use properly. I choose to believe that new and average users are more sophisticated than many reviewers and technicians give them credit for and all they need is a guiding hand to give them the confidence they need to learn.

There is also a great need to educate users about using default save locations. Yes, it is true that a new user will save their documents and data in the “normal way” but that is only because no one has taught them that there is a better way to do this. Part of the design of RVS is to force the user to use alternate partitions instead of the usual default save locations.

The next subject to tackle here is in regards to new and average users not being likely to be the ones that get infected with something their AV/AM can’t handle. Actually, it is the exact opposite. While you and I have not had anything more dangerous than the occasional tracking cookie on our systems for many years, the infections are happening to users who do not understand the pitfalls so are unable to avoid the consequences. Further, a new user is not as likely to update and/or use their AV properly or even at all.

In light of this, having something like RVS there to reject any changes to the System Partition (%s) would give that user the chance to learn from their mistakes and still have a useful computer on the other side of the reboot.

I do agree with you however regarding the fact that some users will just download the software and forget that it is on or off as the case may be. This is why we spent so much development time on putting that information in more than one place with visual aides and reminders.

I also respect the fact that you were trying to highlight the possible issues so that the reader would understand, but the way you were presenting the information was a bit over the top. My point is that RVS is safe, effective, and easy to use

With Kind Regards
Mike

Reply   |   Comment by Michael Wood  –  16 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#130

Reply to refract in post #127:

Hello refract,
RVS will not and can not do what you describe as it does not make any changes to your applications, only to the clone in memory. What I suspect is that there may be an incompatibility with the Carbonite process and that it might be the source of the damage.

To verify this and to track down what is happening, please contact us through our site contact form to describe what occurred in detail so we can investigate. Thanks

Mike

Reply   |   Comment by Michael Wood  –  16 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#129

Reply to marrylin in post #124:

Hello marrylin,
This is possible but is not recommended unless you do not have a real alternate partition on your Hard Disk Drive (HDD) – (EX: [System Partition] = C:\ and [Data Partition] = D:\)

If you are going to move System Folders, you need to be very careful about how you do it. First, you have to ensure that the partition you use as the new target directory loads with Windows. If you use the RVS Virtual Partition for this, then you must ensure that the VP loads with Windows boot.

This could be an issue later if you decide that you no longer wish to use RVS. This is why we recommend that you study the implications of moving System Folders before you attempt to do so and if/when you decide to do this, that you use a data partition on your real HDD.

This is not uncommon, but requires a solid level of knowledge and experience to implement properly. I would strongly advise against doing this if you are not an expert.

Mike

Reply   |   Comment by Michael Wood  –  16 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#128

Reply to K in post #122:

Hello K,
RVS is best used outside the sandbox to protect your real system from any potential leaks or accidental breaches. When to turn on protection would best be addressed by the anticipated risk level of the content you are sandboxing.

The two (RVS and the Sandbox) will be independent of one another unless the sandbox needs to make changes to the System Partition as part of its normal operation. If this is true, then changes would be lost on the System Partition while using the RVS protection feature. This means you should take some time to think about exactly what you want to achieve with your setup.

Are you using the sandbox as a way to restrict software you use normally or are you testing applications in the sandbox before moving to your real system?

Mike

Reply   |   Comment by Michael Wood  –  16 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#127

Reply to brittnydunn in post #121:

Hello brittnydunn,
My advice would be to seek assistance in a Malware removal forum. I would start with the product support forums for my current AV. If you do not get assistance there I would then move on to seeking help in an independent forum.

Most popular forums now have at least one section dedicated to helping members with Malware identification and removal. Some of the ones I am familiar with are:

Landzdown.com
CastleCops.com
SpywareWarrior.com
dslreports.com/forum/cleanup
malwarehelp.org
Many, many more…

If anyone else keeps a list that would help brittnydunn please let he know…

Mike

Reply   |   Comment by Michael Wood  –  16 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#126

Reply to BladedThoth in post #116:

Hello BladedThoth,
I attempted to use your feedback from the link you provided but was unable to send a message. The issue now is that the captcha does not work. Even when the proper string is entered, the page refreshes with “Try again” in red in an endless circle.

I tried this in Opera, IE7, FF, and K-Melion with the same results so am at a loss. If you could contact me directly using the contact us form on the following page it would be appreciated, as I would like to join your forums…

http://www.returnilvirtualsystem.com/index_files/contactus_tech.htm

Mike

Reply   |   Comment by Michael Wood  –  16 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#125

Reply to Tom in post #115:

Hello Tom,
There is no need to perform a reboot to uninstall RVS. There is a known registration issue when upgrading from a 1.5X, 1.61, or Beta 1.62.xxxx version to the current release version. This issue also effects upgrading from Personal to Business Edition but does not affect those installing the software for the first time. To solve this please do the following:

1) If System Protection is ON, open the RVS GUI and select the "Change Protection Mode" button

2) Select "Turn OFF System Protection" and then reboot your computer

3) After reboot, log into a computer administrator account

4) When available, right click the RVS tray icon and select "Quit Program"

5) Navigate to your C:\Returnil folder and delete the file RVSYSTEM.dat

6) Click Start -> All Programs -> Returnil -> Uninstall (Note: for pictorial reference, see the "Uninstall" page in the Support section of the RVS User's Manual

7) If you want to keep your current Virtual Partition, you can back it up (VP = C:\Returnil\RVSYSTEM.img), or can choose to exclude it from removal during the Uninstall. If you have not used the VP, then go ahead and uninstall it. The final option is to backup the contents of the Virtual Partition and then choose to remove it during the uninstall.

8) Reboot your computer when the uninstall is complete

9) Log back into your Admin account and then open your preferred registry cleaning application or Regedit and remove all references to Returnil. There should be three main registry keys to remove.

10) Re-Install Returnil and then enter your Serial Number exactly in the appropriate window during the install

Please let me know if you have any further issues and I will be happy to assist further.

Mike

Reply   |   Comment by Michael Wood  –  16 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#124

Reply to Kevin in post #111 & #24:

Hello Kevin,
I thought I had replied to your question in #24 early yesterday, but it appears the post did not make it to the page. Please forgive the inconvenience.

The issue you are experiencing is due to certain restrictions that require RVS to be installed using the native language in China. Though your system may be set up in English, I suspect that the OS was originally installed in Chinese.

What you can do here would be to begin the install process (yes the GUI will be in Chinese) and then click the User’s Manual button. This will be the button to the far left.

In order: [User’s Manual] [Next >] [Cancel]

Once the manual opens, refer to the “Installation” page where there will be a complete pictorial guide for the installation. Though your installation windows will be in Chinese, the manual will be in English so you can compare between the two to understand the text and options as you progress.

Once the software is installed, Open the RVS GUI and then click the “Other Settings” link in the menu on the left side of the interface window. The icon in the list will look like a hammer and wrench over a light blue pad.

When opened, you will see a new window with three tabs. Select the one on the right “Others” and then open the bottom drop down menu to select the language you prefer and then click OK. The GUI should refresh in the proper language and will remain this way until/unless you select a different language preference.

Mike

Reply   |   Comment by Michael Wood  –  16 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#123

Reply to Fubar in post #108:

Hello Fubar,
I have been forthright and completely honest in all my replies so have definitely not been disingenuous. RVS or similar may not be the right solution for you, but it is not dangerous and certainly will not damage your system in any way. The worst that would happen in your example would be that changes were not allowed to be saved to the System Partition that includes the registry.

We know RVS is not for everyone in every situation, but will vehemently disagree with opinions that virtualization is difficult or dangerous to use. All that is needed on the part of the user is the willingness to learn more about their systems and how to use alternate partitions to save their data.

Mike

Reply   |   Comment by Michael Wood  –  16 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#122

Reply to rsa in post #99:

Hello rsa,
This is a great idea and one we have been discussing internally for a long time now. The issues we face are that we do not have the available resources to make the list with proper review of the technical information AND keep this list up to date, as the various applications are updated/upgraded.

A further complication here is that we do not know what programs should be placed on such a list. It would be a better idea for us to work with motivated users in a general discussion to identify the most popular/essential programs and then test instructions in a group setting to iron out any potential issues.

Mike

Reply   |   Comment by Michael Wood  –  16 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#121

I think 100% people have the experience that got damage by threat even has the AV installed.

Returnil + Firewall, I do think it is a gold solution for the people like me who has few skill in the security .

Any one else can be simpler than RVS?

Reply   |   Comment by sumar  –  16 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#120

#102, S. Brown, thanks for the partial clarification. I'm not quite sure what you want to do, so I can't really answer the implications of using GoBack and RVS together. I will mention a couple of things--GoBack is compatible with System Restore, so you can have long-term Restore Points. Of course, Restore Points only cover some things. System Restore is actually based on GoBack technology, but it's nothing like GoBack. In fact, it can be quite bizarre. Someone recommended RollBack Rx. It's pricey at $69, but a free trial is available. What I don't like is all the hype, extreme bias, and blatantly false and misleading information on the site. I'd still be using GoBack, but since I have a Media Center PC, I can't (files are too large, Symantec removed the ability to exclude logical drives, and standby/hibernate compatibility is required). RollBack Rx is very different, but appears to be the closest (least distant?) thing to GoBack. If you want, you should be able to use both together. RollBack Rx allows for long-term snapshots. Part of the RollBack Rx hype is that they gloss over what a base snapshot is. You generally can't store another copy of a drive within that drive. Therefor, the base snapshot isn't a full snapshot--it's more along the lines of a Restore Point. So, I'm not sure how completely you can restore things. Since there aren't a lot of alternatives, I'll check it out sometime. It sounds like it might do what you want.

#101, Grimbles, no insult was intended. I'm always glad to see developers participate in this forum. I'm a technical person, I like technical answers, my responses can be blunt. I like honesty when it comes to the pros and cons of products. The answer I received was more PR hype than practical and correct. The issue was the safety of using RVS. I have a Media Center PC; it may have scheduled recordings at any time (although generally near a half-hour boundary). Numerous (and I do mean numerous) updates can occur at any time; my anti-virus software alone updates several times per day. Malware scans and disk defragmentation run at night. Guide updates run in the morning. I frequently have limited opportunities to reboot; the computer must not be doing anything critical, and it must be more than a dozen or so minutes from the start of a scheduled recording.

I have no need to hide my web browsing; I don't intentionally visit dangerous websites (and I expect my security software to handle any threats that get past my browser). Re-reading the RVS description, it appears that web browsing is one of the primary intended uses for RVS. I don't have separate "browsing sessions", browsing is just another activity among others. Therefor, I wouldn't activate RVS just for browsing. Nor would I leave it on all the time. It would be practically impossible to move everything that was written to the system partition elsewhere. Programs store data all over the place, not just in convenient locations like "My Documents". Critical files, including critical log files, are written to the system partition. The registry is updated with settings constantly. My security software can encounter situations which cause it to alter critical security-related registry entries at any time. Therefor, clobbering the system partition by replacing it with an older version at every restart when RVS protection is on, simply isn't a viable option for me.

As for software testing, there are several critical issues with RVS. It's a mode-based product; protection has to be explicitly turned on and off. Turning it off requires a Windows restart. Restarting while protection is on reverts, therefor software which requires a reboot, or which has effects which cannot be observed until after a reboot, cannot be tested in a protected environment. Software testing can take a while; for me, the consequences of critical processes starting while protection is on would be somewhat serious (how serious would depend upon how long I would have to wait to reboot, or the consequences of rebooting in the middle of the critical activity). With RVS, testing a new software installation would require a second installation if the software passed.

Frankly, I would rather do without whatever protection RVS provides than deal with the potential downsides to using it. I pass no judgement on the decisions others make. Everyone has different environments, everyone has different needs and uses. RVS is a very attractive solution (among many others) for shared computer environments, such as schools and libraries.

Having been a long-time GoBack user spoiled me when it comes to this class of products. I'm aware that RVS considers itself to be a virtual environment, but I consider its actual operation to be more of an environment-restoration product. RVS is modal; GoBack protects all the time (modeless). RVS is partly designed to facilitate operation concealment; GoBack is designed to keep track of operations. RVS only protects the system partition; GoBack protects all fixed volumes. RVS reverts on reboot when protection is on; GoBack only reverts when requested or scheduled. GoBack is a much broader product, having many other features, a few of which I mentioned in earlier posts. These abilities come with a definite performance impact. RVS has a much narrower focus, and performance is probably better. RVS expects the user to conform to the tool's requirements; GoBack is designed to be transparent. (Perhaps I should be referring to GoBack in the past tense, since Symantec killed it, as I expected they would when they bought it).

Reply   |   Comment by Fubar  –  16 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#119

Reply to Mike #78

Hi Mike,

I do appreciate you taking the time to answer all comments to your software and thoroughly respect your opinions even if they contradict mine - but your last sentence

Please try to tone down the FUD a little as it is not really helpful…
is extremely impolite and unprofessional. (Also please spell out for what "FUD" stands?)

I often comment on software on this site and have my own website where I answer technical questions. Everything I say is not said lightly - I thoroughly review each piece of software, I don't just glance and make assumptions.

Please let me counter-reply to your comments -

You said “From reading some of the comments on here I am a little concerned that some people are going to use this and lose a lot of data. What the program actually is is not explained well at all”You misunderstand what Returnil is doing and what it is designed to do.


No, on the contrary YOU misunderstand - please read my sentence again. I know exactly what the program is and thoroughly understand - from the very first time I read the description - exactly what it is. But others do not seem to have done and as such were asking what it is in their comments, some implying to believe it is some kind of anti-virus. If you are a new to offering software on here you may not realise just how many people download software BECAUSE it is a giveaway. BECAUSE it is THERE to download. Such people don't understand what the program is, they may not have a need for it; they see the retail value, know it is free today, want to get something for nothing and download it and use it. Yes you have a "virtual partition", but even that risks being lost on people with no technical knowledge or understanding of what a partition is. They have a new piece of software to download and switch on. I am not saying everyone will do this which is why my original sentence included the word "some". And I stand by that as although I understand the program I know that not everyone will as "what the program actually is is not explained well".


You went on to say:

“With the program switched on, nothing you save is saved to your hard-drive, no downloads will remain, no updates will be kept, no changes will stay whatsoever after your next reboot.”

This is not true unless you are trying to save to your System Partition with Protection ON. Data saved within the Returnil Virtual Partition. Alternate partitions on your HDD, or external storage drives (USB, FireWire, etc) WILL be saved following a reboot.


Yes, I understand that. Again I emphasize, I understand the program and how it works. Thoroughly. But my sentence you quoted is to demonstrate to people as above that with the program switched on, no savings will be made when they save in the usual manner - to their hard-drive. There is no warning, they will be happily saving to their system partition not understanding the implications and then will lose their work. Please read my original comments again - I made it clear that I was talking about people who did not understand the program and said, as you quoted nothing you save is saved to your hard-drive meaning the C:\ drive without partitions which, let's face it, is what the majority of people have, to think otherwise would be incorrect.


You also asked this question:
“…do such threats, especially with anti-virus, anti-spyware and anti-rootkit programs really pose a problem that this program is necessary?”

Yes, most definitely, as is evidenced by the failure of traditional Antivirus/AntinMalware solutions to solve the problem. All you have to do is to search Google for HijackThis (HJT) logs to see that even with the best of the best and multiple AV/AM/AS/ETC, there are more people seeking help than ever before.


Whilst I appreciate that viruses/ malware are extremely problematic, in the 10 years I have been using the internet as a business with 4 different websites of my own, I have never come across a virus that was not picked up by anti-virus software. Perhaps, for the sake of argument, I have been lucky. I appreciate that such hazards are experienced by many people and that they can destroy hardware and cause huge problems. But for the common user, this is extremely unlikely. I do honestly believe that this program for the sake of "opening... emails" is like killing an ant with a bulldozer - yes, malware is a problem; does that warrant running your computer virtually at all times "just in case"? In my opinion, no. (Again, please remember that these comments boards are here to express personal opinions and respect others' opinions. I appreciate that people may disagree but the purpose is to review as you see it. That is what I did, nothing I said was inaccurate technically about your software, even though you may not agree with my conclusions - so please respect others' opinions without needless, unprofessional comments followed by three dots.)


You were heard to opine about: (was this sentence necessary as well?)



You were heard to opine about:

“This really can do so much more harm than good - how many times are people going to forget they have the program switched on and then lose all of their work?…”

There is more than one way to see your current Protection status so you do not have this issue. The first is when you log into your user account. You will see a popup message over your System Tray that will tell you exactly what your current protection status is and what the consequences of that Protection mode are.

Next, the Tray Icon will change color in response to your current Protection Mode. If System Protection/Session Lock is ON, the Tray Icon will be RED, if it is OFF, the Tray Icon will be GREEN.


Again, I reiterate and emphasize that there WILL be people who have downloaded for the sake of downloading and will forget they have it on, regardless of a coloured dot in the system tray. The message you get when you FIRST switch on is not in question - people CAN - EASILY - go on to forget the application is on, you must be able to see the potential to do so.

Please try to tone down the FUD a little as it is not really helpful…


Again, everything I said in my original post was factual - in short I do fear that some people have the potential to misunderstand the implications of what the program does and that saving as they would normally save without the understanding of partitions will not produce permanent changes that may be vital to them. I stand by this. But, Mike, I would have thoroughly respected your opposing views had you not said this last sentence. You instantly made yourself sound unprofessional with an unprovoked and needlessly impolite remark such as this. It has put me off your whole company and I would for this reason not recommend your software to others. I am more than happy to have my views challenged, even though you misinterpreted much of my original post, that would make no difference, I absolutely respect your opinions. But your last remark was inappropriate and rude and as a representative of your company I genuinely do think you need to address how you speak to people regardless of whether their views coincide with your own or not.

Merril

Reply   |   Comment by Merril  –  16 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#118

I'm happy for you folks who appreciate Returnil.

Thank God I was finally able to uninstall it after many tries and reboots. So far the only permanent damage I've suffered is that it destroyed all my many personal settings in Opera. It will take some time to rebuild the toolbars. Returnil also trashed my Carbonite service, but that seems to be restored this morning (probably by
Carbonite during the night after the dramatic uninstall).

My lesson learned is that I now understand how important it is to wait until late in the day of any GAOTD to see how many problems are reported by wounded bystanders.

Interesting, isn't it, that a software that can rupture so many things has so much time spent explaining how it can keep one safe from ruptures. Go figure...

RH

Reply   |   Comment by refract  –  16 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#117

Thanks for a great program. If you understand the tool, it can help you a lot!

Reply   |   Comment by Joost  –  16 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#116

I try the Returnil in my XP Pro for a whole day. And I am very pleased with this program. Best of best!

The Virtual Partition is cool. But I need some time to train myself to use it in the right way. BTW, If I move "My Document" path to the Virtual Partition, what will happen then?

thanks, Michael and the development team.

Reply   |   Comment by marrylin  –  16 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#115

So how do i register this?

Reply   |   Comment by brittnydunn.  –  16 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#114

@mike: Thanks returnil and GOTD, looks good and I'm about to try it.
-> You mentioned using this with sandboxie... would you install and run this inside a sandbox, or on the host system (ie outside the sandbox). If outside how would you run it, ie turn it on before turning on sandbox, or from inside the sandbox? I run the sandboxes on another partition (in effect extending the E: system partition which has WinXP pro SP2). Sorry I'm a little unclear on how to best use it and which partitions (or sandboxes?) it would protect and how to coordinate the 2.
TIA

Reply   |   Comment by k  –  16 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#113

Ok I have a trojan and it making my computer go slap crazy.I have about 5 anitvirus programs but none seem to help.I also have pictures and softwares on my computer that I do not want to get rid of,so a restore is out of the question,unless I do a back up but I am unsure how.If I do a backup could I just pick certain items to keep,and what if the programs I wanted to keep was infected.Would it pass along the virus.Any advice?


................
As for this software....
Looks promising if I could just get ride of my virus.Thanks!

Reply   |   Comment by brittnydunn  –  16 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#112

@33: If you have programs you want install that require a restart, (making this program rather useless), and you don't trust them - then you install them into a Virtual Machine first. M$ VirtualPC 2007 is free.

As for this program - good for testing the majority of GAOTD offerings :)

Reply   |   Comment by 4wd  –  16 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#111

Great Program - probably one of the best this year on GOATD

The program has a very simple concept. At your request, run everything in memory and nothing gets written to disk. Some great uses for this are:
1. Grandkids (little hackers) are coming over to visit.
2. You want to try out that really good looking piece of software from that very suspicious looking website.
3. What would happen to my system if I deleted that file?

Returnil can help. When you turn on "System Lock" nothing further is going to be written to your hard drive until you reboot. Just for grins, I installed Returnil, turned on "System Lock" and uninstalled some programs, made fake entries into my Quicken Account (gave myself a million) and deleted two pieces of email from my outlook express. I rebooted the system and much to my delight everything was back to the way it was before I "System Locked." Uninstalled programs were back, Quicken now showed my correct balance (shucks!) and my deleted emails had returned.

Quick note before you install. Warning: The program gives you the opportunity to create a virtual partition that will allow you to save files (really save them) even if you are in System Lock mode. This is useful for those who don't have more than one hard drive partition. In fact, if you only have a single hard drive partition, it is almost a necessity because you will have nowhere to really save a file you want to survive the next boot. (remember saving a file to your C drive (or formating your C drive for that matter) will not survive the next boot. If you don't create this virtual partition at time of installation you have to reinstall Returnil (not a great option for GAOTD folks).

Another Warning. Don't choose to make the largest virtual drive possible at time of installation. Your Windows partition will permanently lose that space until you uninstall Returnil. So unless you want to cripple your systems ability to add new programs, defragment and otherwise operate properly, choose the default size for the virtual drive or something smaller. Hopefully this will be corrected in a future version.

One final note. Its rather late in the GAOTD process, but this program in its "personal version" can be installed free. Just visit the Returnil website for details. Thank you GAOTD for brining us what I feel is the best program so far this year. (heck, I might even download a screensaver or two if I know that I don't really have to install it to check it out !)

Reply   |   Comment by Ken Martin  –  16 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#110

It does protect the whole System Partition and MBR. Smart and small. Returnil is perfect. thanks!

Reply   |   Comment by sunnery  –  16 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#109

Hmmmm... After reading ALL the comments, I still don't know if I should d/l this app.
I'm not a geek but I'm not computer illiterate either, that's why I'm not sure about this app. being fit for me.
My comp has 4 partitions, 2 per HDD.
One of those partitions is for my e-mail data only. I use Incredimail and it lets you save your mail in a different location, but the program itself is installed on the system partition. E-mail is the one thing I don't want to loose... too valuable for me 'cause I have tons of tubes and graphics there.
Almost never save anything to My Documents. For that, I have the other 2 partitions, where I store thousands of fonts, graphics and stuff, one of them being where I save my daily work. Then, I have an external HDD with 2 partitions also, one for backups and one for music and video.
If RVS protects the system partition only, that means I can save stuff the way I usually do and not loose a thing when I reboot? But it also means that my e-mail will never be protected by RVS if needed be.
Geez! I wish I still had GoBack, which I used for many years. Mine was 2.0 and I was happy to rely on it. Unfortunately, lost it when upgrading to a bigger HDD 'cuz I forgot to back it up. :(
That's my main concern... I live "on the moon" most of the time and will easily forget that RVS is on, or off...
Think I'll give it a try though.

Thanks GAOTD, Returnil and all the usual reviewers here! You guys help a lot of people like me decide what to do.

Regards from Portugal!

Reply   |   Comment by Duckie  –  16 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#108

Hello #73 - Michael Wood!

I'm not sure what issues you are having with my forums and signing up; I just ran a test on it and was able to successfully able to create a test account; I do not see your an account created today so I am assuming your signup may have failed on the anti-bot questions or other reasons. If you could send me the error messages, please feel free to do so via my contact form (Below) or if you'd like me to manually create a user for you, just let me know what you'd like your username to be and email address in the contact form and I'll set one up for you.

http://www.bladedthoth.com/information/

Reply   |   Comment by BladedThoth  –  16 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#107

The one question that has gone un-answered is in regards to to "un-install" feature or lack thereof according to some posters.
So is a person "stuck" forever with this program or is there an actual un-install feature. I do not think anyone would want to do a re-format just to re-move this program.
Unless an answer is forthcoming a person needs to be a complete fool to install this program.

Reply   |   Comment by Tom  –  16 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#106

Reply to Interested Party in post #89:

Hello Interested Party,
Please forgive the late reply as I missed your question earlier.

“Seeking a clarification (Michael) about these free one year license keys (that expire in Aug 2008). I understand that the Virtual Partition feature stops working at key expiration time…does that mean everything in the Virtual Partition becomes unavailable or is there a final notification / procedure that confirms a writeback of potentially valuable remnants? Thanks for your responses here”

ANS: I discussed this with development and learned that there had been a change in post subscription features introduced in the final versions of the 1.62 Betas. The change (as described below) was made to address potential issues Business Edition customers might experience if they are actively using the Virtual Partition rather than an alternate data partition. I apologize for any confusion this may have caused…

No, the contents of the Virtual Partition will still be available and the partition mountable, but the System Protection feature will be unavailable. The current design will not show a warning; rather it will display an out of Trial message in the bottom of the GUI.

Mike

Reply   |   Comment by Michael Wood  –  16 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#105

I made a 1 gig Z drive and placed a shortcut to it on the desktop. I can save any downloads I want to save after trying them out etc by dragging them to it. I don't care about saving my history or cookies. I can save any links to sites by dragging them there too. When I reboot, my computer is just like it was before, except everything I saved to the Z drive is still there. Then, with the virtual system off, I can move everything from there to its usual place. I can install (again) only those programs I liked.

Excellent program! Installed flawlessly for me, and works perfectly (so far, at least). Thanks Returnil & GAOTD.

Reply   |   Comment by Late to the Party  –  16 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#104

Reply to Ron in post #98:

Hello Ron and anyone else with similar issues,
We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused, as we want all feedback whether it is positive or negative. Please feel free to use the contact us form on our website and we will be happy to assist you with your questions as quickly as possible.

With Kind Regards
Mike

Reply   |   Comment by Michael Wood  –  16 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#103

Reply to BoRegard in post #97:

Hello BoRegard,
Please forgive the lateness of my replies, but it is due to the system as well as the late hour for the moderators. I am also replying in the GAOTD forums in the Returnil topic under General Software.

If I have missed anything here in the comments, I will be more than happy to continue the discussion even after the download time has expired for the main give away. We want your feedback, comments, suggestions, and questions, as they will help improve the software.

With Kind Regards
Mike

Reply   |   Comment by Michael Wood  –  16 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#102

Reply to JKR in post #96:

Hello JKR,
“Q1: I have three (!!!) system partitions. Which one will be protected by RVS?”

ANS: If you are using a multi-boot system (have more than one OS), then you will need to install RVS within each Operating System. In this configuration I would suggest that you do not create a Virtual Partition as you probably also have at least one general data partition to work with.

To answer this specifically, RVS will protect the System Partition of the currently booted OS as long as RVS is installed as described on each OS.

“Q2: If I install RVS on another partition (not the system partition), which one will be protected?”

ANS: Same as the answer for Q1.

“Q3: How many changes can I make until the virtual RAM-disk is full and what happens then?”

ANS: Physical limitations of your system are a more critical factor than the number of changes. As posted previously, a good rule of thumb to use is “if Windows can, so can RVS”. This means that if you are stressing your system at the extreme end of performance, you are more likely to see issues from this than you are to see any consequences of using RVS.

“I am spontaneously missing these features:”
“- protect more than one partition”

RE: We considered this seriously during the redesign phase leading up to the first Beta release of 1.62.xxxx. The conclusion every time this was revisited internally is that it would represent an inefficient use of resources. The purpose of alternate partitions is for the storage of data away from the System Partition. This leads to an unacceptable amount of restriction for most users and would add unnecessary complexity to RVS.

“- make other partitions read only”

RE: This seems to be similar to the first idea, but in a limited way. We are working on a separate solution that would address this as well as a means to address your first feature suggestion in a different way. We will be saying more about this soon…

“- extend the virtual RAM-disk to another (e.g. external) disk”

RE: Could you expand on this idea a bit more as it is unclear as to what you are requesting specifically. Thanks…

“- undo changes without reboot”

RE: This is and will continue to be a priority for the development team. The biggest hurdle has been the fact that it is not a trivial thing to solve and is directly related to limitations in Windows. We are committed to finding a solution for this, but it will take time.


Mike

Reply   |   Comment by Michael Wood  –  16 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#101

Clarifying my comment #88 about Michael Wood's comment #70 (and others) being disingenuous, I stand by what I said. Critical and non-critical software on my system uses the Registry to store information, and in many cases I have no control over when this occurs. I cannot allow these changes to be lost when I reboot. Further, many applications write to the system partition, and do not allow this data to be moved. I have such applications, and again, I cannot allow changes which I can't schedule, to be lost when I reboot. Therefor, Returnil Virtual System is generally not safe for me to use, and it's not safe for many others to use. The idea that the system partition can be kept static is ludicrous. I have no problems with people who understand the risks and uses of this product downloading and using it, but it would definitely damage my system under many circumstances, and its inability to test new software across a reboot renders it useless to me.

Reply   |   Comment by Fubar  –  16 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#100

Reply to john in post #91:

Hello john,
This message is most often displayed when using a RAID array. If you are using RAID, you will not be able to use RVS until it is fully compatible with RAID setups.

If this is not the issue, please use our site product support contact form and we will investigate your report more thoroughly than we can here in the comments.

Mike

Reply   |   Comment by Michael Wood  –  16 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#99

Reply to ~ Swan in post #90:

Hello ~ Swan,
One of the most important things we want to accomplish with this promotion is to prove how easy the software is to use. We did not however expect to overcome years of misleading information about how difficult virtualization is to understand in a single day.

The encouraging thing here is that you are discussing the subject by discussing the software. This in itself is a positive as far as we are concerned as you trying the software. We want to promote education of the public as re virtualization as much as we want users to try our solutions.

Even if you do not try or use RVS, you will have helped to bring greater awareness that there are other ideas out there that not only have merit, but also will help to expand/improve industry thinking.

Mike

Reply   |   Comment by Michael Wood  –  16 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#98

This is a very good software. Congrats to its developers. Session lock is very useful if we are browsing high risk sites.
The problem i had with this is, all files saved to my system drive are lost after reboot! To avoid this i tried switching off session lock before downloading, but it says i have to restart my pc to do that.
Restarting pc every time to download a file is very annoying.

Reply   |   Comment by bgm  –  16 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
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