Wondershare TimeFreeze Free

[Anupam]

Wondershare Time Freeze Free is a really good virtualization software. Its just the kind I was looking for testing out new software.

I used this software a few days ago, and found that its very easy to use.

Just yesterday, my cousin said she had an infected pen drive, and wanted me to clean it, and save the data inside it, which was important to her. I was thinking how would I achieve this, without infecting my computer. But, then I remembered that I had got TimeFreeze. So, I made use of TimeFreeze, and removed the infection, without any fear of getting the computer infected. Wonderful.

But, I have some questions in mind about the software. I think TimeFreeze protects only the system partition? If that is the case, suppose I open the pen drive, and it has a malware which could infect other partitions. So, can the other drives/partitions get infected?

Also, while using TimeFreeze yesterday, I observed something. The recycle bin was having some files before I started TimeFreeze. Now, when I started TimeFreeze and emptied the Recycle Bin... the Recycle Bin should again contain the same files that it had, before I had started TimeFreeze. But, on system reboot, I found that Recycle Bin was empty. So, this means, my system was not restored to its original state. Can anyone explain this?

Also, it would have been good, if it could retain the state of TimeFreeze on reboot too. I mean, if I chose the option for my system to be protected even on reboot, the changes from the earlier TimeFreeze session should remain on reboot too... until I turn the option off. That would help me test software which require reboot on installation, like firewalls.

[eyeb]

it doesn't protect data partitions and I use time freeze because of this. I want to save my work after reboot lol. This said, you can protect it by adding partition to its files/folder protect option and disallowing change/access

i've not seen that recycle bin issue yet. I can empty mine and files come back after reboot i think. not done this often though

i think comodo time machine might be closest you'll get to keeping something past reboot. it isn't a real isolation tool in my eyes though. Returnil also looses change after reboot like time freeze does. You could always do image the system partition then restore it after words... but this is beyond just testing software :S

[Anupam]

Originally Posted by eyeb

it doesn't protect data partitions and I use time freeze because of this. I want to save my work after reboot lol.

You can save your work with TimeFreeze by turning the system protection off. It will save the data to the disk. I think you will be knowing about this? Or, is it something else you wanted to say.

Originally Posted by eyeb

This said, you can protect it by adding partition to its files/folder protect option and disallowing change/access

That is a good solution. Thanks. Why didn't I think of it. When removing malware etc, I should remember protecting all other partitions, just to be sure.

Originally Posted by eyeb

i think comodo time machine might be closest you'll get to keeping something past reboot. it isn't a real isolation tool in my eyes though. Returnil also looses change after reboot like time freeze does. You could always do image the system partition then restore it after words... but this is beyond just testing software :S

Comodo Time Machine works like a system restore, means, going to an earlier saved point. I do not want that.

From the discussion of Returnil that I saw, I don't think I would go for it. TimeFreeze is good. I just wanted to be able to test software beyond reboot too, but I don't think TimeFeeze allows that yet.

[mrpink]

Hey Anupam

about that issue with the recycle bin that you have, i hope this will help. It's a question
about another piece of software, but i think it applies to TimeFreeze too.

Now, if you want to test out software that require reboot on installation,
i think the only option is Microsoft's Windows SteadyState. It works only with XP and Vista 32bit if i'm right.
I understand that you use XP, so you can try it out.
Here is a video on how it works.
You will see that SteadyState give you an option to "retain changes temporarily", meaning you can save them after reboot if you like and then
delete them.
Note that it requires genuine copy of Windows

[Anupam]

Thanks mrpink. I too had thought about that, that maybe the recycle bin had contents of some other drive. I had wanted to write about this in my earlier post, but did not. I will again check about this and get back.

Thanks for suggesting about SteadyState. I will have a look. Have to see whats its about as I never heard of it before.

[eyeb]

You can save your work with TimeFreeze by turning the system protection off. It will save the data to the disk. I think you will be knowing about this? Or, is it something else you wanted to say.

yeah... but i was trying to avoid turning it off so other things arent saved to it it's why I use a data partition lol
Like aside from school/office work... I'm a big anime fan so i download/seed torrents often. I have it running out of data partition so I can keep them downloading and have system partition still protected

I'm also going to try steadystate, i knew about it but never tempted to try it

[wolfstr]

Have a question. If you use Time Freeze then could you then do away with Sandboxie ? P.S. I have it (Time Freeze) installed and it seems to work well.

[eyeb]

I'd still use sandboxie... only for the reason that until you restart a virus could be running in background sending who knows what lol

I have sandboxie set to auto delete when browser is closed so nothing is saved. I open/close browser a lot more than i restart computer :S

edit: Ok I tried steadystate and i didn't like it. It slowed computer down a lot and I couldn't find a way to turn off the drive protection and revert back to original unless I just let the timer run down. I also noticed if I turned it off by removing the disk cache, all changes are saved which made using it pointless :S For the trouble it caused, I'm just going to use drive images... I can save an image and be back up and running faster than using steady state lol

[wolfstr]

Originally Posted by eyeb

I'd still use sandboxie... only for the reason that until you restart a virus could be running in background sending who knows what lol

I have sandboxie set to auto delete when browser is closed so nothing is saved. I open/close browser a lot more than i restart computer :S

edit: Ok I tried steadystate and i didn't like it. It slowed computer down a lot and I couldn't find a way to turn off the drive protection and revert back to original unless I just let the timer run down. I also noticed if I turned it off by removing the disk cache, all changes are saved which made using it pointless :S For the trouble it caused, I'm just going to use drive images... I can save an image and be back up and running faster than using steady state lol

Yes I still have sandboxie as well and just have started to play around with "Time Freeze" ...if it gives me problems it will be out the door with the rest of the trash ....lol........In regards to sandboxie and time freeze I was just fishing around for other opinions regarding the two together...

[bo.elam]

Originally Posted by wolfstr

Have a question. If you use Time Freeze then could you then do away with Sandboxie ? P.S. I have it (Time Freeze) installed and it seems to work well.

I think TimeFreeze works great and is great but it should not be used
to replace Sandboxie.When using Sandboxie drivers are not allowed to
be installed on your system, on TF everything installs which makes it
great for trying programs that don't need to reboot but allowing drivers
to be installed brings the danger of rootkits. Hopefully they are gone
when we reboot when using TF, with Sandboxie that danger does not
exist. Hardening the Sandbox can not be done with TF like you can when
using Sandboxie. So for me, for safety I want Sandboxie and if I want to
try programs I am using TF.
One final opinion, convenience, that is something that can not be match
by Timefreeze. Deleting the Sandbox instead of having to reboot is a big
plus for Sandboxie. Also, savings files to you real disk is very easy on
Sandboxie, not the case on TF or most programs like it.

Bo