Many years ago I heard about Juzt-Reboot from a sales person. It is a hardware based recovery card which you fix inside your computer via PCI slot and it will provide instant recovery to your system or data. All you need to do is reboot, and every changes that you perform in the computer will be discarded. This is really good if you want to maintain your computer in a perfect and fast stage just like after performing a clean Windows installation.
Last year while I was browsing in a security forum, I got to know about PowerShadow which is a software based hard drive virtualization software. It works the same as Juzt-Reboot but it does not require a hardware PCI card. When I got to know that hard drive virtualization is possible through software alone, I searched and found a few more similar software but most of them are shareware.
Here’s one that is FREE and it works really well.
Returnil Virtual System is a powerful virtualization technology that completely mirrors your actual computer setup and it can create a virtual storage disk within your PC where you can save documents, data, and files while using the System Protection feature.
The latest version of Returnil Virtual System 2008 was released about a month ago. There’s not really much of a difference if you compare the old Personal Edition version 1.7 with the new 2.0. New features were added to 2.0 but it is only available for Premium Edition which cost $24.95. However, I’d still advise to use the latest 2.0 version because it surely contains many improvements (codings and etc) which we don’t see it. Here are the advantages and disadvantages between the Personal and Premium edition.
USD 24,95 | FREE* | |
| System Protection Mode | ||
| Session Lock | ||
| Virtual Partition | ||
| Program Languages | ||
| Program Hot Key | ||
| Password Protection | ||
| Program Skin | ||
| Desktop Toolbar | ||
| Protection Scheduler | ||
| Session Saving | ||
| File Manager | ||
| Cache Method Choice | ||
| System Folder Relocation | ||
| Shell Extension Menu | ||
| Explorer Browsing | ||
| Drag & Drop Files and Folders | ||
| Free Customer Support |
In short, it doesn’t matter if your computer is being attacked by virus, being hacked by hackers, or even you accidentally deleted the whole Windows folder, you can just restart your computer to restore everything to original state as if nothing ever happened. The good thing about Returnil Virtual System is it has the ability to create a virtual drive so you can save your changed or modified files there. If you’re using the Premium Edition, you can have the flexibility of saving your work or the entire folder.
No matter if you’re a basic or advanced computer user, this software can be used by anyone. If you only use the computer to listen to MP3s, surf the internet and send emails, Returnil Virtual System is suitable for you. Even if you’re a hardcore advance computer user that is adventurous in testing how virus works and etc, you can use it too! Please take note that disk virtualization software is not perfect. There are virus and trojan such as passdiskprotect_C, robodog and autoinf that can attack these software. Make sure you are always using the latest version.
[ Download Returnil Virtual System Personal Edition ]
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Thanks Raymond! This issue helped me a lot. I have downloaded Acronis True Image Echo Server & Acronis True Image Home. The features it claimed to be very good but i don’t know how effective it’ll be. Plz make a comment.
sir, i can\’t see the dl page of VOOM Instant Recall, any help pls…
Sandboxie (sandboxie.com) is better and it doesn\\\\\\\’t need to reboot… try it.
I’m using Acronis True Image to do that.
Raymond,
What i know is this software is protect C drive only,other D,E,F… drive is not in this software protection.
Now i am using power shadow (old version) can protect all drive in computer.it is free.
my pc has a virus and i dont know what to do and will this delete the virus if i use this and will it also delete all the files i have in the hard drive?
Hey what abt my actual question.
Does it works similar to Hp recovery
There’s another software like this: it is Microsoft Steady State…it’s free, but it requires the WGA control :-)
@Nathan: I didn’t try it but I read that you can reboot (using free Returnil) when you are in the “SAFE” mode.
hi raymond, the windows steadystate by microsoft is free and does about the same thing as returnil :) all it requires is that u have genuine windows…
so will this make the Pc faster?? If so then its a great peice of software.
oh ray , I have removed the thing u said to remove. but I putted a backlink to that taskmanager post and when u commented I checked whether the backlink I put was there!! it wasnt .so as instructed by U I removed it.
“Free Customer Support” is not available in Free version ha ha ha :)
Raymond I check emails from your site daily. I must say your insight on many programs and software is quite useful in many aspects. Returnil seems like it will be a good recovery program for even basic users. Which is sadly alot of my friends and family. I’m the one to always fix there messed up computers. So if I can keep them from screwing up there windows it might give me time to work on my own network. But again I thank you for you insight and knowledge daily when I see what new stuff Raymond has come across. Thankx
Erm.. i am just a normal user that wants to use an easy and reliable software and most importantly i don’t have to install a lot of software. What do you think Raymond? Thanks for reply.
Well Deacon Frost, it depends on how you use your computer.
so Raymond, is it Returnil Virtual System can be describe as the best choice for us now?
@Humayun: Glad you found and fixed the problem.
@Nathan: The paid version has “session saving”.
@MangalMan: Deepfreeze is a paid version. I am emphasizing more on the free version.
almost everyone in my part of the world uses deep freeze.Any pro n cons guys?
I found the problem raymond
the problem is with the Mozilla Firefox Update
Mozilla Firefox was trying to update the browser when i was accessing your blog and i think the problem is with the update website.
Now i restarted my browser after update and now all sites are opening perfectly without any trojan messages
sorry again…
Hey really nice software raymond
thanks
I did a full scan yesterday night only ok lets stop this right here.
Problem with my computer only
Guys who are looking at these comments please donot mistake raymonds blog this blog is perfectly allright
I request raymond to delete my comments
Raymond: that sort of defeats the purpose of protection if you have to disable protection.
But you are saying that, the paid version you can do a “virtual” restart? So programs that require a restart after installation can be restarted still in the virtual mode?
I am really sorry raymond the problem is with my computer
sorry again
Nathan: For free users, you’ll have to disable the protection, install the program, restart, and then re-enable the protection.
I checked my website source code and there are no ads.js file. Since you have Kaspersky AV7, have you run a full scan?
how do you test programs that require a restart in returnil?
Sorry Raymond i think this is not a problem with your blog
i am getting this message every time i open a new url in my browser
what should i do now?
hai raymond
i am getting a trojan threat from your site i am using Kaspersky AV 7.0 and i am getting this message
detected: Trojan program Trojan-Downloader.JS.Small.js URL: u.asdafdgfgf.com/ads.js
What is this is it really a trojan or a false positive?
kindly reply
Raymond, you did it again! I like this tutorial! This definitely helps me when Im building computers for my friends!
Acronis does this, too if you setup the recovery partition.
Misunderstood: Returnil developers are saying that their program is differente from other VS. They say it doesn’t leak. If some trojan can attack it than it’s not so much different from othet VS (Sandboxie, Altiris SVS, …)
Anyway, I am using it for months and this program is great, very easy to use, it’s perfect for testing programs, especially trial ones.
Be sure to use Memory caching it’s better and don’t use resources and space at all (I don’t know how). Also after you activate protection (session lock) you can close Returnil.
And if someone wants to support them, then you should buy Premium, otherwise Personal edition is all you ever need!!!
Actually I knew this software long ago, the Cyber Cafe near my school using this software. The shopkeeper said you can do whatever you want. Cool… It will reduce Cyber Cafe user’s password get hacked or stolen by others :)
Why does this page looks like a sales page? This software can be used for free and I am not pushing you to buy the premium version…
check out Windows SteadyState at microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/sharedaccess/default.mspx
Looks like Hard core sales page!!!!!!!
Just joking. :)
Just tell me one thing, will it be also able to fix MBR or bootrecord. So that I can just install Linux on drive and whenever I don\’t need it , I will recover my MBR.
Dose it work on same concept like HP laptop recovery system, where you can restore complete OS just by pressing some combination of keys
Sooraj: It will mirror the whole hard drive and it doesn’t seem to take up much disk space.
Mojo: No I did not test those trojan but it is known to attack hard disk virtualization software. The latest version is protected from those trojan. What other VS software are you comparing it with? As far as I know, there’s a free version which is good enough.
Did you test that trojan on Returnil or …? Is Returnil different from other VS or it\\\’s just advertisement?
Please test it and tell us.
thanx ray… but ‘ve u got any idea how much disc space it’l use ?? will it mirror the datas or keep only imp info ?
Nice Tool….
Thanks u Raymond