virtualization solution for Vista-64?

[DanHonemann]

I'm setting up a friend's new Toshiba laptop for her, and it's running Vista Home Premium 64. I've learned (the hard way of course... we've all been here) that the best security solution for many friends & family is virtualization/sandbox web-surfing. Unfortunately, due to Vista-64's infamous PatchGuard, none of the common virtualizers (Sandboxie, Returnil, ShadowDefender) can be installed on it.

The only solution I'm currently aware of is Windows SteadyState. I thought I'd ask here first if anyone has tried that or if there are other solutions that I'm not aware of.

I'm not able to make an image of the disk with my Acronis True Image v9 cd (doesn't boot on this laptop, alas) so am wary of installing SteadyState without some feedback first. Are there any free imagers I can use to back this thing up in the meantime (Macrium Reflect work on Vista-64?).

Thanks in advance,
Dan

[farmerlee]

For a free backup solution try Paragon Backup Express, its free and natively supports 64bit.

http://www.paragon-software.com/home/db-express/download.html

For virtualization you could try the free comodo diskshield, it supports 64bit however its still in beta at the moment and some users have reported problems so definitely do backup beforehand if you plan to try it.

http://forums.comodo.com/comodo_diskshield-b114.0/

Another option is Disk Write Copy, its not free but it supports 64 bit.

http://www.diskwritecopy.com/eng/

A third option is ayrecovery which is currently offering a free 1 year license. Its like returnil but offers more advanced features.

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=62&threadid=2226962

[Osaban]

-{ Quote: "
The only solution I'm currently aware of is Windows SteadyState. I thought I'd ask here first if anyone has tried that or if there are other solutions that I'm not aware of.
" }-

I've tried Windows SteadyState, but not on a Vista64. The reason I'm posting is that it isn't a 'set it and forget it application'. It works as advertised but one needs to know what's going on, and reboots from one state to another could take ages (4-6 minutes). If your friend isn't interested in understanding the process, it would be better to look somewhere else (that was 6 months ago, I don't know whether the program has improved ever since).

May be you should also find out about DeepFreeze (It says Vista without specifying which version).