Is MS SteadyState an ISR or virtualization application?

[ratchet]

I'd installed SS v2 in early November, however, there was a major issue with boot times. Back then I queried the problem on their forum and received a reply that it was fixed in v2.5 which is to be released early 2008. I was on their forum last night and noticed there was no mention of that problem so perhaps they patched v2. Anyway, back to my question, is SS just virtualization? Thank You!

[Cerxes]

No, it also lets you restrict each account's user access (except admin) in what it can and cannot do.

/C.

[BlueZannetti]

Originally Posted by Cerxes

No, it also lets you restrict each account's user access (except admin) in what it can and cannot do.

It also has some roll back facility, see the Technical FAQ and Handbook. According to the FAQ, you can retain software installs using Windows Disk Protection across restarts. It sounds akin to a superset of Windows Restore with disk protection and policy administration packaged in a single GUI although the operating paradigm is rather different (things like manually restore the past vs manually retain the changes) and more akin to virtualization.

Blue

[Chuck57]

I tried it quite a while ago. I don't recall the thread, but boot time was an eternity on this computer.

That's not a huge problem, since I normally turn on my computer and go off and grab a cup of coffee or something. I can always sit at the kitchen table and drink the cup rather than bringing it back to our office. That's how long it took.

My main concern though, assuming the boot delay has been resolved is, just how secure is SteadyState as compared to Returnil, Sandboxie, BZ, and some of the others?

[ronjor]

Forum. http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showp...9&postcount=60

[Cerxes]

Well you can forget your cup of coffee now because version 2.5 beta has solved the boot problem .

SS disk protection tool is a system level virtualization like Returnil, while Sandboxie and Bufferzone works on an application level. I don´t know which one between SS versus Returnil and SB versus BZ that are safest. I´m using Sandboxie and SS (no disk protection) myself and I´m content with those.

/C.

[rendez2k]

So the big question - does this work with FD-ISR or will it trash my system?!