icore virtualization......wow!

Awesome looking program, it seems to me to be similar to the original and much lamented FD-ISR (classic). Am I correct about this? Also, is the program freeware? I cannot find a price for it on the publishers website.

One question I have is can you image or otherwise backup the virtual accounts?

 

Hi bgoodman4!

There is big difference between FD-ISR and iCore.
As i know FD-ISR is a recovery system.
iCore is an isolated virtual machine that is associated with own user account.
For example, with iCore different users can have a different set of applications(process, files...). Users are independent of each other.
If your Virtual Account is infected with a virus or any malicious program, any such programs will stay inside of this virtual machine without spreading to the rest of your PC.

Unlike many other virtual machines, iCore Virtual Account works on the OS kernel level. This results in:
No additional OS licenses requirement
Almost zero performance overhead
System hardware is fully utilized (like modern video card, game adapter and alike)

Yes, it is freeware. But in the future commercial version of software will be available.

Now i didn't implement a special system of snapshots, but we will do it.

Thanks.

 

Hello icore,

first congratulations for your product. I had tested it in September (I also send a feedback about the limited size of the virtual space), but at the time it was a very buggy. It caused problems if an antivirus or hips was installed on the real machine:
Some examples:
- norton 2009 continued to ask for reactivation in the virtual enviroment.
- it seemed that the virus scanner inside the virtual was unaware of the scanner in the real machine and if I didn't logoff from the real account before entering to the virtual caused an excess access on the disks.

Could you list what is changed from the August version?

thanks,
Panagiotis

ps. icore was also mentioned in the following threads; in case you want to take a look:
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/search.php?searchid=2767329

 

I understand that this is the difference between the current version of FD but as I understand it the original allowed for multiple setups on one machine. See the video at http://www.digitalthemepark.com/downloads/FirstDefense-ISR_RecoveryDemostration.wmv sounds like the same idea to me. Many have lamented the discontinuation of development and support for the classic FD and I was hoping icore was a program that would act as a replacement.

 

A few differences with FDISR classic (yes just the added word classic refer to the good ol days before it perished)as compared with other utilities.

a) to boot to a second or thirth......up to 7 totally install of the OS or OS's on the same system partition without having to partitioned the drive,each install(snapshot) can be a different Windows,any flavor of Windows.
Problem can be that 95 or 98 Windows have no support for the current hardware,i have no experience with it.But it work flawlessly on XP and Vista and recently some guy has got it to work on Windows 7 !!

b)to keep archives on external media of any snapshot on disk,their function is to refresh/update the related snapshot on disk if anything goes wrong.

I guess that the snapshot driver( RSS.sys) that leapfrog included in the package was also kinda unique in that i use it up until now without problem.
As a choice its also possible to use the Volume Shadow Copy Driver native in Windows.

 

Yes, I understand this but is this not, more or less, what icore does? Seems to me it is except for possibly the ability to backup the different accounts to external media.

The reason I ask is because so much has been made of the classic FD-ISR that if icore is similar it would give those of us who do not have FD-ISR classic a chance to use something like it (note I said like it as in "sort of like it", I don't expect it could possibly be "exactly like it"). If the two programs are very different in some way that I do not understand then its game over,,,,at least for now.

 

I don't much about ICore but copy/update from archive on external drives to snapshots on system partition is kinda like bread and butter for FDISR,this is the kind of feature where FDISR really shine,and sets it apart from the ''Crowd'' !! This is terribly missing in the ''polished'' version from Horizon Data.

BTW has to dig a bit into icore for seeing essential differences between them,and sofar their idea look promising.

 

hi.
Thanks for the video.

Let me try to explain the difference between iCore and FD-ISR.

With FD-OSR you can make a snapshots of the system and return to one of the states. At any time you can work with only one state of the system.

With icore you can simultaneously run several such states and use fast switching between them. Virtual machines can work simultaneously, without affecting each others’ state or the state of the core operating system.

PS
It is available video about iCore Virtual Accounts(formerly iCore Computer 3-in-1) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XU08RLpcLFM
I don't like this video, because it is video for geeks. New video will be available in the nearest time =)

Thanks.

 

Hello pandlouk.

Currently available version contains a lot of improvements compared to the version of August.
The main is new windows registry virtualization.
More details: http://icoresoftware.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=8

But New version will be available soon. (new virtual file system, virtual SCSI driver, new virtual memory,... bugfixeds, unlimited virtual disk)...

As you wrote feedback, so we must have you e-mail. But if you want you can subscribe to our newsletters: http://icoresoftware.com/phplist/?p=subscribe

Thanks.

 

Its kinda like compare apples with oranges,FDISR has nothing to do with virtual,if your host crash (real system)then you'r out of luck with icore,with FDISR next thing to do is boot to another snapshot,the moment you'r into it,its then your real system and (i know it sounds weird) can repair the previous real system with copy/update from archive or from the current real system depending on your configuration.
To recover from harddrive failure FDISR is indispensable in combo with an imaging program to get you back on track in no time.
I know icore offer not such facilities but then is has another objective in security and protection.

 

I understand, thanks.

 

Thanks for this.

 

Ok, thanks.

When the new version is out I'll give it a test drive.

Panagiotis

 

Ya
This looks interesting to me too.

@icore;
Can you offer any comments re securitisation of the layers ?
Anyway out of/or through the "v/acct" ?
Tested?

Somehow crash the 'V/Acct' ( and I;ll do it somehow ) how to get back to native OS?

 

Hi Longboard.
Thank you for your interest

Every of virtual accounts is associated with own virtual machine.
All virtual machines share the same windows kernel, but each virtual machine has own register, process, files, kernel objects, services...

After iCore installation, native OS continues to operate in parallel mode.
http://icoresoftware.com/i/srcbig.png
If VA crashes or is infected by a virus, it doesn’t affect other VA's or native(host) OS.
You can use fast switching between virtual and real desktops.

Thanks.

PS Tool to make snapshots is not made, but we have plan to do it.

 

Thanks!

 

Please make it fast (as fast as lite virtualisation softwares) , because i dont see any point in use them if swirching is slower than image restore itself(i.e appox 2 minutes).

 

thanks for feedback!
The new version (now in testing) is faster.

 

I hope you will let us know when the new version is available with a post here.

Thanks

 

Can someone let me know what the difference is between icore and Microsoft's virtual PC? I don't know anything about the MS product and just slightly more about icore but someone who I mentioned icore to said that he did not think it was much different from Microsoft's virtual PC.

Thanks

 

please dont confuse yourself.

icore is like a improved lite virtualisation software(eg returnil ) that runs on multiple accounts with easy switching .Its scope now is very limited because its too slow.

Micrsoft virtual pc is used for running two os together one inside other.Here ur RAM Memory needs to hold both the things u are trying toghther and hard-disk space allocated beforehand.

Fd-isr requires one os to be hidden inside another on the os parttion , so that u can simple swith to the other and copy/update the first incase of errors.

 

Yes, i will post a message here.

 

The more I read about iCore the more intriguing it looks. If you need help beta test 64bit in the future - I would love to. I have experience in beta testing and know what it takes.

 

I had let a bunch of folks know about icore on another forum and one of these tried it and ran into problems. I had hoped the icore rep would comment on it as he/she had posted to the thread in question previously. I am providing a link to the post in question since we are not aloud to post other peoples words without permission (or does this only apply to chat conversations). Perhaps one of you can comment or perhaps the icore rep will see this post and respond.

http://forum.artcam.com/viewtopic.php?p=36326#36326

 

after logging in into one of the virtualisation account...
will the data lost after the reboot?