RollBack XP...free tool for XP users

"RollBack XP is a free system restore utility that helps users better manage and lockdown Windows XP based PC's. Any unforeseen incidents such as user errors, viruses or even botched software installations can be instantly reversed in seconds!

• Go back to any previous point in time within seconds.
• Go back minutes, hours, days, weeks, or even months -- to any previous snapshot.
• Does not affect computer performance, uses minimal system resources
• Supports upto 10 snapshots
• Creates a complete system snapshot without having to restart the system
• Reverse any system crash within seconds (even if Windows can't startup)
• Back out of any failed program and OS updates and, botched updates etc.
• Recover from any malware or virus attack within seconds
• Works with VMWare and Virtual Machines, both as a host or within the virtual machine as a client
• Lock snapshots to prevent automated deletions
• Intuitive GUI based snapshot manager - manage snapshot resources
• Explore, browse and retrieve files and folders from any snapshot. Drag and drop them into your active system.
• Roll backward as well as forward to any available system snapshot
• Allows users to safely test any software. Fast, 100% complete uninstaller
• Retrieve files from a crashed PC, even if Windows cannot boot
• Access control - manage levels of multiple user and administrative privileges.
• Manually take snapshot on demand
• Automatically schedule snapshots to be taken on a fixed schedule or upon execution of specific files (ie. setup.exe)"
  http://www.horizondatasys.com/en/products_and_solutions.aspx?ProductId=40

 

Think long and do your homework before installing this. You have been warned.

 

Combination of ISR and group policies management? Interesting. Sounds a bit like a workstation version of Puppet, only simpler, less flexible, and with pretensions of being awesome security software.

 

You're right. I saw the words "group policy" at the beginning of the page and somehow got to thinking it used GPOs. Whoops.

Not sure how it's "nothing like ISR"? It looks like the same mechanism (i.e. copy-on-write for whole filesystems), with the addendum that you can store up to 10 snapshots instead of just the last state.

 

I think we were not understanding each other's acronyms. By ISR I mean "instant system rollback", in general; not the software from FirstDefense (which I have never used, and know nothing about).

 

RollBack XP Removes the Need for Costly Industry-Wide OS Upgrades

RollBack XP fixes this issue by providing a 5-snapshot, 1-baseline solution for instant recovery.
It functions just like RollBack RX, but the freeware version can only take up to 5 snapshots.

http://www.horizondatasys.com/en/Windows_XP_lockdown.ihtml


The only difference is it can only be installed on Windows XP and is limited to 10 snapshots.

http://www.horizondatasys.com/en/RollBack_XP.ihtml


So what is it... 5 or 10 snapshots? Conflicting info.

Also on the bottom of screen it says: This site is SSL SECURED.

 

I don't see SSL mentioned anywhere on either page...

IMO their marketing is pretty irresponsible though. XP was designed at a time when client-side security was much less of an issue. It is no longer safe for use in industry, especially in areas where data theft might be an issue. (And moreover, rollback software won't help at all with most methods of data theft.)

 

Look at very bottom right corner of page. You should see a Shielded padlock which reads This site is SSL SECURED.

http://www.horizondatasys.com/en/RollBack_XP.ihtml

 

So I see. As a matter of fact not a single part of their site appears to be HTTPS, not even the checkout cart. Color me disgusted.

 

After reading all the bad stories, I´m too scared too use these kinda tools.

But I must say that Rollback Rx performed quite well in my virtual machines (VMware Workstation).

 

It works 100% of the time right up to the point my computer refused to boot due to MBR corruption.
Every time I reverted or installed an update, I held my breath hoping the computer would boot. Most of the time it did.

 

Just gave Rollback XP a test run on my old and slow XP machine. I had been using Rollback RX v. 9.1 on this computer for a long time without any major issues.

Overall I have to say that I like this free offer very much. Restricting the max number of snapshots to 10 is probably a good compromise for the average user. You just have to keep in mind that Rollback is NOT a backup software, it is absolutely essential to employ a real image based backup solution in addition to Rollback.

Compared to v. 9.1 the Rollback XP installation behaved as expected. And I have to applaud HDS for improving the uninstall process considerably. The user interface is much cleaner than the 9.1 GUI, stripping off options like defining exceptions for the restore process actually improves usability for average users.

I did find one fatal error, though. Going to the advanced system options in the recovery console and specifying "mouse=1" always worked well in v. 9.1. But in this version you can enter this option, only at the next reboot you will find that your computer won't boot any more. The latest Rollback RX v. 10.2 shows the same behavior. Maybe it is just my old Logitech mouse...

There is one new option "Flush System Cache before taking a Snapshot". I could not find any information about this option at HDS. The option is active by default, so the authors probably think that it should be used. It does slow down taking snaps quite a bit, though. How important is this option?


Anyways, I believe that Rollback XP is a very stable product. There is no need to deal with Win8 features like UEFI, Secure Boot and GPT partitions. And some of my German friends will certainly appreciate the new language support.



Cheers
manolito