Deep Freeze VS Returnil

I believe both programs are almost identical, can the users who have tried them tell me if i am wrong or write, and wich is better or you, thanks

 

Hi Searaider, you may get more meaningful response if you specify better for what, or in what regard. To the best of my knowledge both are solid capable applications, deepfreeze by reputation (I haven't used it) and rvs by both reputation and personal experience. If you list what performance you require from the software then likely people may be able to tell you which one most closely fits your needs. As MikeNas has added, shadow defender is another seems to have a good reputation.

 

Both are very good. Just consider that Returnil has a free version.

 

I would say Returnil is better. AFAIK, you can't save sessions in Deep Freeze while you can in Returnil (premium version, but it's cheaper than DF). There is also a free version of Returnil.

 

Agree.

 

Returnil is a lot more convenient to use for the average user plus it has a free version. You can turn it on when you want and save your session if you want. Deepfreeze on the other hand requires rebooting the pc whenever changing between enabled and disabled plus there is no option to save the session when enabled.
Personally i use deepfreeze because at the time i bought it returnil was still in its early days and wasn't a mature product.

 

And issues between returnil and windows vista, any?

 

None that I know of. It's pretty stable.

 

I believe that Deep Freeze does not protect the MBR or the partition table outside of Windows, but I believe that Returnil does. Not positive about this but someone around here should know this for sure.

Acadia

 

I believe you can save session with deepfreeze with the mapping tool but never used it or understand it.Deepfreeze installs in a frozen state from the go and to opt out I think it was the shift ctrl F6 or option of ctrl and double click tray icon to bring up the window to select when the user wants to unfreeze followed by reboot.multiple steps before reboot.Also note deep freeze installs very different it does not show the program in all prog or add and remove.to unistall the program if I remember correct same as above.Retunil installs like just about any other program with uninstaller in All programs and the add and remove.Retunil allows session lock/on the fly protection off on next reboot.Retunil allows full time protection until user turns off followed by reboot.That said unless deep freeze protects the MBR retunil seems a safer choice and simplicity.Also the choices of free or paid is sweet.

 

Hello searaider,
There are two issues at the moment we are working to address:

1) In the 2.0 version release, RVS and Vista hibernation are not compatible. The work around at the moment is to disable hibernation and use sleep instead. We have added a correction in the 2.01 Beta to address this...

2) 2.01 and below are not x64 compatible. We are working to obtain Microsoft certification as quickly as possible.

Mike

 

Second reason I use Returnil. Just see the post before this one. Thanks Coldmoon!

First reason? It's simply a great piece of security app!

 

I've used both, and decided for DeepFreeze. The rule to test applications for the full trial period is IMO the only way to see what happens in your very specific environment.

Returnil has undoubtedly more to offer than DeepFreeze, starting a virtual session without rebooting and offering a free version for private use, are great offerings. It also seems to protect against some low levels attacks where other similar applications fail. We are talking about extremely specialized malware that is normally detected by good AVs or blocked by HIPS (I'd like to add that running Vista, I am almost certain that UAC alone wouldn't allow this malware to run, hypothetical statement!).

Why didn't I keep Returnil premium? For the very reasons Cold Moon mentioned, there seems to be a hard conflict with Vista's hibernation function, at the time nobody knew anything about it (4 months ago), and psychologically when one has a bad experience trialling an application the result is that you want to get rid of it as quickly as possible.

What I like about DeepFreeze is its simplicity, speed , and lightness. You never feel it's there, quite robust and stable. Even reboots are the fastest I've experienced compared to others. I have ShadowUser on my XP laptop which has the great extra feature of saving virtual sessions on reboots, I have never used it in 3 years.

Last but not least I should mention support: I don't know which is better between the omnipresent Coldmoon for Returnil and the excellent support from Faronics for DeepFreeze. When I wrote to Faronics support that AntiExecutable (also from Faronics) wouldn't install on my Vista laptop, they offered instantly to pay the cost for mailing them an image of my system so that they could investigate the causes. I declined at the time as I was not interested in an application that had such a negative impact on my system.