Testing Software

Can anyone recommend the best program to use when trialling risky software? Im thinking of using sandboxIE but was wondering if there are any better sandboxing/virtualisation etc etc tools that i could use.

 

Returnil has a free personal version that will virtualize you system partition. It's good for trying software that doesn't need a reboot to install. When your done trying your risky software, just reboot and it's gone. It would also be a good idea to have an image of your system in case anything bad would happen. Returnil and Sandboxie also play well together. It has also been tested by a few people here at Wilders.

If your wanting to try risky or new software that requires a reboot (firewall, AV) you will need a Virtual Machine or Microsoft SteadyState or a snapshot program like FD-ISR/Rollback RX and or an imaging program.

I hope this helps, innerpeace

 

Some installs require a reboot to finish the installation so a Virtual Machine is the ideal testing environment.

If the software that is installed and turns out to be crappy you can shutdown the vm and delete all changes.

 

VMWare+Deepfreeze+FD-ISR+ATI

 

It seems to me some overkill,a good imaging app. or something like FDISR is all you need.

 

Not overkill by a long shot. They all complement each other.

 

Sorry but it looks a bit paranoid to have these app.at the same time in place.With a good,fast and reliable imaging app. like SP you cover almost anything,but i will admit that the others will do for a more smooth operation globally.

 

Hello,
VMware Server on Linux host.
Cheers,
Mrk

 

I use FDISR because it is the most reliable software i know of, it does its job rock solid, but I would love to use Rollback Rx because of its lightning fast creation of (up to 60k) snapshots. I loved every second of it when I bought the 7.21 version last year, until it without any apparent reason got corrupted after a couple of months. I am sure they have fixed it with 8.x version. But unfortunately Rollback doesnt like my system (or vice versa) so I cant get it to work on my machine.
If you can install it I recommend you to try it for the thirty(?) days and see if it is something for you. But as always; have a good backup image of your c drive just in case.

 

Im now considering the following: FD-ISR, Shadow Defender, DeepFreeze, VMWare, Rollback RX. Any recommendations?

PS Im using ATI 11 currentley as my backup software

 

Hi, folks: I sincerely do like to hear from you more on this combination. Because my past and present experiences have dictated me to ask this question, if you do not mind. My past experiences are: When I had FD-ISR and ATI, I was very happy doing inst/uninst programs in separate snapshots without any hassles UNTIL one day that nasty killdisk trojan kissed the box, neither copying snapshot by FD-ISR nor imaging secure partition by ATI could save the HDD, re-installation from scratch was the only solution. That was a heart-broken bye-bye. After that incident, I enlist DeepFreeze, and am back to my happy days again, with exception of apps requiring reboot. I thought about combining FD-ISR with DF, but to this day with no avail. Last a while ago, I installed VMWare workstation after receiving many affirmative comments here. But have not conduct a full scale of test yet, the huddle is RAM capacity--having 1 gig only. As soon as I find a right O/S matching my RAM handicap, I will give a full run.
Your experiences will definitely solve my puzzle once for all. Thanks.

 

Anyone got any recommendations for me?

 

Hi TVH, What kind of software are you wanting to test? That should get you a more specific answer from the people that use these apps every day. Each of the mentioned programs has its pros and cons.

 

It all depends on how you want to test software, how frequently you test & whether you are going to be regularly beta-testing or the software could be unstable...
FD-ISR or Rollback Rx is fine a for test environment - particularly if software needs reboot but may not protect you from all 'nasties'.
For that level of protection you will need the above plus a good imaging/ reliable imaging program - e.g. Shadow Protect or a Virtual Machine-VMWare or Virtual Box.
Shadowing will only cut it usually for software that does not require a reboot- examples of these programs inclue: Returnil, Shadow Defender or Power Shadow Master.
There are many posts on Wilders explaining how to use these softwares singly or in combo.
The main problem is that it often gets more fun to test the almost limitless possibilies of these softwares than it does to test other programs
Good luck
Lee

 

I've been using ShadowUser Pro (from Storagecraft) for years, and it allows reboots in shadowmode (unlike Returnil, ShadowDefender, PowerShadow, DeepFreeze).

There's only one drawback: Some people find it expensive - 69 $ - It has however a full month trial.

 

Well that was the missing bit of info, how to fix the partition, and one can do it with Windows CD. Is killdisk real malware or a dangerous test?

Thanks for the information anyway.

 

Would you happen to know if Anti-Executable stops it too? (sorry it's off topic!)

thanks

 

Osaban, i'm in agreement with you- I myself sometimes use shadowserver (shadowuser's server counterpart) The option to continue along in shadowmode as long as you want, then exit shadowmode with either commiting changes to disk or discarding them, is great. I posted about shadowserver once but didn't really get a response, and upon searching the forums was amazed to find not a mention of it-go figure...

 

This is a dangerous test :
Start > Run > CMD + Enter and then "DEL C: /F /S /Q" + Enter as DOS-command.
This deletes so many files on your harddisk, that you have to wait until it's done.
Take a backup of your system first.

FDISR failed to recover from this test. ShadowUser might survive it, if it is really virtual mode.

 

How can fdisr be considered to fail this test, if its full functionality wasn't exercised? A couple minutes of restoring archives from a second disk would render all that deletion meaningless.

 

The "EicarAlbert" test virus.

Yep, pretty deadly!

 

Wow that was a cool test. I wasnt really expecting it to destroy much, being in a limited account as I am, but it deleted my roboform data and some IE related files. I thought my roboform data would be safe, but they weren't
good to know, I will move them to a safer place.
So you mean that command deletes the $isr folders too? (in a admin account that is)

 

I didn't really investigate it after running the DEL-command, but I can do it again.
My impression was that $ISR-folders weren't deleted, but other important $ISR-exe-files were certainly deleted, because the FDISR-icon didn't work anymore.

I'm only satisfied, when after running this DEL-command, I get my computer back after reboot as nothing happened and without doing anything else.
An ISR-software that is able to do this has my respect.