Deep Freeze (and protection for VIRUSES and malware)

Is anyone familiar with this program? What it does is kind of like taking a snapshot of your computer, and everytime you reboot, it resets to that snapshot, always. So it doesn't matter if you get 1 million viruses or spyware crap, your computer will come back in mint condition again on startup.

I used to have this program on my computer, but I deleted it and got rid of it after it being too much of a hassle. Granted it worked great, and I loved the protection it offered, but some installing and uninstalling lots of different programs and things of that natures, turning it on and off (you had to reboot everytime you turned it on or off) made me just turn it off for good.

Anyway, fast forward to now. I just got over dealing with more bullshit spyware and trojan viruses (what the fuck with these people making these gayass things, what a headache and time waste to try to fix it all), which I'm sure is almost gone, but I bet I still missed some shit, as I keep getting some random Internet Explorer page pop up, even when I'm only using Firefox. Better run some more spyware programs, more work and headache, grr.

So, I'm thinking about getting this program again, just to safeguard my computer. But, first a couple questions to those who are familiar with the program, because I don't really know much about how it works. My friend was the one who installed the program on my computer after he tweaked with it for a while using a remote desktop program. If I'm downloading files onto my computer, whether it's music or vidos, is there a way to make it bypass the Deep Freeze program, or is there an option on Deep Freeze that will let you do this, or would I have to turn it off everytime I wanted to save something onto the hard drive? An alternative I was thinking of was to burn what I saved onto a CD-RW or DVD-RW and then reboot with Deep Freeze off and transfer what was on the disc to my hard drive, kind of a round about way of doing it, but still safe.

I'm just sick and tired of all this spyware and other bullshit when I'm on the web. And this Deep Freeze thing seems like the only 100% way to be safe, but quite a bit of a hassle, especially on a non-commercial PC like mine. I tried using firewalls (Zone Alarm), but it just got way too confusing and my connection would be slow as shit, so I stopped using that, just using the shitty Windows XP one. As for anti-virus stuff, I used to use Norton, but that shit just sucks as well, so just downloaded Nod32 and giving that a whirl along with my old Spybot and Ad-Aware programs. Hopefully I won't run into anymore problems after trying to clean up this piece of shit computer.

Any other ways I can safeguard my computer so I don't have to deal with this annoying crap anymore, or at least with as few problems as possible from time to time?

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Why don't you just create a Ghost Image of a nice clean fresh install with all the stuff you need? If things go wrong you just restore that image, update anything that needs updating, create a new image and you're done.

Most amazing jew boots

Norton Ghost will help you do exactly what Grawl just described.

Basically its always good to partition your hardrive having one partition exclusively for Windows, and the others for your own files.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by Maico

Is anyone familiar with this program? What it does is kind of like taking a snapshot of your computer, and everytime you reboot, it resets to that snapshot, always. So it doesn't matter if you get 1 million viruses or spyware crap, your computer will come back in mint condition again on startup.

I used to have this program on my computer, but I deleted it and got rid of it after it being too much of a hassle. Granted it worked great, and I loved the protection it offered, but some installing and uninstalling lots of different programs and things of that natures, turning it on and off (you had to reboot everytime you turned it on or off) made me just turn it off for good.

Anyway, fast forward to now. I just got over dealing with more bullshit spyware and trojan viruses (what the fuck with these people making these gayass things, what a headache and time waste to try to fix it all), which I'm sure is almost gone, but I bet I still missed some shit, as I keep getting some random Internet Explorer page pop up, even when I'm only using Firefox. Better run some more spyware programs, more work and headache, grr.

So, I'm thinking about getting this program again, just to safeguard my computer. But, first a couple questions to those who are familiar with the program, because I don't really know much about how it works. My friend was the one who installed the program on my computer after he tweaked with it for a while using a remote desktop program. If I'm downloading files onto my computer, whether it's music or vidos, is there a way to make it bypass the Deep Freeze program, or is there an option on Deep Freeze that will let you do this, or would I have to turn it off everytime I wanted to save something onto the hard drive? An alternative I was thinking of was to burn what I saved onto a CD-RW or DVD-RW and then reboot with Deep Freeze off and transfer what was on the disc to my hard drive, kind of a round about way of doing it, but still safe.

I'm just sick and tired of all this spyware and other bullshit when I'm on the web. And this Deep Freeze thing seems like the only 100% way to be safe, but quite a bit of a hassle, especially on a non-commercial PC like mine. I tried using firewalls (Zone Alarm), but it just got way too confusing and my connection would be slow as shit, so I stopped using that, just using the shitty Windows XP one. As for anti-virus stuff, I used to use Norton, but that shit just sucks as well, so just downloaded Nod32 and giving that a whirl along with my old Spybot and Ad-Aware programs. Hopefully I won't run into anymore problems after trying to clean up this piece of shit computer.

Any other ways I can safeguard my computer so I don't have to deal with this annoying crap anymore, or at least with as few problems as possible from time to time?

I'm quite familiar with Deep Freeze, and I recommend you partition your hard drive or install another one to save files onto if you are going to run this program. ANY changes made to a partition or drive secured by DF will be lost on reboot. This includes files added or programs installed.

Personally speaking, running Deep Freeze on a home PC sounds a little extreme to me. You've already got NOD32 which is excellent, and I also recommend using Sygate Firewall 5.5 and Firefox. Between these three programs I've been malware and virus free for nearly two years.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Well, I just finished reformatting my hard drive and starting over from scratch after all this mess. Luckily I was able to put my hard drive into another computer to copy all my personal files (music, movies, etc) before putting it back into my machine and starting anew again. So now my computer is freshly installed. All the basic components are installed and working; I tried to keep it to a bare minimum with only the essentials (video drivers, audio drivers, wireless network card stuff, and wireless mouse and keyboard stuff). The only other thing I got installed aside from those are Firefox, Partition Magic, and ABC Bittorrent client (which I'm using currently to download Norton Ghost).

So, enough about that, I have some more questions I was hoping you all could help me with. I am currently using the Windows Backup Utility to backup my system data and C: partition (where my Windows and all those other installed programs are). All the rest of my personal files are in the D: partition (and the only other install that isn't in C:\Program Files\ is ABC which I put in the D:\Program Files, because it's not really essential to the computer.

Is the Windows Backup Utility as good as Norton Ghost backup images? I'm downloading Norton Ghost anyway just to make another backup image just in case. And whenever a computer gets malware does it only affect the partition with Windows on it (in my case the C: partition), or can it also affect other areas of the computer? For example, when I'm going to install new programs and games I'm going to put them in D:\Program Files, not C:\Program Files, since they are not essential functions for the computer. So can the malware affect the programs that are installed in the D:\Program Files?

From my limited understanding and what I've seen, I've only seen malware/spyware mostly affect things in the registry (which should be in the Windows folders, right?) and maybe sometimes as cookies in Internet Explorer or Firefox. So let's say I get some spyware and it's in my registry and Firefox cookies, if I restore my pristine backup image, will it all go away, theoretically, unless I had like Firefox installed in the D:\Program Files (which wasn't included in the backup image, but those are only like cookie tracking spyware, so it shouldn't even bother the computer or mess it up that much)?

I hope I was coherent enough for you all to understand. Thanks for the help and advice so far. Now I gotta get back to reinstalling all those programs and stuff that that I lost from the format. And another question just for curiosity's sake. Does it matter what path or folder a program is installed into? All the install information is loaded into the registry, right? So, let's say I create a backup of my system right now, and then later on I install new programs and games, if I restore my backup, will those programs and games I installed no longer work, since their information isn't in the registry from the previous backup?

I was speaking idiomatically.

Windows Backup Utility is crap. Period. Use Norton Ghost.

If you restore a backup that you made with Ghost, you are essentially formatting your hard drive and copying the files to the hard drive. Anything that was on the drive prior to backup is totally destroyed. Malware included.

To be honest, I think your being a little paranoid about the malware issue. Just install some good security software (NOD32 for an AV, and Sygate 5.5 for a firewall) you should be fine. You're already using Firefox which is good. I use this combo and I haven't been infected for well over a year.

Also, I recommend BitComet or uTorrent for a torrent manager.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Just tested out the Norton Ghost backup, and some questions. First I made a backup of my system data after installing programs (let's say A, B, and C). Then, as a test, I installed new programs (let's say D, E, and F) and proceeded to use Norton Ghost to restore my computer to its original state using the backup file. Programs A, B, and C are showing up on the Start Menu bar and in the Add/Remove programs menu from the Control Panel, but programs D, E, and F are missing in action. I installed them to a different partition, so the actual files are still there, and I can open and use the programs just fine.

So, my question is, how is it possible they are still working, since they aren't showing up in my Add/Remove programs list? They shouldn't be in the registry, right, since I backed it up before installing them onto the computer (I tried looking in the Registry Editor, but that place is so confusing, looking under HKey Local Machine Software, but I didn't see them in there)? If they aren't in the registry, is it just safe to delete the folders containing the programs and just re-install them over again to make them show up in the Add/Remove programs list?

Edit: It is nice that I can use these programs without them sucking up more hard drive space. I guess whenever you install programs to your computer it adds lots of information or something to the registry or another. I was installing these programs on a seperate partition, but it would keep making the Windows partition go up in size, maybe with their un-install info, etc, etc, I'm not sure.

FELIPE NO

Originally Posted by Maico

Just tested out the Norton Ghost backup, and some questions. First I made a backup of my system data after installing programs (let's say A, B, and C). Then, as a test, I installed new programs (let's say D, E, and F) and proceeded to use Norton Ghost to restore my computer to its original state using the backup file. Programs A, B, and C are showing up on the Start Menu bar and in the Add/Remove programs menu from the Control Panel, but programs D, E, and F are missing in action. I installed them to a different partition, so the actual files are still there, and I can open and use the programs just fine.

So, my question is, how is it possible they are still working, since they aren't showing up in my Add/Remove programs list? They shouldn't be in the registry, right, since I backed it up before installing them onto the computer (I tried looking in the Registry Editor, but that place is so confusing, looking under HKey Local Machine Software, but I didn't see them in there)? If they aren't in the registry, is it just safe to delete the folders containing the programs and just re-install them over again to make them show up in the Add/Remove programs list?

Edit: It is nice that I can use these programs without them sucking up more hard drive space. I guess whenever you install programs to your computer it adds lots of information or something to the registry or another. I was installing these programs on a seperate partition, but it would keep making the Windows partition go up in size, maybe with their un-install info, etc, etc, I'm not sure.

Even though you installed the programs to a different partition, some program files and un-install information is kept on C:

How ya doing, buddy?

Do what I do. I keep all of my important files, movies, and music on a separate partition [two separate partitions, actually] and I have one designated for Windows. That way, incase I need to browse the occasional crack site and get virtually raped by spyware of all shape and sizes... rather than going through the headache of various spysweeping programs I just format the windows partition. I have all of the program .exe's on my other partition so after I reinstall windows I get it back to where it used to be. Perfect.

I also bought a 50 pk. of DVD+R's for like $15 and basically backed up everything I have on my computer. So I'm pretty much invincible.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

I highly recommend SandboxIE.

This program runs in the background and monitors every change on your PC, and traps them in a temporary space. Later you can decide what to remove and what to keep.
Since i'm bad at explaining i'll take the description from the website:

"When you run a program on your computer, data flows from the hard disk to the program via read operations. The data is then processed and displayed, and finally flows back from the progam to the hard disk via write operations.

For example, if you run the Freecell program to play a game, it starts by reading the previously recorded statistics, displaying and altering them as you play the game, and finally writing them back to disk for future reference.

Sandboxie changes the rules such that write operations do not make it back to your hard disk.

If you run Freecell inside the Sandboxie environment, Sandboxie reads the statistics data from the hard disk into the sandbox, to satisfy the read requested by Freecell. When the game later writes the statistics, Sandboxie intercepts this operation and directs the data to the sandbox.

If you then run Freecell without the aid of Sandboxie, the read operation would bypass the sandbox altogether, and the statistics would be retrieved from the hard disk.

The transient nature of the sandbox makes it is easy to get rid of everything in it. If you were to throw away the sandbox, by deleting everything in it, the sandboxed statistics would be gone for good, as if they had never been there in the first place."

As you can see it really works as a trap, which is good. And it's free! The more reason to get it

There's nowhere I can't reach.