Light Virtualization is essentially a sandbox tool for those who do not have the equipment available to set up a full virtual machine server. It allows you to create a virtualization buffer or partition on your system drive which will not save any changes made to the system unless specified, perfect for testing software or patches as well as for ensuring almost any malware infections will not survive a reboot. Shadow Defender is light virtualization software which has been around for a while but has not been updated for about two years, until very recently when a major update arrived. This update encompasses many of the recent changes to hardware such as TRIM support for SSDs and even support for Win8. While it won't stop an infection from hitting your PC, as long as you do not save any of the changes made to the virtualized portion of your drive any rootkit or other such malware will not survive a reboot. Take a look at how to use the software and how effective it is over at Tweaktown.
"Shadow Defender (or SD for short as it is known among its dedicated fans) has been enjoying a great reputation among Light Virtualization fans during the last few years. There has been a barren period of two and a half years where development was interrupted, leaving v1.1.0.325 (which was released back in February 2010) as the last known good version."
Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
- Need an army of killer zombies? Yours for just $25 per 1,000 PCs @ The Register
- NetApp could use Microsoft to beat off VMware's virtual tool @ The Register
- ASRock introduces Haswell Z87/H87/B85 motherboards @ Hardware.info
- USB 2.0 vs. USB 3.0 Flash Drives On Linux @ Phoronix
- TP-Link TL-WDR4900 review: TP-Link's best router yet @ Hardware.info
So this is like Faronics’
So this is like Faronics’ Deep Freeze. Only Deep Freeze has remote management (for enterprise) and a command line. There’s also a mac client available.
Fact: Deep Freeze will still
Fact: Deep Freeze will still not stop certain potent rootkit/bootkit infections. Shadow Defender on the other hand will contain almost everything you throw at it, this includes strong malware that other light virtualization programs cannot handle.
Fact: Shadow Defender also allows you to commit data to your real system if you want to. With Deep Freeze you need to use Data Igloo for this purpose, and its functionality is not as good and as thorough as Shadow Defender’s.
I use Shadow Defender for almost 2 years now and it has never let me down.
Bottom Line: Where light virtualization is concerned, Shadow Defender is still the top dog. And it costs less than other less sturdy solutions.