Coldmoon
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Posts posted by Coldmoon
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Wireless keyboard but wired mouse here.
If I do a cold boot (hit the power button) to turn the pc on my with Returnil protection auto activated my keyboard driver isn't loaded.
If I reboot from protection mode to protection mode then the driver is loaded.
No probs with a wired keyboard.
This occurs on both the Vista Ultimate and XP Pro hard drives.
No big prob as I will just boot into windows and then slip into virtual mode until a fix comes along.
Any betas around that may fix some driver issues?
Hello Humpty,
What model Wireless? Also, did you recieve any error messages? Thanks and we will look into this ASAP.
Mike
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Is that the same with the registry, if you were to delete a bunch of vital reg entries should everything be fine on reboot? (still not got round to trying this yet but will do asap)
Hello JDPower,
Not that you would expect someone to do this in a normal use of their system, but the answer is yes if you have System Protection/Session Lock ON when you did it. Just reboot and the changes are gone. Just be aware that this also works in reverse, so make sure your system is clean before using the System Protection feature.
Mike
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...Just to answer your points, I did defrag the hard drive before I installed Returnil, and subsequently mounted the Virtual Partition, and I still got the effects I explained.
I have wondered since, (and bear with me here), if the VP isn't recognized by the Operating System in the same way as normal drive space would be, because when I removed the VP, and analyzed the drive again, it wasn't fragmented at all.
The visual info the defrag window gave me was a huge single block of red to the right of the usual blue/green display.
This was obviously the VP, which the defrag tool thought was severe fragmentation, and the drive, from the sound of it, was treating it as such.
Dennis,
I never thought of looking at it this way but your comments helped me to see what you mean. The Virtual Partition is a file with special properties. When it is mounted, Windows will see it the same way it sees a real logical partition or alternate drive (logical HDD partition, USB stick, etc), but when it is dismounted, Windows will see it as just another large file on your system.
When you create the Virtual Partition it is empty. IOW, When Windows sees it as a file, it sees a large file with allot of empty space, so interprets this as fragmented space. This is really an issue in how the information is presented to the user and the fact that there will be a necessary period of adjustment required for developers of defragmentation solutions to catch up with new technologies.
HTH
Mike
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Hello Dennis,
Please forgive the late reply.
Hi Mike,It's a pleasure to have you come to the forum, and you've probably gathered that I'm a fan of Returnil, but not, unfortunately, a fan of all its features.
Thank you for the warm welcome and the feedback is welcomed.
I gave it a good try, and from a not too technical point of view, (which is the only one I'm qualified to give) the VP seemed to make my HD work as if it was severely fragmented, and an analysis by windows defragment tool gave the same visual information...First, use of the Virtual Partition is an option and was included as a convenience for those without an alternate partition or knowledge sufficient to create one on their own. We strongly recommend that users create and use an alternate partition for data storage.
Next we recommend a complete defrag of your HDD before installing Returnil. This is for two important reasons:
1) Your system runs best with a defragmented HDD
2) RVS runs best when the HDD has been defragmented
Why?
Returnil clones your System Partition "on-the-fly". This means that only the content which is required for the user to do whatever they are doing is cloned in memory. If the content that is required to create this content is unfragmented, then RVS will perform that much more efficiently...
You can defragment the Virtual Partition when it is mounted as you would any other partition.
What is more inportant is that Returnil's System Protection will work whether you use the Virtual Partition or not. The System Protection/Session Lock feature is the main mission for Returnil and the Virtual Partition is a convenience and/or practice tool for those who are not yet ready to create a real logical partition on their HDD.
Mike
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Hello Coldmoon and welcome to the forum
Your software returnil has created a lot of interest, and it is good to see software developers coming down to grass root level!
One of the points I made about examples was because vitualization is quite a new concept for a lot of people. The common questions you seem to be asked (as I am sure you have noted) are things like what happens to the anti virus updates in this imaginary space, and how do I put things in and out of it, what happens to email attachments.
These type of questions are asked because they tend to form the core basics of a users needs.
Cater in the helpfiles for a minority and they may be all you get, cater for the majority with good basic info and that is who you may get.
I have found that by using the words "for example" followed by a real scenario with graphics if possible, always seems to stick in the brain better.
Anyway Coldmoon, look forward to having a look at your new version.
Hello hazelnut,
We have been having a lively discussion about these questions and more at Wilder's Security. We have been extremely appreciative of their feedback during the Beta and continue to have an on-going conversation that Piriform members may find a useful resource:
"Returnil": http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=174636
"Returnil - Keeping Good Changes": http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=178162
"[Official Release] Returnil Virtual System 2007": http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=178081
I look forward to everyone's questions and will do my best to reply as quickly as possible.
Mike
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...In my case, I skipped mounting the Virtual Partition on install because no matter how many drives or partitions you have, the Virtual Partition is mounted on your Operating System Partition, and if you mount this, the only way I can see to get rid of it is to uninstall and reinstall the programme.
Unmounting the Virtual Partition does not get rid of it.
Hi,
Thanks for the interest in Returnil. Please feel free to ask any questions you have and I will be more than happy to provide answers as quickly as possible. Please send us your feedback as well.
This is true, but you can delete the VP, back it up, transport it, etc. Please be sure to dismount it before attempting to delete it however as well as make sure you have backed up any data you stored in the VP.
We are currently working on a new program that will make a more robust use of the VP technology and will not be limited to the %s as is the case in RVS itself.
hazelnut said:
One of my pet hates is downloading a new piece of software only to find that the help file is suitable for someone who works on a space project or it assumes the the user already knows all about the software ( in this case virtualization)I totally agree, though we have done our best to include as much information as possible, there is always room for more if it helps the user. We did not know all the questions before creating the User's manual during the public beta and are still looking for more questions we can help provide answers for.
Our first step has been to update our FAQ page with some basic questions from our discussions at Wilder's. If you have commentary and/or suggestions for making the manual better, please do not hesitate to contact me directly, post to this thread, by PM, etc. Our goal is for simple and targeted solutions, so voice your opinions...
We can't fix it if we don't know about it...
hazelnut also had this poiniant observation:
What would be so hard about a software manufacturer giving basic examples of what happens when you do a certain thing with their software?We cannot know how every user will try to use the software, so cannot give detailed examples without knowing what is important to you, and more importantly, what is important to the majority of users. This is why the manual is not as comprehensive as it could be. But as said above, we want to improve it, so let us know what you want...
The other side of the coin is to know what ways you think are best for presenting this information...
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With Kind Regards
Mike
Returnil - Free
in Software
Posted
Thanks, development is setting up specific testing. And yes, if Protection is ON then updates to the SuperFetch would be lost. If you are happy with what is in the SF now, and it has useful performance, then I would suggest keeping it...
Mike