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Good Freeware System Snapshot Tool For Windows?

Posted by timothy on from the esoterica dept.

Khyber writes "I'm doing a little personal research into a project that tracks what changes get made to your system every time you install a program. I know there are ways of checking through Windows Restore Points, but that's not what I'm trying to do. Instead, I'm going to start with an absolutely fresh Windows XP install, take a full snapshot of the entire installation on the hard drive, and burn that to a DVD (somewhat like a backup disc with an entire snapshot of my hard drive's current contents.) With every program I install, I'm going to take another snapshot, burn to DVD, and repeat the process until I have recreated every step taken to get to my current system state (all programs installed on a separate hard drive, all registry entries etc on the OS drive, with only snapshots of the OS drive being recorded.) The purpose for all of this I'm not legally allowed to talk about, due to confidentiality requirements. Does anybody know of such a program, preferably freeware, that will accomplish my objective, and are there tools that can be used to compare the difference in drive images?"

6 of 219 comments (clear)

  1. I could tell you... by MikeV · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...but then I'd have to kill you. You know, confidentiality agreements and whatnot...

  2. A good one pre-installed with windows... by Auroch · · Score: 3, Funny

    Well, I havn't read the article, but just hit prt-scr! Although, some computers require you too hit function+prt scr. Of course, linux and OSX have better screen shot tools built in. Linux also has GIMP, which does shots! Yup, clearly the answer is 'switch to linux'!

    Seriously, do we even need an article on this?

    ... I wonder how important the article is after all, but I'm too lazy to read it ... *sigh*

    --
    Quartz Extreme and Core Image. Are there any other real reasons to spend all that money on generic hardware?
  3. Linux live cd by Judinous · · Score: 2, Funny

    1. Install program on Windows 2. Boot to linux live cd of your choice 3. cat inputdevice > outputdevice 4. Repeat steps 1-3 as needed 5. diff 6. ????? 7. NDA'd

  4. Re:FOG might do it. by n1ckml007 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Windowskey + E then alt+printsrn then Ctrl-v to paste into MSPaint There's your snapshot

  5. Re:NTBackup by L4t3r4lu5 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Mod parent -1 Sadist.

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    Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
  6. Re:Duh! by mrfriendly · · Score: 2, Funny

    I'm going for +5 Informative: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diff http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dd_(Unix) At least by doing this you will educate yourself along the way. If you are opposed to self-education, here is another wikipedia entry for you: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignorance