How to test a new Antivirus & Firewall without messing up your O/S

How to test a new Antivirus / Firewall without messing up your O/S

hi !

How to test Antivirus-programs & Firewalls without messing up your Operating system:

clone your existing Windows 7-partition with fx. Macrium to a new partition.

add the new partition to the bootmanager and reboot.

select the new (cloned) partition and you have an O/S to test programs on.

if some program mess up the Operating system then you don´t have to do anything, except reboot to get the original system back again.

i´m going to set up such a "testsystem" myself...

i got the idea after having spent several days trying to find out why i couldn´t get my internet connection back after i decided to try Online Armor instead of Comodo.

the reason to switch firewall is the serious securityproblems i discovered....
more info: http://www.sevenforums.com/system-security/87225-security-problem-comodo-s-firewall-defence.html

i had to reinstall a W7-image several times before i managed to get internet back, then firefox was working but i couldn´t get OA and a-squared to download updates from the servers.
the real problem was that i didn´t uninstall comodo, using "services" i just disabled Comodo, but after doing a proper uninstall everything is working.

if i have had such a cloned W7-partition it would have saved a lot of time...

Really good suggestion. Good post.

thanks !
and thanks for the rep...

You are welcome.