Windows 7 - Acronis Try and Decide

I am looking for a program that has similar functionality to Acronis's "Try and Decide" feature that is in there true image 2011 suite. Basically looking for a program that will allow me to try things out on my computer (open emails, visit websites, make changes to computer) without having the actions take effect unless I want them to.

Some programs that I looked into were BufferZone, Sandboxie, Time Freeze and virtual box. I was wondering it anyone had any experience with these programs or others and possibly provide some insight. I would only use this program for the uses stated above and will not need to have it running at all time, only when I am want to work in a virtual environment. So I don't need all the bells and whistles, just a program that functions that way I want it to, reliable.

Not used it myself, but Sandboxie is an excellent program. A Guy

I agree. Sanboxie is nice, especially to run your web browser in.



As far as installing and testing software etc, what wrong with Try N Decide?
It works quite well from my experience.

I have never tried "Try N Decide", I don't have Acronis but I liked that feature when reading about there product. So I am looking for a program that has just that feature.

Oh, I misunderstood. I thought you had it already, hence the confusion.
Sorry.

Why not get the Acronis application? You can often find it on sale for less than $30. I own the 2010 version and I really like it.

Acronis TI is a worthwhile investment, whether you use the Try And Decide or not. However, I don't use it very much, because I found that it took far too long for it to revert things back to original. Yet, that was on my old rig, and it may work better now...I don't know yet.

I have been looking at Bufferzone reviews and write ups and it looks perfect for what I am trying to do, however, it cannot run on 64 bit systems yet, it's in beta testing. I will prob try out sandboxie until it's release

I am not looking to use acronis true image as I feel the program is to intrusive on my computer

Im a bit confused. I use try and Decide on occasion without issue and have a 64bit system.
In fact, Acronis as a whole has been problem free for me with a x64 setup.



Im curious however. Why do you feel Actonis is too intrusive?

It does run a process in the background for its scheduler. But this only starts Acronis to do backups, of which you need to set as to how often and what time.

If you set no automatic schedules, it will never run unless you manually instruct it to.
It will never do anything other than when its supposed to, as you asked of it.



But I would also add, that sometimes its just easier to re-image.
This however, really depends on how you have your discs setup.

For example, create a system disc Image. Experiement how you want and when, done restore the image.
For me, I have a disc thats just the OS and apps, with all other DATA located elsewhere.
So a full system restore only takes about 6 minutes, and is sometimetimes just as fast and easy.

This may not be true for everyone though. If you have a vert large system image that includes lots of Music and Movies for example, this route will take much, much longer.

I guess it could be from the reviews that I have read in the past about how Acronis embeds itself in the windows backup and restore control panel menu, and also heard cases of it causing errors in the registry. I read quite a few reviews of people stating that the interface was buggy and it messed up there computer as soon as it was installed, or some people couldn't install it properly. I originally was going to use Acronis as my imaging program but decided to stay away from it for those reasons.

I am in the process of testing Macrium, Paragon and Easeus Todo to see which imaging program I like the best. I purchased a WD hard drive so I also have access to the free program they provide which I believe is slimmed down version of Acrnois Tru Image. Have you tried any of the imaging programs I have mentioned, how would you compare them to Acronis. (the reviews I read were for Acronis True Image 2011)