Wednesday, October 31, 2007 9:47 AM
This may be old news, but I just came across this cool-sounding virtualization tool called Returnil. It's not processor-virtualization, but rather environment-virtualization. Using Returnil, you can install, move, delete, muck up anything you want on the system (provided it's on the C:\ drive), and when you reboot you are reset. Somewhat like System Restore, but faster, and more comprehensive. Unlike System Restore, it only supports one rollback and you can only revert by rebooting. You also can't seem to just commit your actions.
To me, it looks like a great tool for installing a trialware app to see how things look. I'm always afraid to do that since it's too easy to mess things up, and uninstalling is often imperfect. It works on XP/Server/Vista so should cover pretty much any scenario, and even better, personal version is free! Commercial version is only $25. I'm very optimistic that it could help me with some of my projects where a VPC isn't quite sufficient (due to hardware or time required to setup an environment). It's no good for longer-running things due to the reboot/reset feature (which can't be disabled), but it could still be great for many other situations. I'll update with a report soon.
Link: http://www.returnilvirtualsystem.com/index_files/rvspersonal.htm