Is there a software which can track files, register, ... of an installation of a software then it can roll back everything like we have never install a software ?
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1What OS? System Restore points serve this need on Windows.– EBGreenDec 6, 2011 at 16:06
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@EBGreen, I need to know everything the installation has installed on my pc. By the way, system restore will cause all other softwares to be lost.– ITFanDec 6, 2011 at 16:15
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1@ITFan - No, System Restore points will do no such thing. You install software, it triggers a restore point before the installation, you load the restore point, it's back to where it was when it was triggered. Only if you do a ton of things and then restore to beforehand will you lose lots of stuff. EBGreen isn't suggesting you do a full reinstall or something like that. lifehacker.com/5466794/…– ShinraiDec 6, 2011 at 16:27
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@Shinrai, I see, but how about I install other softwares after install the software I need to capture ? If I use System Restore to restore the software which has been captured back, I will lose the others which have been installed.– ITFanDec 7, 2011 at 13:26
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1If you want to be able to install software, run it for weeks, then completely remove any trace of it from the machine, this just is not possible. The nature of any no trivial application is such that it makes changes after the install that would not be captured by any monitoring software. If the application install and uninstall are well written then that is your best hope of a clean removal of the app.– EBGreenDec 7, 2011 at 16:17
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2 Answers
I believe using a sandbox program such as Sandboxie would do the trick. It will confine the installation to a specified area of the hard drive, which should make it easy to see exactly what the program is doing, and to delete all of the program's files at once.
answered Dec 6, 2011 at 16:24
Take a look at these. SteadyState from MS used to do the trick; it's now defunct, but it's wikipedia article links to these:
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Freeze_(software)
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Returnil_Virtual_System
Whatever solution you implement should ideally track changes at the kernel level, via some driver that inserts itself at the disk controller level, so that it can journal all changes that were made.
