Snapshot Tools

[TheHamsterator]

Hey Guys, first time poster. Love the channel and I usually just watch the vids, but I couldn't find one on the topic so I figured I'd hit up the forum here.

Lately I've had issues where I install a program or driver and it messes up my machine. I've been re-imaging the machine as I need to but this can sometimes be time consuming and ultimately I spend more time restoring than I probably should.

At my work (I work at a Helpdesk) we use a program called Deep Freeze. It restores the machine on reboot, which would be good BUT I don't necessarily want it to restore on every reboot. I want to use it more for some troubleshooting. Doing some research I found some similar programs which seem to function similarly but are more on command, these include Rollback Rx, Comodo Time Machine, Toolwiz Time Freeze, and Shadow Defender. Currently I'm leaning more towards Rollback just because there's a free version which reviews well.

I figured before I make up my mind I'd see if any of you are using a similar tool and if perhaps you have a suggestion or recommendation, either within my current options or otherwise.

[vanished]

Have your tried troubleshooting the root problem that installations are messing up your machine?  Because that shouldn't happen.  I would try that before resorting the a snapshot program, especially since I don't see how that would even help.  If your PC is in "State X", and you try an install and it doesn't work, reverting to state x and then trying again should yield the same result.  After all if it doesn't... well, how does that quote about insanity go again?

[TheHamsterator]

14 minutes ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

Have your tried troubleshooting the root problem that installations are messing up your machine?  Because that shouldn't happen.  I would try that before resorting the a snapshot program, especially since I don't see how that would even help.  If your PC is in "State X", and you try an install and it doesn't work, reverting to state x and then trying again should yield the same result.  After all if it doesn't... well, how does that quote about insanity go again?

My goal if there is an issue would be to restore back to State X as you say, and investigate online. For instance, I did this with the 1709 Update, I restored using a disk image and found out a program of mine was causing the issue when installing. So I removed the program and tried again and it worked.

[vanished]

27 minutes ago, TheHamsterator said:

My goal if there is an issue would be to restore back to State X as you say, and investigate online. For instance, I did this with the 1709 Update, I restored using a disk image and found out a program of mine was causing the issue when installing. So I removed the program and tried again and it worked.

Oh, so more for protecting against failed Windows updates... sadly, that I can see being useful

[TheHamsterator]

18 hours ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

Oh, so more for protecting against failed Windows updates... sadly, that I can see being useful

Yeah. Linus should do a video on this, there's so many bad updates that brick machines and it's nice to have something to do a quick undo. I've tried WSR and that's usually...terrible; and re-imaging is long and tedious. Might be worth doing a video on one of these days.

Like I said in OP, I'm leaning more towards Rollback but any thoughts from those using the programs on whether or not they work well would be great.