ShadowServer

ShadowStor's ShadowMode technology, which is available in multiple individual products targeted to Web surfing protection, workstation protection, and server (NT/2000/2003) protection, protects the original configuration of a PC by operating in a virtual capacity. When the machine is placed into ShadowMode (which can be accomplished on bootup, if desired, via boot.ini commands) a "snapshot" is taken of the existing PC disk configuration, and all subsequent changes to that configuration are made not directly to the actual disk volume, but instead made to an existing free area of the disk drive. Such changes can then be automatically committed to the "live" area of the disk (i.e., made permanent) or discarded on a file-by-file or folder-by-folder basis when the machine is next shutdown; and can additionally be manually committed to the disk at any time through the application's user interface.

ShadowStor bills their technology as an instant disaster recovery and/or original configuration recovery tool for system administrators; since the original disk configuration of a server can be "recalled" when the system is rebooted.

To allow the user to make live changes to certain data as they work, ShadowServer supports both Auto Commit and File Exclusion lists. An Auto Commit list is a user list of desginated files or folders that should be automatically saved to the live disk each time the machine is rebooted or ShadowMode is shut down. An Exclusion List is a list of files or folders that should be excluded from the virtualization process entirely--all changes to the designated files or folders are written to the live disk immediately. Files or folders can also be manually committed at any time via a "Commit" option within the file/folder's right-click context menu.

Additional features of the product include a task scheduler that allows for automated periodic reboots of the system and/or enabling of ShadowMode; the ability to use the system's wallpaper to inform the user that the machine is currently in ShadowMode; and a statistics menu option allowing the user to see the amount of disk space and free space used and available (ShadowServer must have available free disk space to operate; as the "virtual" changes made to the disk are stored and tracked in drive free space).

The latest ShadowServer release enables the PC to maintain a ShadowMode session across PC reboots. Such capability allows, for example, a user to download and install a new utility--allowing the utility to reboot the machine, if necessary--and try it out before committing it permanently to disk.

ShadowServer is available now, with a price tag of $299.