Wishlist for Future CTM 3.0

[OmeletGuy]

Well guys im making this so all wishes can be put into one place.. so do post

OK my Wishlist its:

1#  TRIM support for SSD's
2#  RAID support
3#  Rootkit Protection (Uses same thing that allows for Encryption support)
4#  Encryption Support (Already gave a idea to Dev's that would make CTM work with any encryption program)
5# Ability to set save snapshots to other hard drives
#6 Ability to set amount of size you want CTM to use on a hard drive.


These are mine, what are yours  

[wasgij6]

-New user interface, including the main gui in windows and the boot sub console. i would like to see the same theme as CCE and CIS v6 or the same theme as other comodo products like CB or CPM but preferably the other.

-if its possible add support for multiple operating systems.

-a tool or window within the main GUI that allows that user to backup snapshots to any media (ie external hard drive) and restore those snapshots.

[panic]

1. Ability to optionally store snapshots on a disk or partition other than the one that is protected.
2. Ability to export snapshots to external media for emergency restore.
3. Improve snapshot restore speed (2.8 was quick - 2.9 is like skipping in mud).
4. Bootable media capable of restoring a snapshot (from permanent or external media).
5. Integration with explorer.exe so it displays "real" disk usage (size on protected disk PLUS snapshot size).
6. Integration with CBU to backup snapshots (see point 2).
7. Integration with CPM to take a snapshot (optionally) prior to installations commencing.
8. Integration with Windows Updates to take a snapshot (optionally) prior to updating.

Ewen :-)

[KoPRoSKyLo]

1) The abilty to have snapshots of all available hard disks of the system.

2) A bootable recovery environment media as proposed above (on optical discs/USB sticks) or a dedicated recovery partition holding various tools and including an MBR Manager.  The recovery media/partition should have a function that allows users to save/restore highly compressed backups of snapshots - as well as the MBR of the protected disk - as compressed files onto different disks or DVDs/BD-R discs.  This would be a great way to preserve and recover snapshots in cases where the protected disk dies, or if CTM has been uninstalled. Users could then install the latest version of CTM and just import the snapshots back onto the protected drive at boot time, on in the case of disk failure they would just replace the disk and then use the CTM emergency recovery media to import CTM itself and any snapshots of the user's choice back to the new disk.

3) The ability to apply the same exact system changes to more than the current snapshot. For example, if a user updates existing software or installs a new program on their current active snapshot, it would be great if these changes could be mirrored to one or more of the inactive snapshots as well (including the baseline if the user chooses so).  Users would specify if they want these changes to be applied or not to inactive snapshots, and if yes they would then choose which inactive snapshots should be updated with the changes.  This would save users from having to load each individual snapshot that needs to be updated, and then having to apply the same changes over and over again.

This may be feasible if there was a module in CTM that can be activated manualy by the user and takes a temporary snapshot of the system just before the update.  The user would then install and reboot (if a reboot is required), and then a fresh temp snapshot would be taken identifying the changes.  Those changes could then be applied to any snapshots of your choice.

Martau Total Uninstall is using a method similar to this to create backups of installations/updates, backups which can later be restored even on a different system without having to re-install/re-update.  CTM could be doing this at sector level, monitoring which sectors have been used/changed during the update, and then adding/updating those sectors to the maps of existing snapshots.

[Razvan Raschitor]

Hi,

   Thanks all for the suggestions so far. You're be glad to know that the change of the architecture allows us to implement almost all this ideas. I can't say how many will be implemented in the next version, but we really appreciate you helping us making this product better.

[burebista]

1#  TRIM support for SSD's

This is my primary request too.

On others I'll let you knowledgeable guys to suggest. 

[wasgij6]

Hi,

   Thanks all for the suggestions so far. You're be glad to know that the change of the architecture allows us to implement almost all this ideas. I can't say how many will be implemented in the next version, but we really appreciate you helping us making this product better.

this is excellent news!
can you maybe tell us some the ideas your team had for the new CTM?

[natalya]

this is excellent news 

[Razvan Raschitor]

this is excellent news!
can you maybe tell us some the ideas your team had for the new CTM?

One idea that we are currently testing is the ability to restore only the changes made by one applications, rather than all the changes made in a time period on the disk. We'll see if we can do this.
Anyway we are making a drastic architecture change that will allow us to implement a lot of the ideas being suggested and also to be able to extend CTM functionality in the future.

[Tech]

1st Stable code (and beta branch). I know this is obvious, but we need more users in the base to make the technology more trustable and do not mess with production environments.

2nd Rescue CD and the hability to recover the system if something goes wrong with installation, uninstallation, driver loading, incompatible software, infection of MBR, etc. Whatever. You may be able to restore default MBR, reinstall CTM MBR, access the console, access the files, etc. You may also makes feasible the external backup/restore of snapshots.

3rd Multiply platform (at least, dual boot with Linux).

4th Encryption support (as full encrypted software requires the MBR, CTM could control both things).

5th Improve the GUI graphics (after all, it is not an old software and an old technology).

The OmeletGuy's wishes 5th seems to be compatible with the actual technology (use other partition to save snapshots) but I'm not sure the 6th will be possible (specially that you can't have part of the drive encrypted, for instance...).
Because of this, maybe the integration with CB could be possible (redirecting the snapshots like "backup").

About KoPRoSKyLo's 3rd wish, well, I see it much complicated to manage with changes belong to the system and which not. Take another snapshot, goes further. The processing and the future situation of each snapshot will be impredictable. Keep CTM simple and viable imho.

[KoPRoSKyLo]

About KoPRoSKyLo's 3rd wish, well, I see it much complicated to manage with changes belong to the system and which not. Take another snapshot, goes further. The processing and the future situation of each snapshot will be impredictable. Keep CTM simple and viable imho.

I agree it won't be straight forward, but it would be great if Razvan and the team can pull it off.  Imagine for example, going back to the baseline a year after it was created and running Windows update, then updating all your software installs to their latest versions.  When it's all done you'd normally reset the baseline and lose all your existing snapshots, or you would take a new one at this point and start a new branch - but all your existing snapshots will be outdated. You will have to load them one by one, update everything, then save a fresh one every time.  This will create multiple new branches and it will be extremely time-consuming - especially if you keep lots of snapshots with different software configs to fit different purposes as I do.   If you have already put considerable time and effort into creating different snapshots to fit different purposes, then losing them all for the sake of updating the baseline - or having to update them one by one with all the time and effort this would entail - would suck big time...

I think that it doesn't have to be like this.  It may be feasible to add ALL the changed sectors to existing maps, without having to try identifying which sectors were changed by which process.  Just do a blind BEFORE vs AFTER compare and add all those changed sectors to existing maps of the user's choice.  Is this notion too simplistic?  I don't know. Maybe Razvan can comment on the feasibility of all this.

[Razvan Raschitor]

I think that it doesn't have to be like this.  It may be feasible to add ALL the changed sectors to existing maps, without having to try identifying which sectors were changed by which process.  Just do a blind BEFORE vs AFTER compare and add all those changed sectors to existing maps of the user's choice.  Is this notion too simplistic?  I don't know. Maybe Razvan can comment on the feasibility of all this.

Hi,

    We are testing a way to do this without affecting the performance. We'll see how it goes.

[KoPRoSKyLo]

Hi,

    We are testing a way to do this without affecting the performance. We'll see how it goes.

Brilliant!!!  Fingers crossed! 

[Tech]

You will have to load them one by one, update everything, then save a fresh one every time.

If you do not do this, then CTM will need to do this, i.e., turns off your computer (current snapshot), mount the old snapshots one by one, run the updates...
Do you really think they would implement this at boot time? Because you can't have more than one snapshot mounted/running at the same time. You can mount it, but not run it...

I think that it doesn't have to be like this.  It may be feasible to add ALL the changed sectors to existing maps, without having to try identifying which sectors were changed by which process.

Crosslinked snapshots? What a mess you can go into... Good luck...

[Solarlynx]

It would be nice to have option to password protect folders. If to do that through an application then going to other snapshot can make a mess.