Install Like There is no tomorrow..

With so much free software out there, it is hard to not to want to install and take it for a spin. Well, after a while, you end up with all of these left over bits and pieces of the software clogging up your registry and taking up hard drive space.

A few weeks back, a good friend of mine recommended a piece of software to help me with this, Altiris Software Virtualization Solution (SVS). I have thanked him a few times since. This tool is a blessing.

With SVS, you can install software, without installing it to your system. How does that work you may be wondering? You simply install the software to virtual layers that sit on top of your Windows OS. It records all the registry keys and program files in this layer without ever modifying your system itself.

After installing SVS, you will launch the application and create a new application layer. There are two other layers there (Data and Empty) that I haven’t played with yet, but I will. You can name this layer anything that you would like so that you can easily remember it (if you are trying out multiple version of the same software Acrobat Reader 8 and 9 you can create a separate layer for each and name them accordingly).

Once you have named the layer, you will be brought to a screen where you can either capture the next install or browse for the installer file (this is my preference). Click finish and you are off to the races. The installer will run as normal, with the exception that it is not truly interfacing with your system.

With the software now installed, you have a lot of options. If you are done using it and want it gone, delete the layer, no muss no fuss. If you don’t want the application to be accessible until you are wanting to use it, you can deactivate the layer. You can have the layer auto start when you log into your workstation so it works like a normal install. There is even the option to reset the install in case you were tweaking the software a bit and messed up the install (it happens).

If you have a certain set of apps that you like to have installed on all of your computers, but don’t feel like installing them every single time, you can create it on one machine and export that layer. If you keep all of those layers in a repository you can then import them on all of your computers in 1/2 the time.