How can i run a program from an ''isolated'' place in my HD ?

Question

i want to be able to run keygens but without risking my pc, is there a way i can ''isolate'' a program and its possible harms but still be able to use it?

Answer 1

Yes, but you need to either design or run a program already written for that purpose.  VMWare comes highly recommended for tasks like that.  It is, however, not a cheap product.  I don't know if somebody else has developed a freeware version of it, but I would doubt it.  There are, of course, other virtualization software solutions out there, so maybe you will want to check on something like that.

Hope this helps.

[edit]  Hey iamrunninwithscissors, great advice.  :)  You beat me to it, so I think you should get best answer.  Of course, I don't get to pick that.

Answer 2

A common way to accomplish this task is to use a 'virtual machine' (VM) for all of your questionable apps.

VMWare is a popular (One I personally recommend) application to run virtual machines.

VMWare Server is free and fully functional:

http://www.vmware.com/download/server/

VMWare Server will allow you to install an OS within an OS.  The newly installed VM (your OS within an OS) is sitting on the file system of your host OS, but cannot interact outside of it's own file system.  You can install anything from windows 3.11 to windows Vista, to any flavor *nix, to OSX.

I recommend you install a small copy of windows 2000 (or whatever windows OS you have available), install VMWare tools from the VMWare server menu, and take a snapshot once it is up and running.

A snapshot will allow you to at anytime (if one of those questionable files goes wrong) go back to this point of the VM, like everything that happened after that point, never happened, which is why I think a VM is the best solution for your issue.