playing visual novels safely in a virtual machine

With many visual novel games in the forum I was well entertained for a time. But if I want the prior machine state (with no game traces) back, I have to not only deinstall but clean the registry with software tools.

My whole problem with game traces on my computer disappears when using virtual machines with the principle of installing a virtual operation system (OS) inside your OS. The downside with playing games in a virtual machine is usually "speed" but as visual novels don't use graphics cards/ processor capabilities extensively, this is fortunately not an issue.

So all you need for the use of this technique for playing is:
* virtual machine (for example VirtualBox, VMware Server)
* operation system (preferably Windows)
* games

After your game session you can freeze the VM and continue at another time. And when you want to remove the game you can just reset your VM to the initial installation state.

Detailed explanation of virtual machines: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_machine

Links for some virtual machines:

VMware Server (registration required)
description: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware_Server

registration to get it: https://www.vmware.com/tryvmware

VirtualBox
description: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VirtualBox
website: http://www.virtualbox.org/

download: http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads


Me playing "Ever 17" (https://www.fakku.net/viewtopic.php?t=7948)

Okay "mini guide".
The problem with your suggestion is that most people still prefer windows on their PC and if you want Windows on the virtual machine you would need a second windows license/key. Few people have an extra windows license laying around.
I know you do not actually need windows on neither the host or virtual machine, but most people probably still want to.

Agreed, and also I want to point out that virtual machines themselves are still just as insecure as normal operating systems. All it does is isolate these games to an image file, which can still be searched. However, it does allow for secure removal of all the files and registry things that would normally be difficult to remove, however that would mean you have to completely delete your virtual machine.

One thing I would suggest would be to put the VM in an encrypted file container or drive (preferably AES or Serpent encryption), that way it's even more secure. Anyone with the technical know-how can open a virtual machine, but an encrypted machine, that's definitely more difficult.

It's too bad you need a spare Windows key in order to really set up the virtual machine legally.

Thanks for your feedback!

@jenslyn
As an alternative in case of a lack of Windows licenses, I can recommend GNU/Linux distributions at least for certain visual novels (the simple ones) - "Wine" does the magic and makes it possible to run them ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wine_%28software%29 ).

@Rothen
To encrypt the whole disk in a virtual machine with Windows you can use TrueCrypt after the completed installation of the OS.

---

Windows approach

Encrypt whole disk with TrueCrypt
description: http://www.truecrypt.org/docs/?s=system-encryption
download: http://www.truecrypt.org/downloads

procedure:


Alternative GNU/Linux approach

Ubuntu OS
* Encryption can be enabled at installation time
website: http://www.ubuntu.com/

Wine Windows emulation
website: http://www.winehq.org/

This Ubuntu/Wine combination Works for simple picture/text visual novels without much in the area of 2d animations - so Tears of Tiara is slow as hell in certain situations for me in this case.