So I tested running windows 7 on a virtual hard disk on a couple of machines in my computer shop. I found an online tutorial to install a windows boot system from a VHD. It got my attention because of how easy to do backup. Just copy the entire win7.vhd file to a backup drive and its done! I also like that it creates a separate partition for the operating system aside from the game disk partition. This is ideally a requirement in a computer shop environment wherein the operating system in installed on a separate partition and locked-down with deep-freeze and another partition that contains games and other apps that are constantly needs updating.
Deep-freeze is a special type of a windows application that locks a partition or partitions from changes. It is like making the partition read-only. The users are able to use the computer normally and can save files and make changes to the system, but everything reverts back to its original state when the computer is restarted.
Deep-freeze worked fine in my computer shop until I tested it on a windows system on a VHD. I initially thought that it will work flawless because it is still the same windows version that I used and residing on a separate partition, as it did on my old setups. I later found out that there are user files on the desktop even when deep-freeze is enabled. I deleted those files and rebooted and the change persisted even after rebooting. It is then i concluded that deep-freeze will not work on a VHD boot partition.
My solution is to revert back to my old setup of having windows 7 installed and running on a separate logical partition instead of using VHD.
In summary, deepfreeze will not work on a windows virtual hard disk.
