Maximum PC

i.e. Sandboxie, BufferZone, WindowsSteadyState, Deep Freeze, Returnil?

I've heard great things about Sandboxie. I tried it for a few weeks and didn't find it very useful. VirtualBox and several other virtualization products isolate the entire OS and they are free and easy to use. Common sense is the biggest problem and virtualization can't fix it.

"I've heard great things about Sandboxie. I tried it for a few weeks and didn't find it very useful. VirtualBox and several other virtualization products isolate the entire OS and they are free and easy to use. Common sense is the biggest problem and virtualization can't fix it."

Yep, there is a legitimate argument here that you "Can't fix stupid."

On the other hand, I would much rather have a software exploit wind up in my virtual environment rather than on my permanent hard drive install.

Makes it a lot easier and a lot less time consuming to straighten out.