Version 2.25.0 – August 17, 2020
A hosting server migration saw the checking for new version doing some pretty strange things.
This turns out to be a software defect in the QuickShadow program, which is now repaired in this version. There are no other changes of substance.
Version 2.24.0 – December 28, 2017
A fix where some modern NAS devices were painfully slow on copying very large (GB) size files.
A consequence is that the progress bar may have a pause at the end of a copying a large file – this is normal.
Version 2.23.0 – November 5, 2017
Minor improvements:
– Looks like a change to the hosting web server suddenly caused the previously robust version / update checking system to break, this new version fixes the underlying compatibility problem so that new version checking works properly again.
Version 2.22.0 – September 26, 2017
Minor improvements:
– Files marked by windows with the “Temporary” attribute would not be backed up as a deliberate design decision. However in some very rare cases such files exist, and should be backed up. Ignoring of files with this attribute has been removed, allowing them to be backed up.
Version 2.21.0 – March 3, 2016
Minor improvements:
– number of paths per backup set increased from 20 to 30.
– sometimes evaluation users would experience a program crash after about a week or more of use – corrected.
Version 2.20.0 – December 20, 2015
Minor improvements:
– sometimes the word “Registered” would appear in the title bar more than once.
– sometimes the option to use VSS (windows snapshots) would become disabled for no apparent reason.
Version 2.19.0 – November 12, 2015
Major improvements:
– For unregistered users only, occasional exceptions / crashes just after start up should now be removed.
Minor improvements:
– Better diagnostic logging when files or directories won’t copy
– Better filtering and selection of locations in the directory chooser.
Version 2.18.0 – August 1, 2015
Major improvements:
– At install time,QuickShadow Backup can be selected for installation by a local administrator user (as was done back in ver 2.15), as well as for all users (as was for ver 2.17). Those users who had trouble using ver 2.17, can use ver 2.18 – just install for a single local administrator user.
– When looking up the backup locations / opening setup, in some cases this could be extremely slow – this is now significantly improved.
– When the backup is to an external machine with a username and password, the workgroup or domain is detected and a prompt is given to the user to allow those to be applied – this improves the reliability of connection in many cases.
Version 2.17.0 – August 23, 2014
Major improvements:
– QuickShadow Backup can now be run by users who are not PC Administrators
(For example this means on a shared home PC, when the kids log in, the backups can still run).
– The Progress Bar for the Copy of files now much more accurately reflects actual progress.
– Dramatically quicker program close if a file copy was in progress (10x – 100x faster); especially at machine shutdown time.
– Normal operation will continue if some backup destinations are not available.
– New and easier to use source and destination directory / location selection.
– Improved compatibility with Microsoft OneDrive destinations (online/offline attributes).
Minor changes:
– Better machine start performance by juggling priorities and start-up delays.
– Pressing ESC during setup no longer deletes a backup set.
NOTE that this version includes major underlying changes, and allows LIMITED (non-admin) users to run AND configure the backup sets in QuickShadow Backup. This permits non-admin users to change the backup configuration. If this represents an unacceptable security change, please avoid using this version.
Version 2.16.0 – March 15, 2014
Major improvements:
– QuickShadow Backup can now be run by users who are not PC Administrators
(For example this means on a shared home PC, when the kids log in, the backups can still run).
– The Progress Bar for the Copy of files now much more accurately reflects actual progress.
– Dramatically quicker program close if a file copy was in progress (10x – 100x faster); especially at machine shutdown time.
– Normal operation will continue if some backup destinations are not available.
NOTE that this version includes major underlying changes, and allows LIMITED (non-admin) users to run AND configure the backup sets in QuickShadow Backup. This permits non-admin users to change the backup configuration. If this represents an unacceptable security change, please avoid using this version.
*** NOTE *** Version 2.16 has been withdrawn due to a defect in setup where some users, some of the time, could not enter the backup source and destination locations. And this despite extensive testing.
Version 2.15.0 – November 7, 2013
Major improvements:
– Windows 8.1 is supported.
– Watch / Monitor can now copy to multiple destinations.
– There are now variable timeouts before monitored files are copied.
– Transcript now shows deletes, renames as well as copies.
– More large file copy delay intervals.
– Backup sets can be selected to be Sync-Only.
Minor changes:
– A memory leak has been fixed.
– When directories are copied the read-only attribute is preserved.
– More exclusions are added, and the windows backup exclusions can be used.
– Various off-line checks now take into account backup sets that are disabled.
Version 2.14.0 – August 14, 2013
This release corrects another defect with the new Folder Chooser which would previously sometimes crash with an exception.
Version 2.13.0 – August 8, 2013
This release corrects a defect with the new Folder Chooser which would previously sometimes crash with an exception.
Version 2.12.0 – July 13, 2013
This is a defect fixing release, and adds minor features.
Major improvements:
– better validation that the source locations exist – if they don’t a warning will be displayed.
– automatic (scheduled) sync will continue even if some source locations don’t exist – it will do what it can with those that do exist.
– size and location of the main form is remembered between runs.
– folder selection for source and destinations uses a new dialog, which permits hidden folders to be viewed.
– the verify option would previously fail on very large files. This is now fixed and memory consumption using verify is dramatically reduced.
– some crashes on program and machine shutdown are fixed.
– a memory leak, applicable if run for very long periods of time, is fixed.
Minor improvements:
– the Old Versions cleanup utility has had some descriptions improved and now shows a message if no files are found.
Version 2.11.0 – March 12, 2013
Version 2.11.0 corrects an installer problem in 2.10. It will now auto-start properly.
Version 2.10.0 – March 9, 2013
– Corrects a defect where sometimes a directory on the backup would have the Hidden and System attributes set.
– Adds a facility to the Synchronise function that corrects any directories on the backup that have had Hidden and System attributes set by mistake.
– Adds a new log viewer in preparation for the version coming that supports running by limited users.
– Changes buttons to have a “hot” colour that is active when the mouse is over them – making the button you might click easier to see.
– Improves the looks of some visual parts of the main program screen.
Version 2.9.0 – November 9, 2012
– Added support for Windows 8.
Version 2.8.0 – August 7, 2012
– Fixed a regression where 2-way sync was not creating folders on the PC in some cases.
Version 2.7.0 – July 22, 2012
– Fixed a fault where when setting logging to “deferred files”, the setting was lost when the program was restarted.
– Cleaned up the installer so that upgrading from a previous version is much simpler.
Version 2.6.0 – July 9, 2012
– Fixed a fault where windows explorer context menus got broken on some operating systems.
Version 2.5.0 – June 10, 2012
– Synchronise will now duplicate empty folders to the destination.
– Fixed a fault where offline operation would sometimes not work as expected.
– Fixed a fault where the shell right-click option to restore would sometimes not locate a file, when there were multiple backup sets, some disable.
– Improved logging of deferred operations.
– Allow a user to select the “huge file” size and interval between copies when VSS is being used.
– Fixed broken tab order, and prevent ability to type into the “Files to Copy” memo on the main page.
Version 2.4.0 – January 30, 2012
– Fix problem where watched folders would sometimes cause a file to be copied more than once for only a single change (on Win 7)
– VSS improvements where large files copied infrequently no longer cause a VSS snapshot to be created even if the file is not copied
– Memory leaks corrected.
– Better logging.
Version 2.3.0 – April 19, 2011
– Fix auto-start on Vista
– Files starting with the name “recycled” are now copied
– Renaming to an excluded name – now does not copy the affected file
– Further VSS improvements
Version 2.2.0 – March 7, 2011– Show available space on backup drive
– “Do not show again” errors are now persistent
– VSS retries to reduce number of VSS Errors
– Show file size for file being copied; highlight current file being copied.
– On registration, prompt to set Snapshots
– VSS Huge File Delay default value corrected
– Registration state shown in title bar now changed when registering
– Add More exclusion paths
– Fixed Exceptions on startup when deferred files saved
– Fixed issue of Showing failure when all working
– Will now auto-start if installed on drive other than C
Version 2.1.0 – November 11, 2010
– Add option to warn a user when destination is getting full
– Each backup set can now have the format of the destination path chosen between the full source path (as before) or a trimmed form of the source path
– Add support for and management of operating system suspend / resume
– Allow fast rename optimisation to be disabled, having it enabled can mean that old versions of Word / Excel 2007 files are difficult to locate on the backup
– Improvements to handle a NAS drive where the disks spin down to save power
– Major fixes and improvements when the source location is on a remote machine
– New utility added to allow scrubbing a backup device of old versions of files
– Corrected the number of files counted in a sync so that folders are not included
– Detect and notify user if multiple instances are run across terminal services sessions
– Fixed an auto-start problem on Windows Server 2003
– A Manual sync no longer prevents an automatic sync running later the same day
– Corrected a fault where automatic sync would not run under some combinations of circumstances
– Add “Make Folder” option to forms that allow a folder to be selected
– Log removal of old versions from the backup
– Add warnings and translate to UNC when a source location is a network drive
– Settings saved as an XML file to improve support
Version 2.0.6 – August 2, 2010
– Faster shutdown when PC is shutdown or when a very large file is being copied (the file copy will be terminated, the original file on the destination will remain)
– Update exclusions for Chrome & Firefox when running on Vista and Win7
– Improved sync between NTFS and FAT formatted drives.
Version 2.0.5 – June 18, 2010
– fixed a rare crash at start time.
– when changing the setup, the deferred list is cleared
– startup delay can be longer for those who turn on NAS at same time as PC
– setup auto-translates a drive letter to a UNC path, to handle the case where windows 7 especially can lose the association between drive letter and its network path (partial solution)
– improvements to help
– made the “please wait, checking” appear for long enough to be readable
– improved wording of the shutting down dialog
– fixed typos
Version 2.0.4 – May 16, 2010
– fix an very rare crash that happened when clicking “Clear Log”.
– wording on the Setup->Exclusions tab has been improved. Entries can now be edited, and copy / paste of entries is now supported.
– Some small changes have been made to logging, the information logged has been improved slightly.
– A section has been added to the help describing restoring using the Windows Explorer / Shell integration.
– fix a very rare crash that happened when verifying a copied file.
– fix a case where for the 2nd (and subsequent) backup sets, files on the backup could not be located and explored.
Version 2.0.3 – April 30, 2010
Add support for Windows 2003 Server.
Version 2.0.2 – April 2010
– Corrected a rare exception related to making the tray icon shown or not shown.
Version 2.0.1 – April 4, 2010
– Animated Tray Icon is now an option.
– 30 day evaluation was broken in some cases – fixed.
Version 2.0.0 – March 29, 2010
Major New Features
– Support for 64-bit Operating Systems – including integration with the Windows Explorer in all versions.
– Up to 10 backup sets can be used for setting up sources and destinations.
– Open Files can be copied using the Volume Shadow Copy (Disk Snapshot) services in Windows XP, Vista and Win 7.
– When using Disk Snapshots (VSS), a file can be verified after the copy is complete.
– 2-Way synchronise is available as an option.
– Exclusions can now work by file name extension as well as by pattern.
– Watched operations can be saved (offline mode) – for laptops taken away from the backup device, and will be applied when the backup device is attached again.
– Operations now work better with very long path names through files and folders.
– Auto-start on login now fixed for Vista and Windows 7.
Minor New Features
– The number of older versions of a file that can be stored on the backup is increased to 20.
– New synchronise option for day-of-the-month has been added.
– The User Interface has been revamped and more information is displayed.
– All users of a PC now share the same settings.
– Deferred operations can be cancelled.
– The tray icon is now animiated when QuickShadow Backup is active.
– More options for control now on the Tray Icon menu.
– The Setup pages have been improved with better layout, better explanations, and better on-line help.
Version 1.2.6 – November 21, 2009
– Fix an exception where sometimes the tray icon could not be created, especially just after machine start or login.
– Fix a fault with the synchronisation cleanup/delete option, which was not deleting some files, some of the time.
Version 1.2.5 – October 22, 2009
– Fix an exception which happened for users of Italian Windows, where they could also not save settings.
Version 1.2.4 – September 16, 2009
– Fix an exception for certain Windows XP users only when run as a limited user.
(XP Administrators and Vista users have no need to upgrade)
Version 1.2.3 – September 12, 2009
– Performance Counters check is not done if use of counters has been disabled in setup.
– during synchronise, Vista reparse points skipped, avoids an infinite loop in c:usersAppDatalocal.
– Auto-start for watch/sync delayed a few seconds more to cater for slow machines.
– Fix error pop-up when run by a limited user on XP.
– Dialogs now fixed size, can’t be resized.
– Major improvements to watched folders and files – new Temporal Chains(TM) added.
– Everything digitally signed.
Versions 1.2.1 and 1.2.2 – August 28, 2009
– A number of minor updates and refinements
Version 1.2.0 – August 26, 2009
– Synchronise is now independent of watching for file system changes
– Synchronise adds an option to allow the backup to be identical to the source (which may delete files from the backup)
– Windows Explorer Shell integration to locate a file on the backup
– Tray Icon is held off being displayed for 20 seconds when started with user login – to handle busy, slow PC’s
– Detection and notification that the backup drive is present and operating properly
– The backup drive can have an optional username and password
– Number of files checked is shown during a synchronise
– Proper on-line help
– Can check against the web site for new versions
– Can check automatically against the web site for new versions
And for registered users:
– Up to 9 previous versions on the backup [Registered users only]
– Scheduled synchronisation [Registered users only]
– Easy restore of multiple versions from the backup using Windows Explorer right-click [Registered users only]
Version 1.1.0 — June 28, 2009
– Add a “force defaults” button to the Exclusions page
– Add PICASA database location to default exclusions
– Check performance counters are enabled in installer and program
– Performance counters are language independent
– Use of performance counters is now an option on the destination tab
– Improve synchronise operation & checking
– Add Manifest – Vista users don’t need to Run As Administrator
Version 1.0.0 — June 13, 2009
– Correct spelling errors in warning dialogs.
– Even better backgrounding of the copy operations when the PC is busy.
– Add the /QUIET command line option to aid corporate deployments.
– Installer can now run silently with /VERYSILENT option, and will use sensible defaults.