What does this software cost?

When you download the software it is free, you get all features for 30 days evaluation.

If you pay the registration fee, the then the full set of features will work forever.

At the end of 30 days and if you have not registered, the software will continue to operate, but with a reduced feature set. This is the “free version” feature set, and it is likely to be suitable for a large number of users.

So what’s the catch?

None. QuickShadow Backup was written out of a frustration that the readily available downloads for shareware and freeware backup programs either don’t work as advertised, or are slow, or are way too complex. Having written it to meet a personal need, it might as well be available for others.

How do I install it? And set it up?

Go to the downloads page, follow the instructions. Download the installer to some convenient place and then double click it to install.

Once installed, Use Start->Programs->QuicklyTech->QuickShadow to start it.

Use File->Setup to change the settings. You will need to choose a location to backup (you can have many locations), and a destination for the copy to be made to. There are some options as well, but mostly you can use those alone. The options should be self-explanatory – if not there is on-line help available by pressing F1.

Can I set up a schedule?

During the evaluation period – Yes.

In the Unregistered (free) version – No.

If you register – Yes. A scheduled synchronise can be performed on a regular basis.

QuickShadow Backup seems to be running, there is a tray icon for it. How do I stop it?

Right click the tray icon, and select the exit option.

Can I log the operations that QuickShadow Backup performs?

Yes. In the setup page is an option to set how much logging is performed. You can choose everything, only failures, or nothing.

If I use logging, the log files get really big. How can I stop that?

In the setup options for logging, you can select for log files to be trimmed. If you do so, they will be limited to 10 MB in size. And logs will be “rotated”, so that there is always a current log and a previous log kept.

I want to have copies made automatically to the backup when I add, rename, or edit files on my PC. Can QuickShadow Backup do this?

Yes. This is exactly what it is designed for. Use the button “Monitor and Copy Changes”.

I read that some backup programs won’t copy Outlook PST files. Will this one?

Yes! Outlook PST files can get to be very big, and this means that the copy might take a long time. But you will get your copy made.

For unregistered users, Outlook PST files can only be copied when Outlook is not running, because Outlook holds the files open continually.

Registered users can use the Snapshot Advanced Option to copy Outlook PST files even when Outlook is running.

What about System and hidden files? Some programs insist on being clever and stashing things into System and Hidden files so that we can’t see them, but they are essential for a good backup?

You can optionally select to copy System and Hidden files. This is the default, and we suggest you leave it enabled.

Can this software copy open files?

During the evaluation period, and for registered users – Yes.

If you don’t register, then open file can’t be copied.

Can I make backup jobs like some other programs, with each job having a source and destination?

QuickShadow Backup does not use “Backup Jobs”, but it does include Backup Sets. In a Backup Set you can list a number of places to copy to a destination. And you can have several Backup Sets – for example you might copy documents to one location, music to another, and your family budget somewhere else again.

If you do not register you are limited to one backup set only.

If you register, then up to 10 Backup Sets can be selected.

Bear in mind, though, that in each destination the is identical to the source.

As an example, a backup from

c:\Documents and Settings\fred\My Documents\My Photos

onto a NAS drive called

\\my_nas\backup

will appear at:

\\my_nas\backup\c\Documents and Settings\fred\My Documents\My Photos

It is running and I can’t change the setup! Help!

When QuickShadow Backup is running, you can’t change the setup. This is deliberate. Just stop any active synchronise, or turn off Monitoring for changes (or both) – and then wait for any pending operations to finish. When everything is idle, you can change the setup.

So QuickShadow Backup monitors changes to my files and copies the changes to the backup. But I do not want files I delete to be deleted from the backup. Can you handle that?

Yes. You have the option for files that are deleted to be deleted from the backup, if you want. If you don’t select that option, then files on the backup won’t be deleted.

When I click the Start Sync button, it copies everything, right?

Wrong! A Synchronise checks the source and destination. If the file exists in both, and is the same, it will not be copied. Only files that are different, or that do not exist on the destination will be copied.

Synchronise only copies from source to destination. If there are extra files on your destination, they will NOT be removed when you do a synchronise.

If you have 2-way Synchronise selected, then any files on the DESTINATION that are newer than on the source will be copied to the source (off the backup and onto your PC), and similarly any files that are on the backup but not on your PC will be brought to your PC.

But I don’t want the backup to be full of old junk, I want it to be identical!

Normally, synchronise copies from source to destination. If there are extra files on your destination, they will NOT be removed when you do a synchronise.

But there is an option to force synchronise to check the source and destination against each other and remove old junk from the destination. Use this with care!

So you have the synchronise option to make them identical – what about versions on the backup?

If you select the option to make the backup identical to the source, it will not remove old versions of files on the backup.

How do I clean old versions of files off the backup device?

You have to manually open up the backup device in something like Windows Explorer, and then find the files and delete them yourself.

So how fast is a synchronise, if it does not have to do much?

A synchronise that only needs to copy a few files is very fast. On my system, I can synchronise 100,000 files and it takes about 4 minutes. When I do that, only perhaps 10 or 20 files will need to be copied, the rest is just checking.

How about performance? How do I make it all go fast?

Performance will be determined by your PC, you backup drive, and your networking.

If you use a NAS drive, with ethernet, then Gigabit makes a huge difference. Make sure the NAS, any switches, and the PC are all able to use gigabit speeds. This is the single biggest factor that determines performance.

If using a USB backup drive, make sure the drive and the PC support USB 2. This gives 480 MBits/sec. Use of USB 1.0 or 1.1 standards will be intolerably slow.

Some backup programs make my PC run slow when they are copying something to the backup. What about this one?

QuickShadow Backup goes to a lot of effort to run at a low priority so it does not interfere with the operation of your PC.

And during copy operations, it also checks continuously how busy the PC is, and pauses the copy to let other programs run. It does this because file copying can be a huge drain on PC performance – more than you might first think. Pausing the copy lets other programs do what they normally do, and gives you back the performance you want!

Can this program be used for a corporate deployment? Is so, how?

Yes!

There are a few things needed for a corporate deployment:

1. For a silent install (perhaps from a domain logon script), run the installer with the command line option /VERYSILENT. For example: QuickShadowSetup /VERYSILENT

This will install using the defaults you normally step through, including the option to run on PC startup, but there will be no user prompts at all.

2. You can change the behaviour of QuickShadow so once running, users can’t mess about with it. Just run it with the option /QUIET on the command line. See below for doing this automatically on login/start.

The option /QUIET removes any warning or nag dialogs, and removes the right click menu from the tray icon. The tray icon is still present, but a user can’t bring the program to full-screen, can’t force a synchronise, and can’t shut the program down.

3. If you want to have standard settings for all corporate users:

- set up one machine as a reference. Then use regedit to save to a “.REG” file the portion of the registry at HKLM\Software\QuicklyTech
- in the domain logon script use regedit/s
- this will load your standard settings into the registry for users
- either run quickshadow.exe from the domain logon script, or use the same method to copy in a “Run” registry key to HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

All registry keys live in HKLM\Software\QuicklyTech. With that information, you can force whatever settings you want at logon time. That, and the /QUIET option allows silent setup, use, and standard setup.

To deploy the registered version in a corporate environment, please contact our support email address.

What about Windows Vista? Windows 7? Is it supported?

Yes. QuickShadow Backup needs to run as an Administrator, and it includes a built-in “manifest” that allows this.

Windows Vista and Windows 7 are fully supported.

How about 64 bit versions of Windows?

The 64 bit versions of Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7 are fully supported.

Can QuickShadow Backup run as a service?

No. This is on the list of improvements, but right now this is not possible.

Of course, you could use a commercially available program that runs anything as a service. Google “windows run program as service” – there are a number of commercial offerings available.

Can I run QuickShadow Backup as a limited user on Windows XP?

No. QuickShadow Backup must run as an Administrator. On Windows Vista and Windows 7, this happens automatically.