Online Backup by 77Backup

Files are great things. You can put just about anything in them. You can also make copies of them (which is basically what a backup is, after all).

The problem arises when you want to make a backup of a file, and another application is using it. Sometimes, it’s nearly impossible to get the other application to let you have a look at its file, even for a second or two. Notably Outlook. Outlook REALLY doesn’t like to have anyone else even look at its data files – meaning that it won’t let you open them if it’s open, and if you are looking at them when it opens, it’ll break.

The solution? In Windows XP, Vista and Windows Server 2003, it’s called the Volume Shadow Copy Service, which will allow you to make a backup of a file (or the system), even when files are open.

We’ve just implemented it in Altexa Backup, and hopefully, it should mean a lot more happy customers!

10 points for anyone who can tell me what sound a duck makes.

Yes, that’s right, something remarkably like ‘UAC’. Which happend to be the acronym for Vista’s new security framework – User Access Control. That’s the framework which gives you those popup windows every time you try to do something.

One of the more annoying (to us) parts of UAC is the way it handles programs which try to start when you log on to Windows. If the program hasn’t SPECIFICALLY been written for Vista (i.e. inside the program’s innards, there isn’t a magical line of code saying ‘hey, I know what UAC is and I play nice’), then the program won’t be allowed to run.

This was the case with the backup agent in Altexa Backup. Until build 808, that is smiley

Oh, and we now digitally sign our executable files – it’s another step forward in our security process…you can now be sure as soon as you download our programs that they are from us. The installer is signed by ‘Altexa LLC’, and each individual program is, too.