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Win 8 Backup Sounds Brilliant

Almost nobody uses Windows client backup, and Microsoft thinks it knows why: because it ain't very good. Of course backup vendors (and nowadays, cloud backup vendors) love this as it gives them plenty of room to sell their own solutions. Microsoft says that fewer than one in 20 Win 7 users use the built-in backup.

With Windows 8, Microsoft found a very simple new approach -- one that I am sure to use as soon as I upgrade. File History backup does just what the name implies. It ignores all the junk you don't need, and backs up the files you actually create and work on. Genius! This tidy little backup file is just what the doctor ordered. And since it tracks changes, you can get back earlier versions of a file. So if you cut and deleted a magnificent swath of text, just go back to an earlier version. It may not have every single tweak, but the bulk of your brilliance will be there.

Thank you, Microsoft. A simple, sweet idea.

Am I giving Microsoft too much credit or is this as cool as I think it is? You tell me at [email protected].

Posted by Doug Barney on 07/23/2012 at 4:59 PM


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