Fab's AutoBackup 6 Pro - a must have tool for techs

If this would be a convenient time to include bringing over the original folder time/date stamp, I have some customers that organize their folders that way.
 
FremontPC said:
If this would be a convenient time to include bringing over the original folder time/date stamp, I have some customers that organize their folders that way.
Click to expand...
The program only lists the files to copy. If their directory tree does not exist, the folders are created. This is why the time stamp is not kept: the folder has just been created. This is something I cannot change easily without introducing bugs.
 
For the folder date/time stamps you may be better off just using Robocopy for their Documents folder.

The big strength of Fab's is more in getting all of the rest of the important items tucked away in the profile, there are lots of ways to grab the documents.
 
fabs said:
I have made several changes (in fact, a lot since dates are called in every logged instruction). Now, the program uses the current system short date format. This way, no more mental juggling except if you are working on a foreign computer. This will be in the next update.
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That's good news, thank you.

I think it's a bit over-complicated (for you), because the date/time format only needs to be consistently in the technician's locale – as the technician is likely to be the only person to see it – with no regard for the locale setting of the computer under test. Don't forget that the short date format may only have two digits for the year (worse, US English has an option for yy/MM/dd!), which could cause even more confusion if the machine's format isn't known. Personally, I'd be happy to see the present logfile date/time format (yyyy-mm-dd - hh:mm:ss) used throughout AutoBackup.

The reports (InstalledSoftwareList.htm, PrintersList.htm) are the ones that cause me most problems as they are most likely, for me, to be read on a different day to when they were saved or have multiple reports from the same machine.
 
NJW said:
That's good news, thank you.

I think it's a bit over-complicated (for you), because the date/time format only needs to be consistently in the technician's locale – as the technician is likely to be the only person to see it – with no regard for the locale setting of the computer under test. Don't forget that the short date format may only have two digits for the year (worse, US English has an option for yy/MM/dd!), which could cause even more confusion if the machine's format isn't known. Personally, I'd be happy to see the present logfile date/time format (yyyy-mm-dd - hh:mm:ss) used throughout AutoBackup.

The reports (InstalledSoftwareList.htm, PrintersList.htm) are the ones that cause me most problems as they are most likely, for me, to be read on a different day to when they were saved or have multiple reports from the same machine.
Click to expand...
So, it looks like I have done all of this for nothing now, at least for the folders and files names generated by Fab’s AutoBackup. If I understand your request, you would like to see reports for printers and installed software with the date like yyyy-mm-dd - hh-mm-ss in their names so you can easily see how it was at a given date if there are more than one report right?
 
I would like to see the Default Apps transferred or restored. I don't mean the actual apps, but the settings for which apps are default. Just for default browser and email. It might be difficult to apply the default app settings but the defaults could be logged so the tech can manually set the defaults after installing the apps.
 
fabs said:
So, it looks like I have done all of this for nothing now, at least for the folders and files names generated by Fab’s AutoBackup. If I understand your request, you would like to see reports for printers and installed software with the date like yyyy-mm-dd - hh-mm-ss in their names so you can easily see how it was at a given date if there are more than one report right?
Click to expand...
Sorry, I should have made my original request more clear. Yes, I was only concerned with the date in the generated reports, but having the date and time added to the filenames (in the same way as the AutoBackup log file) would be useful.

This is separate to keeping original folder timestamps, requested by other people.
 
NJW said:
Sorry, I should have made my original request more clear. Yes, I was only concerned with the date in the generated reports, but having the date and time added to the filenames (in the same way as the AutoBackup log file) would be useful.

This is separate to keeping original folder timestamps, requested by other people.
Click to expand...
Got it but it complicates the restore process a bit: if there are a huge number of these reports and you are performing a restore job, the desktop will be flooded with such htm files. To work around this, 'Printers List' and 'Installed Software List' will be created and all the files will be copied in them.
 
fabs said:
To work around this, 'Printers List' and 'Installed Software List' will be created and all the files will be copied in them.
Click to expand...
Okay, I understand. Perhaps a single folder ('AutoBackup'?), to contain the report files and the log file? Actually, I can't imagine having multiple reports for the same backup/restore job and I don't normally leave the reports on the Desktop before returning the machine to the client.

For my use case, I keep a copy of the report files in the client's dossier for future reference. (Completely separate from any backup and restore, I sometimes use FAB to only generate a report of installed software and printers for client records – for 'before' and 'after' doing work, for example, or if there is something unusual about which software or printers are installed.)
 
NJW said:
Okay, I understand. Perhaps a single folder ('AutoBackup'?), to contain the report files and the log file?
Click to expand...
I will stick with 'Printers List' and 'Installed Software List' because of the people who brand the program and remove the 'AutoBackup' name.
In my opinion, that is the best possible compromise.
 
I've got a bit of a question I haven't seen answered. Do you put down FABs restore right after your OS install or do you wait until all the apps/programs (that are covered by FABs: Firefox, Thunderbird, Chrome, etc.) are installed and then you put down your FABs restore? I've done it both ways but I'm not sure works best.
 
Diggs said:
I've got a bit of a question I haven't seen answered. Do you put down FABs restore right after your OS install or do you wait until all the apps/programs (that are covered by FABs: Firefox, Thunderbird, Chrome, etc.) are installed and then you put down your FABs restore? I've done it both ways but I'm not sure works best.
Click to expand...
I wait until all the programs are installed and then do the restore. I just feel it is easier that way.

Someone can correct me if I am wrong.
 
Diggs said:
I've got a bit of a question I haven't seen answered. Do you put down FABs restore right after your OS install or do you wait until all the apps/programs (that are covered by FABs: Firefox, Thunderbird, Chrome, etc.) are installed and then you put down your FABs restore? I've done it both ways but I'm not sure works best.
Click to expand...
For "well behaved" programs it won't matter. They will use any profiles that exist at the time of installation. Eg Chrome, Firefox, Thunderbird etc. On the other hand, I can imagine a less well behaved program might expect a clean slate at the time of installation and/or not give it much though and just erase or overwrite any pre-existing data. I can't give you an example of such a program but the possibility exists. So my general approach is to install all the required software first. make sure nothing else is running when you do the Fabs restore and everything "should be" hunky dory!
 
I did have an issue one time only where I did a restore before installing programs. After installing Thunderbird it failed to pick up the profile so I had to manually replace/overwrite the profile/s to the relevant folder/s.
Not a major problem but decided after that to just install everything first. Had no issues since.:)
 
Barcelona said:
I did have an issue one time only where I did a restore before installing programs. After installing Thunderbird it failed to pick up the profile so I had to manually replace/overwrite the profile/s to the relevant folder/s.
Not a major problem but decided after that to just install everything first. Had no issues since.:)
Click to expand...

Waaay too much work. Try -

thunderbird.exe -P

Just change to the right profile. Works with Firefox too.
 
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