Fab's AutoBackup 7 Pro - a must have tool for techs

[GTP]

It really is fascinating to see how diametrically opposed practices and opinions are in terms of how we each choose to do business, much of which is based on personal preference.

I absolutely, positively have never, ever, wanted to do any "flat fee".....

It was practice I employed for all the years I was doing business. It worked well as long as you gave the client the right expectations on repair times. It allowed me to work on many systems at once, doing 10 mins on this one 10 on that etc.
The jobs were completed satisfactorily (no shortcuts!!) and in good time.

In the good? (or bad depending on your POV) old days when 80% of my business was virus/malware removal and cleanup
I regularly had up to 10 PC's being scanned (limited space for any more) at any one time.

I could build/setup new desktops and setup new laptops for clients as well while other tasks were being carried out.

My clients were very happy with this arrangement and rarely had to wait more than a couple of days. (except when parts/orders/deliveries were outside my control).

Never did a client wait more than 1 working week.

 

[britechguy]

It comes back to:

• There is no One, True Way
• You've got to do what works for you

 

[Porthos]

In the good? (or bad depending on your POV) old days when 80% of my business was virus/malware removal and cleanup
I regularly had up to 10 PC's being scanned (limited space for any more) at any one time.

I actually remember that. I made good money at the shop. When Windows 8 and newer went mainstream that ended quickly.

My clients were very happy with this arrangement and rarely had to wait more than a couple of days. (except when parts/orders/deliveries were outside my control).

Exactly. Unfortunately Amazon prime was not around and shipping was not 2 day or the next day like it is now.

 

[River Valley Computer]

Exactly why I had a "flat fee" for workshop. I always explained that if an onsite job was going to take more than a certain time I would have to take it back to the workshop.
When the charge started to get too high they would complain about it.
People are cheapskates and jump at any chance to save money.

Part of the reason I stopped doing onsite too. When I told them that "by the time I charge travel and a per hour" that it would be much cheaper for them to bring it to me. Also, I could do other work as well.

We quit on-site service calls several years ago except for some we feel we need to do a SC. I tell you what - the four of us sure breath a lot easier now.

 

[fabs]

@sapphirescales It took a while but I have some new screen shots with the requested changes:

The home screen is back. The 3 buttons Backup, Restore and Transfer have moved off the hamburger menu to it and a "home" button (disabled here since we are already on the home screen) has replaced them in the menu. Note the logo is back too and this will indeed be customizable.


Backup settings screen has not changed, except that home button is enabled so we can get back to home screen.


Items now show in 2 rows instead of taking entire width. This way, the need to scroll is cut by half as requested.
in a first place, I thought about hiding item paths but finally, I've kept it in sight as it is too difficult to handle. I already has a tough time handling if an item need to be at first row or the second one with a lot of glitches. I need to keep them here just because that would not be usable at all through a screen reader program if I replace them with some inexplicit button that would need the same height space anyway.

 

[timeshifter]

Can Fabs show a SUBST drive as a source for backup or transfer? I tried but it didn't work. Didn't know if there was a way to work around or something.

 

[fabs]

It lists fixed drives and subst drive may not be considered like this. A workaround would be to select the windows directory instead of using the drive selection menu.
Let me know if this does the trick

 

[sapphirescales]

@fabs Sorry it took so long to reply. I don't have time to be on here very much anymore but I just wanted to say how nice that looks! I'm curious about the "select source" screen. Now there's 4 steps instead of 3. Why? Just so you can back up a remote computer? How does selecting a computer from the network work? Who the heck is sharing their entire C drive over the network? I just don't see the point of that function though maybe I just don't understand how it works.

 

[fabs]

Just so you can back up a remote computer? How does selecting a computer from the network work? Who the heck is sharing their entire C drive over the network?

You understand well. That's what's in the project. That would be for domain computers and it will use administrative shares like C$ that links to entire C drive and that are only browsable by administrators. I often have the need to transfer data from computers that are still in use in order to replace them. This is why I had this idea. So far, items détection works this way:
- Fab's has to be started as domain administrator
- Remote computer is selected as source option
- Tech enters network machine name or it's IP address and hits a "connect" button
- If access is granted, Fab's will enable remote registry access on network machine, connect to it and get user profiles and items from there.
When closing, Fab's disconnects from remote registry and sets back remote registry service to disabled (that's the default setting). So it does not leave security breach behind it.

 

[sapphirescales]

I often have the need to transfer data from computers that are still in use in order to replace them.

That's a cool feature but that's not something I think I would use often and I doubt most technicians who use your software would want to back up a network computer very often either. Is "this computer" automatically selected by default each time or do you have to manually select it every time you go to make a backup? It would be nice if "this computer" and "this operating system" were selected by default so you don't have to specify this every time.

 

[fabs]

That's a cool feature but that's not something I think I would use often and I doubt most technicians who use your software would want to back up a network computer very often either.

You are right for technicians. However, for the ones that are also network administrators, this is golden.

Is "this computer" automatically selected by default each time or do you have to manually select it every time you go to make a backup? It would be nice if "this computer" and "this operating system" were selected by default so you don't have to specify this every time.

That's actually the case.

 

[sapphirescales]

That's actually the case.

Cool! My only other suggestion in this case is to make sure the "this computer" and "this operating system" had some sort of indication that they're selected. Maybe a blue background in the square or even a border around the square or something so it's obvious that they've already been selected by default. Or maybe have the one that's not selected be greyed out. I dunno. I assume as soon as you get to the backup screen if you try to click on "this computer" or "this operating system" nothing will happen because they're already selected, right? If so that might be confusing without some sort of indication that they're active.

EDIT: "This computer" already looks like it's selected because it's blue while the "Network computer" is grey. Now if you could do something similar to the "this operating system" icon that should be enough to indicate that those options are already selected.

 

[fabs]

EDIT: "This computer" already looks like it's selected because it's blue while the "Network computer" is grey. Now if you could do something similar to the "this operating system" icon that should be enough to indicate that those options are already selected.

There's the same thing for "This operationg system" and "Other drive or old install" buttons. If one is chosen, the other turns into grey.

 

[britechguy]

"Greying/Graying out"/Stippling out goes WAY back for unselected and/or not-selectable in the current context.

 

[sapphirescales]

@fabs Isn't "this operating system" selected in your screenshot? The 3rd box has a populated list of accounts so I'm assuming it is. It doesn't look highlighted to me, unless the blue Windows logo is your idea of it being highlighted. Does the blue Windows logo appear over the "other drive or old install" icon if you click on that?

 

[fabs]

@fabs Isn't "this operating system" selected in your screenshot? The 3rd box has a populated list of accounts so I'm assuming it is. It doesn't look highlighted to me, unless the blue Windows logo is your idea of it being highlighted. Does the blue Windows logo appear over the "other drive or old install" icon if you click on that?

It looks like I need to remake those so that would be more obvious

 

[britechguy]

Isn't "this operating system" selected in your screenshot?

Yes, it is. Only the things in "full, living color" are selected. "This computer" in box 1. "This operating system" in box 2.

Grey ghost icons are unselected. Note that for "This operating system" even the part of the icon that represents the drive light is green, and un the unselected one its still in shades of gray.

I imagine it's even possible that if "This operating system" were not selected that the windows overlay could disappear, but it's more likely that it would be greyed-out, too.

I also prefer a strong outline in some color, around activated buttons, but that's becoming more rare now. The "color state" of the button is the indicator.

 

[sapphirescales]

It looks like I need to remake those so that would be more obvious

Yeah, I would. If you don't want to use color then maybe you could reduce the opacity of the icon that's not selected. Or make the entire box that's selected blue or highlighted or something. I don't know. You gotta do something.

Yes, it is. Only the things in "full, living color" are selected.

I see that now but it's not very obvious. If you hadn't pointed it out I probably never would have noticed. If the drive icon wasn't grey to begin with then it would be a lot more obvious but going from grey to black and white is so subtle. Just having that green indicator light and a Windows logo (that doesn't exist on the other icon) isn't enough to tell at a glance that the other one is in black and white.

 

[fabs]

Yeah, I would. If you don't want to use color then maybe you could reduce the opacity of the icon that's not selected. Or make the entire box that's selected blue or highlighted or something. I don't know. You gotta do something.

Is that better ?

Here's how it looks like if another drive is selected :

When clicking the "Other drive or ols install" button, a popup menu shows up. When choosing an item that's actually a drive mounted on the system, a checkmark is added on it and the "Other drive or old install" button's label is changed to match the menu selection. If the "This operating system" button is clicked again, the "Other drive or old install button's label switches back to its original name.

 

[sapphirescales]

@fabs Yeah that definitely looks better but it's still not really obvious at a glance. It would probably take me a few seconds to realize that the colored icons were active. Making the box itself a different color when it's selected would be a lot more obvious. Obviously if you want to use blue you'll have to get rid of the blue color on the monitor and the blue Windows logo color but honestly you'd be better of with grey icons (not greyed out but like the selected icon on the upper right on your last image) with the only difference being the box that's selected will either be outlined or the box itself filled with a different color.

EDIT: Actually it's pretty obvious that the "This operating system" box is greyed out but only because of the grey Windows logo. If the selected icon (in the upper right corner of your last image) was greyed out, it wouldn't be obvious at all because it's a grey hard drive. If you were to replace that icon with something that wasn't grey, you might be able to get away with just greying it out.