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Windows settings

The Windows settings screen allows you to manage a selection of BackupAssist settings specific to Windows. Changes made here apply to all BackupAssist jobs that use the Windows setting.

Windows settings

VSS timeout

This option sets the maximum amount of time allowed for Windows to take a VSS snapshot, when a backup job begins. If the snapshot is not created within the time specified, then the backup will not take place. On slower machines, increasing this setting can improve the success rate of backups.

Incremental backup tracking for System Protection

System Protection creates a full backup the first time it runs. Subsequent backups are incremental. To create an incremental backup, BackupAssist scans and compares the data to be backed up and the data in the destination image to see what data changed.

The process can take a long time, but when Enable image tracking is selected, System Protection backups record the changes to the data using a virtual snapshot.

This means the backup job only needs to look at the snapshot to see what data changed. The result is significantly faster backups, therefore Enable image tracking is enabled by default.

To learn more, visit our article on making faster incremental image backups.