WinBackup Reviewer's Comments

WinBackup by Uniblue Systems is good backup software that can perform basic backups, but with a few more features and tools designed with beginners in mind, WinBackup could be excellent.

Feature Set:  

WinBackup makes it easy to backup Outlook Express email and your address book, but the program can't perform a differential backup, a registry backup, or a complete system backup and restore. You can't backup to remote FTP locations or take advantage of drive spanning, and you aren't able to create a system boot disk in case your whole system crashes.

We were disappointed that WinBackup could not make a backup to a DVD-R or CD-R. Other backup programs include burning software or access the burning software on your computer to backup to discs.

Ease of Use:  

WinBackup was easy to install and we had no errors or problems during setup.

The first screen we saw on WinBackup didn't direct us where to go. If you compare WinBackup's screen shot with the screen shots of either PowerBackup or Genie Backup Manager, you can easily see that WinBackup isn't as intuitively designed.

After hunting, we found the backup/restore wizard, which walks you through steps using small popup screens. But, if you accidentally close the popup box you'll have to click a few menus to reopen it again. Without this popup wizard, WinBackup would be difficult for a novice user to navigate.

Also, after backing up and restoring Outlook Express email, WinBackup doesn't show you how to import the email into Outlook Express or any other mail service. (We knew how to do this because other backup software programs like Genie Backup Manager show this process clearly.)

Backup/Restore:  

WinBackup did everything that it was supposed to do. We had no trouble during the backup or the restore process. The restored data was flawless and in the right location.

Help/Documentation:  

The help section is excellent, but is a PDF file; you'll need to download Adobe Acrobat Reader to read it. The help files are thorough and are combined into a complete manual that's divided into chapters. Also, this section offers a quick link to Uniblue Systems WinBackup technical support. But the main functions of WinBackup—backup and restore—are covered in the popup wizard screens.

Summary:  

WinBackup completed a perfect backup and restore as promised, but the program would be far easier to use if Uniblue Systems developed a simple, more logical set of instructions that beginners could follow without all the popups.