Backup Scheduler is a comprehensive utility for backing up your data at scheduled times of the day to either compressed zip file or specified directory. Profiles It is highly configurable, allowing you to define multiple profiles. For example, you could define a profile to backup your email every 2 days at 5:30pm and another profile to backup your documents every Tuesday and Friday at 8:00am. Scheduling The scheduler allows you to define the days on which a profile is backed up. You also define the time of day at which a profile is backed up. A frequency may also be set so that the backup only takes place every specified number of days or weeks. Backup Source The next step is to define what files should be backed up. Backup Scheduler allows you to specify both individual files and whole directories. When you specify a source directory you can define whether or not the directories below it are included in the backup (ie. whether it is recursive). You can also specify either individual file extensions which should be included in the backup or individual extensions that should be excluded from the backup. For example, you may specify that only files with extensions .doc and .cls are included from below a directory and that all files other than those with a .jpg extension are included from another directory. Backup Destination The backup destination will either be to a directory or a compressed zip file. If the destination is a directory then all the required files are backed up to the specified directory whilst maintaining the directory structure. To increase the efficiency of the application and reduce backup times files will only be copied on subsequent backups if they have been amended. Alternatively the backup destination can be to a compressed zip file. Here you have the option of specifying whether each zip file entry stores full path information or relative to a specified base directory. Backup Type Each profile can be set to standard or revolving backup. A standard backup will overwrite the destination directory or destination zip file on each backup. A revolving backup on the other hand will maintain a history of backups. For example, if every day is set to an active day for a zip file backup profile named Email then after six months you would have the following backups:-
Email Prev Mon.zip
Email Prev Tue.zip
Email Prev Wed.zip
Email Prev Thur.zip
Email Prev Fri.zip
Email Prev Sat.zip
Email Prev Sun.zip
Email PrevWeek 1.zip
Email PrevWeek 2.zip
Email PrevWeek 3.zip
Email PrevWeek 4.zip
Email PrevMonth 1.zip
Email PrevMonth 2.zip
Email PrevMonth 3.zip
Email PrevMonth 4.zip
Email PrevMonth 5.zip
Email PrevMonth 6.zip

A revolving backup allows further configuration options. You can specify which days backup is kept for weekly revolves. For monthly revolves you control how many months backup to retain and which day of the month the monthly revolve takes place. Email Notifications For each profile you control whether or not an email is sent for each successful backup and for any failed backups. Emails can be sent using your standard email client such as Outlook or Outlook Express (using MAPI) or using the Backup Scheduler's built in SMTP server. The disadvantage of using Outlook or Outlook Express is that their security wrappers will display a warning dialog when Backup Scheduler sends a notification email.