Continuing with last week’s discussion about home backups, we left off talking about a free program called “Fab’s AutoBackup.” You’ll find the program to download here: http://fabs.dyndns.org/

A quick note: I’ve only used this program with Windows XP, and the developer doesn’t state whether or not it runs under previous versions of Windows. Because of the way it backs up files, it should work under Windows 2000, but I honestly don’t know if it will work under Windows 98 or ME. Your mileage may vary.

After you download the Windows version (not the “PE” version), double-click the file you downloaded to install it. You can tell it to extract itself wherever you’d like, or just let it extract itself to your Desktop. It will create a folder that contains a few files. When you’re ready to get started, you’ll want to double-click the file called “AutoBackup-Win.exe.”

AutoBackup will present you with a friendly screen. You’ll notice that there are three different areas of the program to choose from listed under the title bar: “Backup Settings,” “Advanced Backup” and “Restore Settings.” You’re already in the “Backup Settings” area.

Before we continue, there’s something you need to understand about how Windows stores files, and where. For every login name that has been used to log into Windows, there will be that many different profiles. If, when you turn on your computer, Windows takes you right to your desktop without having to click anything or type a password, you’ve probably only got one profile to deal with. However, if you have one login for the parents and one for the kids, or one for each spouse, whatever, please understand that you will need to do this procedure while logged into each individual login you use. If I use AutoBackup while logged in as “Parents,” it’s only going to backup what is in the “Parents” My Documents folder. It will only backup the “Parents” Outlook Express email, etc. It won’t back up those things that the “Kids” see when they’re logged in as “Kids.”

Ok, on to the the next section of AutoBackup, “Select items to backup.” Here you’ll be able to put a check mark in everything that you want AutoBackup to copy for you. If you aren’t able to put a check in the box, it’s because AutoBackup can’t detect that you have anything like that to back up. For example, you can’t tell AutoBackup to backup your “Opera Bookmarks” if you don’t even have Opera (another web browser) installed.

Finally, click the “Browse” button to choose a place for AutoBackup to backup the files to. If you’re putting it on your hard drive to copy elsewhere later, don’t select your Desktop, My Documents or any other location that AutoBackup is backing up! More next week.

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[Author’s Note: “Ask the Geek” is published weekly in the Stratford Star - the penultimate reading experience for residents of Stratford, Texas, population 1,920. It is posted on WritersCafe.net for posterity. Feel free to comment, but I can’t promise you’ll make the Star.]