How to create a backup of installed programs?

A question that many people ask is how can you make backup of the programs you already have installed. This is logical: if we have a lot of software installed and we want to format the computer, we lose everything and we will have to reinstall one by one from scratch with the installation disk.

The most typical mistake made by the person who wants to avoid this problem is to copy the folder of a program, or some people even copy the desktop icon. But this is not at all useful for backing up programs. In this article we will show you what to do.

How to make backup of installed programs.

One of the possible solutions to save a backup copy of the programs (printers, scanner, all free software downloaded from the Internet, etc.) is given to us by Windows itself, if we have a PC. We must create a system image What is a system image? Very simple:

“It is an exact copy of your PC, which includes everything that is there at the moment. Programs, files and folders and operating system. With it you will be able to restore your PC to the state it was in before.”

The advantages of making a system image are several. One of them is that you can move your programs and files to a new computer without having to start everything from scratch. The other is that you can save your files in case a virus comes in and starts damaging the system files and you need to restore your system.

It has different names and ways of access depending on the operating system we use (XP, Vista, Windows 7 or 8), but there is not much loss either. The process to do it in Windows is as follows:

• 1. Windows XP: go to My Computer, right click on the C: drive and click on “Properties”. Then go to Tools > Back up now. We follow the steps of the wizard and we make a copy of the files and the configuration.
• 2. Windows Vista and Windows 7: go to Control Panel > System and Security > Backup and Restore. We click in the option that there is in the left panel of “to create a system image”.
• 3. Windows 8: go to Settings > Control Panel > Create a system image.

In any case we will have to indicate which units we want to include and where to save the copy of the system image with all the files and programs, which can be a external hard disk although it can also be internal (not the same as the system), on several DVD or on a route of FTP to host it in the cloud.

If this method is used, it is recommended to do it daily. Since it is so cumbersome, there are other ways to make a more appropriate backup. One of them is by using an online backup software that makes automatic copies in the cloud. If you are interested in learning more about this type of backups, don’t miss the article “8 advantages of making remote online backups”. You will discover that having a backup service is always the most professional thing to do when you are looking for real security.

I hope I helped you with this article, do you want to help us? Share this article on Facebook and Twitter with your friends.