Backup defaults
The values every new job starts with. Changing them never changes a job you already saved.
Settings ▸ Backup defaults fills in the wizard for a new job. The page says so: Everything here seeds new jobs only. Existing jobs keep their own settings. To change a job you already saved, edit the job.
Where new jobs go#
Default destination (empty). Type a folder such as H:\Backups, or use Browse…. Open shows it in Explorer.
A new job starts on that drive, in a folder named after the job inside this one. With H:\Work\Backups here, a job called Documents & Desktop starts in H:\Work\Backups\Documents & Desktop. If you pick another drive on the job's Where step, the job goes in <drive>\Backups\<job name> there. You can change the folder on the Where step.
Left empty, the wizard picks the drive least likely to fail with the PC: a connected external drive first, then an internal drive on another disk, then another partition of the Windows disk, and the Windows drive last. It prefers drives that can hold files over 4 GB, then the one with the most free space.
Every run writes its own set folder inside the job's folder. That is what lets you restore any point in time.
How new jobs back up#
| Setting | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Backup type | Incremental | Full, Incremental, Differential or Mirror. Incremental stores only what changed since the last run; retention starts a new full every 7 runs. Differential and Mirror need Home or Pro. |
| Compression | Balanced | Off, Balanced (zstd level 3) or Max (zstd level 12). |
| Encrypt new jobs | off | New jobs start with AES-256 on. Each job still asks for its own password. Home and Pro. |
| Retention | keep 5 sets · new full after 7 runs · delete older than 90 days | Leave a field empty for never. On Free only the number of sets can be changed; the page says Deleting sets by age and starting a new full every N runs are part of Home and Pro. |
| Verify files after every run | on | Reads every stored file back and checks it against the manifest. |
| Use a VSS snapshot for open files | on | Backs up files other programs hold open. Needs administrator rights at run time; see Needs administrator. |
| Ask before a job's first run | on | Before a new job's first run, shows what it will back up (below). |
The types are explained in The four backup types, retention in Retention.
The first-run check#
With Ask before a job's first run on, the first run of each new job opens a dialog such as First run of Documents & Desktop. It shows what the job will back up: files, size and what the filters leave out. It also warns when the destination cannot be reached or may be too small. Press Run now or Not now.
To stop being asked, tick Don't ask before the first run of new jobs in that dialog, or turn the setting off here.
Which files#
| Setting | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Follow symbolic links and junctions | off | Off avoids loops and files backed up twice. |
| Back up hidden files | on | Files with the Hidden attribute are backed up. |
| Skip files larger than | off (2 GB when turned on) | A size in MB or GB. It is stored on each new job as a size rule. A skipped large file is left out, not listed as skipped. |
| Deduplicate identical files | on | Identical content is stored once per set. |
| Worker threads | Auto | Auto uses one per CPU core; or pick 1 to 16. |
System files such as Thumbs.db and pagefile.sys are left out by the System files preset in Global exclusions.