Firsthand – about product updates.
It seemed that just recently my review of Acronis True Image 2017 New Generation was published, and Acronis specialists have already prepared an update, which I am in a hurry to tell you about, because AMR readers will be among the first in the world to learn about the key innovations of the already familiar backup / recovery tool and comprehensive data protection. Go.
In the product update, in my opinion, a vector of movement of the developer company towards the inclusion of rather complex operations and functionality inherent in products aimed at advanced users is indicated in the assembly. In my review, I will try to briefly describe the main updates for Acronis True Image 2018.
The innovations are predominantly functional in nature, the changes in the interface are not so noticeable at first glance, but they also serve a practical purpose, providing more complete information on the results of backups. So, for example, in the 'Backup' section, after the process itself is completed, the user will be able to see the breakdown of the local copy by file type. The color chart will show the ratio of images, audio compositions, videos, documents, and system files.
Redesigned and the report on the backup process. In the new automatically created copy field in the 'Activity' section, the user will be able to view a detailed log of events that occurred during the copy creation, whether it was the beginning of copy creation, pause or stop, canceled copy or its successful completion. The log will also show such parameters as copy size and type, copy speed and end date / time.
Visual changes were made to the tab for creating copies of social networks and mobile devices. Added statistics for detecting intrusions into system files, which are monitored by the Active Protection technology familiar from the previous review. Now it 'got' its own control panel, which indicates the number of suspicious and the total number of running monitored processes. In a separate 'Process Management' tab, you can add applications added to the blacklist to exclusions, which Active Protection will not 'swear at' in the future. We are talking about processes whose behavior is similar to the work of ransomware, but the user believes that they can be trusted. For example, I added a preinstalled program to the exceptions that improves the image when watching movies. It will also display the latest news on the latest threats and ransomware. Forewarned – forearmed.
By the way, about Active Protection. Acronis True Image 2018 updated the tool to version 2.0, improved algorithms for instant heuristic analysis and real-time stack anomaly detection through machine learning and statistical data distribution analysis. Well, additional good news will be the inclusion of the tool in the standard subscription package of the product, as well as for users with a one-time purchase license, in the previous version it was available exclusively in the premium version.
Let's go back directly to the backup. Thanks to WAN optimization in the new version of Acronis True Image, the speed of recovering one or another copy from the Acronis Cloud storage has been increased, incremental backups have been accelerated, and the option to copy only when connected to the network has been added (relevant for laptop owners). Also, a continuous backup mode has been added, which 'monitors' changes in files / folders and gradually uploads the contents of the changed folder / partition to the 'cloud' in the background. This functionality will be useful for project-leading users who do not want to lose the fruits of their labors due to hard drive failure. Accordingly, it is for this reason that copying is carried out to the cloud, you can set the copying intervals – from almost constant monitoring of changes with sending to the storage to daily, weekly, etc.
For those who, for some reason, do not trust the 'clouds', the assembly includes a tool for automatically copying mobile devices via Wi-Fi to a local NAS, PC or Mac. Currently supported NAS manufactured by QNAP and Synology. There is a mode in which copying starts as soon as the devices connect to the same Wi-Fi network.
In Windows – version of Acronis True Image 2018, you can now convert backups to virtual VHDX format. It will come in handy in case you need to conduct full testing of the operation of programs or the operation of the system in a certain configuration without the risk of losing the stability of the system itself. The resulting virtual copy can be loaded into the preferred hypervisor (Hyper-V, Microsoft, VirtualBox, etc.), and also makes it possible to connect a disk to the system in order to gain access to files. A fairly comprehensive tool that advanced users are likely to appreciate.
Amateurs Instagram will be delighted with the new profile backup option in Instagram, which will become available to Russian users in September. They will be able to save photos and videos, as well as account information, number of likes and comments.
The already familiar product has 'overgrown' with new functions and technologies, has become more flexible. The subscription cost, depending on the number of devices and the amount of cloud storage provided, varies from 1,700 to 5,440 rubles. The presentation of Acronis True Image 2018 took place in Russia today, and the product will be available to users on August 22 after 16:00 Moscow time.