14 DAY TRIAL // Whenever you are working with important documents, backing them up is paramount. It would be nice to have an application constantly working in your favor by inconspicuously creating copies of your work at every change you make. Some versions of Windows Vista come prepared for task with the help of shadow copy. Earlier versions of files and folders are easily restored due to Shadow Copy feature which creates point-in-time copies as you work.
However, like many other great features in Vista, this function also has a third party correspondent. A correspondent that functions better, at a snappier rate and allows greater flexibility as it saves each copy of the file with all the modifications so you can revert to any earlier version you need. The options available on the Internet provide all these at various prices and sometimes they even come for free.
Versomatic is a pricey solution that performs exactly what Vista's Shadow Copy feature does. The price of the application is $49.99 and it can be fully tested for a period of 30 days. If it weren't for the system tray icon, the application would be totally invisible on your computer as its process indicates very low RAM usage (Task Manager showed a little over 5MB for tray icon and less than 1MB for the service).
There isn't too much to say about the interface as only a manager of the saved versions is available and it does not offer too many clues about the works of the application. A restart of the computer is required the moment the application finishes installation. After that, everything is automatic. The application will start with Windows and every file or document's state will be saved right before any modification is performed.
Versomatic Manager window is as simple as can be. It comes with two different views letting the user select the most convenient. Hierarchical View presents all the files Explorer style and all the files will be listed just like in Windows Explorer. List View will display only the files that have been modified and their versions (on the left, there are the files while on the right hand side of the window there are all recorded saves).
By default, Versomatic monitors Windows Desktop and user's Documents folder, but you can add or remove any folder you want by accessing Preferences menu in the manager. More than this, Versomatic also offers the possibility of defining locations the software should ignore.
General tab of application's configuration panel provides options for launching Versomatic service at OS startup (there is also an option for stopping the service or turning it to Manual). As the application integrates in Windows Explorer perfectly, users can define the number of versions to be displayed at right click. It does not matter if the icon in the system tray is disabled as the program will continue to do its job as long as the service is running. However, removing tray icon will make it harder for you to access Version Manager.
File Types tab of Preferences menu lets you define the extensions Versomatic should track. Some of the most popular file types (DOC, XLS, PPT and JPG) are already registered but you can add some of yours as well. A list of extensions to be ignored is also available and contains mostly video files (MPG, M4V, AVI, MOV and ASF). Versomatic is smart enough not to let you add the same extension in both lists and the moment this happens it'll ask to remove it from the other one.
However useful these lists are, there is a downside: you will not be able to add a brief description of them. Not that it would be important, but with all the new file formats coming up on the Internet nowadays you may want to remove some of them and remember what kind of file they defined. Directories menu is designed for letting you add the folders Versomatic should monitor as well as those the application should ignore. I advise you not to exaggerate as hard disk space shrinks like crazy and considering that the default save folder is situated on system drive partition this can create some issues. But saving folder for all documents versions can be changed. The default location is in Program Data but this is 100% customizable.
In order to spare some disk space you can limit the number of revisions saved per file. Default value is set to 30. The drop down menu contains values from 5 to 1000 but you can set anything in between with no problems. As soon as the maximum number of revisions is reached the software will start deleting older versions. Archiving is another solution for saving space and you get to set the maximum percentage of disk space used by archive.
Lower in the window there are the options for archiving. Not exactly what you would expect, as all there is available are rules for the way archives should be treated when maintenance settings are exceeded (delete without alert, alert when archive size maintenance rules are exceeded and ignore all archive size maintenance rules).
The application does a great job with preserving your files with all the modifications made along working with it and the user will not have any trouble at all handling all the available settings. However, when it comes to recovering the files there is one issue: the revision is saved in the compressed format and contains all the folders it is shelled with.
The Good
The application is very easy to use as it practically does the job automatically with little intervention from the user.
Users can add comments to each revision of the document for an easier recognition of the modifications applied to future versions.
Search option is fast and accurate.
The Bad
Revisions are saved as archive and contain all the folders they are stored in, so viewing them implies decompressing the archive first. Also, there is no preview function for the revisions.
There is no automatic updates option available. For $49.99, I expected that part to be covered.
The Truth
The application works great and, besides the aforementioned issues and the price, there is absolutely nothing wrong with it. It takes little RAM and saves every modification automatically.
Users will not have any trouble using and configuring it and should this happen the online help will answer all your questions.
The price is high enough to make you abort the use of the application immediately or at least reconsider their offer at the end of the 30 days of trial, especially if you consider that there are freewares that do the same job. True that they are not as light as Versomatic is, but they will not rip your RAM and the end result will be the same.
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
