Best Free Software
www.macrium.com/reflectfree What you need: Windows 7, 8/8.1 or 10
Macrium Reflect Free 7
Windows 10 has a built-in tool for backing up your PC - but it won’t be around for much longer. The System Image Backups tool has been ‘deprecated’ in the new Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, which means it will soon be ditched. So backup specialist Macrium has stepped into the impending breach with the latest free version of its excellent Reflect suite.
Like the outgoing Windows tool, Macrium Reflect Free makes it easy to create system image files and then restore them if you need to. You can back up your entire PC or Windows in the free version, though only the paid-for version lets you back up files and folders. Version 7 (7.1 at the time of writing) has a redesigned task scheduler for creating automatic backups, now updated to work with every Windows version from the Anniversary Edition on. The other notable change is the addition of Macrium viboot 2, a tool for creating and managing virtual machines – but it requires Microsoft Hyper-v ( www.snipca.com/25889) to work, and that means you’ll need the Professional, Enterprise or Education edition of Windows 10 (it’s currently not supported by Windows 10 Home).
There’s no junk in Macrium’s installer, but it takes several minutes to wade through - and the installer alone is 800MB in size. Click Home Use, then save and run the EXE file (‘Reflectdlhf.exe’), and then click Download at the bottom of the window that opens. Click Next in the Macrium Reflect Installer box, then wait a few minutes. When the setup wizard opens, click Next, accept the licence, click Home, and then click No under ‘Would you like to register…’. Don’t worry about the pre-ticked boxes on the next window – they aren’t junk.