DocShield

[ha14]

Hi

DocShield is a software program for Microsoft Windows operating systems that is designed to prevent or remedy the catastrophic loss or accidental modification of important electronic documents. It protects these documents by continually monitoring them for changes, then creating and storing snapshots of those documents as they change through time. DocShield's operation can be described as "passive" because it will never delete nor modify your shielded documents. "Snapshots" are stored in a compressed archive, which DocShield can be configured to keep in more than one location, or remotely through FTP for added protection. The archive of shielded files may exist on a local disk, a network disk, or other storage devices. For DocShield to begin shielding documents from disaster, you must first select one or more "destination" folders, which will hold the DocShield archives. If your resources allow, it is suggested that you create at least two destination folders on different physical devices to protect against hardware failure. You then select the documents that you want to shield. When a new "snapshot" of a document is written to an archive, it will automatically be written to the archive in each of the destination folders. You can specify how often you want DocShield to check on the documents, to see if any of them need to have a "snapshot" taken This time interval may be anywhere from every second to every few days. You can also specify if you want DocShield to be loaded automatically, every time you turn on your computer. If you delete a shielded file, it's snapshots will continue to exist in the DocShield archive(s) until you specifically remove them. DocShield works in the background and consumes negligible computer resources as it goes about averting potential catastrophic document loss. You can fine tune almost everything in DocShield.

DocShield features mature functions such as archive management, on-the-fly compression, and FTP backup. Here are more notes on this program:

■The user interface: is very well designed. The main configuration screen is split into 4 tabs and is very easy and intuitive to work with.
■Files monitored: can monitor local files or files on the network. You can point the program explicitly to the files you want it to monitor (drag and drop is supported), or you can define a folder/folders and tell it to scan for certain file-types (you can include or exclude subfolders and use wildcards to exclude certain files). I would strongly encourage the former approach as I have found that pointing the program to a folder that contains a large number of big files can sometimes be problematic.
■Monitoring activity: the program will check for changes in your files and folders at 5 minutes periods by default, but you can set this to anything you like (seconds/minutes/hours). If it finds that a file has changed from the latest version of it in the archive it will add that latest version to the archive. Any changes or versions that may have been created between the monitoring intervals will not be recorded. (You can also trigger the monitoring action manually by pressing the “Shiled Now” button)
■Browsing the archive: simply click on any file in the list to see the stored iterations/versions of the file, any of which can be extracted at any point.
■Archive management: to avoid backup archives growing too large and out of control, DocShield uses a highly compressed archives and implements a system of managing archive sizes. It will (a) require the user to decide where the archive file(s) is located and how many megs to allocate to it, (b) optionally allow the user to define the maximum number of recent snapshots of each file to be kept, and (c) will either prompt the user for action when the archive size is exceeded or act on its own, based on the settings, to increase archive size or remove snapshots older than a certain number of days. See more on archive management in the wish list below.
■FTP archiving: one of the coolest features is the option to archive documents remotely on an FTP server. If you do not have an FTP server you can sign up for one with the developers of DocShield. Note that I did not test this myself.
■Portability: if you want to carry your archive of documents on a USB drive, you can do so using the “DocShield USB utility”. DocShield will copy both your archive and the utility that can read it into a USB drive.
■Resrouce consumption: the more files/folders it has to monitor, the more resources it will require from your system. For the handful of files I was monitoring it generally consumed something like 25-35 megs and did NOT seem to lay any noticeable claim on CPU processing activity. Not lightweight, but not much of a resource hog. For the service that it offers the cost/benefit is definitely worth it.
■Is DocShield Free?: this program is free for personal use and the download contains the full version. To use this in a commercial setting you need to purchase a license.

DocShield is now FREE for personal, non-commercial use

We decided to make the benefits of DocShield more accessible to all. We know that you'll love what DocShield does for your your peace of mind. We hope you love it enough to put it to work at the office, too!

There is no catch. Commercial and non-commercial products are identical

Users who wish to utilize DocShield in the workplace can purchase commercial licenses starting at $39 for a single machine.

http://www.docshield.com/

[safeguy]

Good info..never heard of this software before...

Btw, if anybody is interested to download the program, here is the direct link:
http://www.docshield.com/files/DocShield21Setup.msi

No need to giveaway your email address or use a temporary disposable inbox service.

[tado]

when hawkers exert too many words (borrowed at that) trying hard to let us notice what they want us, to our chagrin ... well, it's hard to say more

... thanks for all the effort, anyway ... but who bothers to read too much, nowadays?

[hellnoire]

Wow... just wow... you've said this THREE TIMES. Either get a life, learn to speedread/skim or STFU. I hate to be rude, but just let HA14 do what he does. He covers all the bases on the software, unlike people that just link to said software with no description, leaving you to wonder what the heck you're installing.

[ha14]

Well DocShield is little bit difficult to capt it by its title, is it password protecting soft or making invisible the docs.... best was to describe it little bit, well then was all its feature and yes it brings the apetite to use it or...just pass by. Possible I overgrowed the soft and since is free for personal use then as might we take a look, afterall is a backup utility.

Sometime youre right tado who bothers to read too much, nowadays. But as hellnoire said and I agree shedding light on a soft can also be useful to not have surprise after installation (what the heck you're installing!!).

[Raymond]

It happens ha14.
A lot and I really mean A LOT of people doesn't read what I wrote and ended up asking questions that I've already answered.

[Ashraf]

It happens ha14.
A lot and I really mean A LOT of people doesn't read what I wrote and ended up asking questions that I've already answered.

Seeing as your blog is more popular than mine, I bet it is 100% worse for you, but I know exactly what you mean.

You spend so much time (sometimes even multiple hours) researching, developing, and writing an article. Then someone comes along and asks you a question about something you already addressed in the article. At that moment you feel like strangling the person but then remember public relations is key .

[rnbv424140]

reading too much or a lot improves your awareness and vocabulary

[Ceyfer √]

Sometime people do forget simple initiatives -