Better Backups

As a result of evaluating and writing about innovative products for the Windows Mobile platform, I need to install, test (and if I'm lucky, break), and occasionally uninstall applications that install software drivers, modify or replace system files and update (and in some cases make a mess of) the registry. I have learned from the early days of volatile RAM Windows CE handheld PC days to instruct ActiveSync to incrementally backup my device each time I docked. Even with the advent of non-volatile RAM, I still employ this option and wonder why Microsoft doesn't have this option enabled by default.

Nevertheless, this mechanism only works well when a device has docked with a trusted PC running ActiveSync. I recently encountered an issue when I blew out an important registry hive as a result of a flaky driver installation. I failed to notice this problem until several days after the install when I noticed certain Bluetooth devices that I used semi-frequently failed to connect. Naturally, I was on the road far away from the PC that I dock and backup with. My Windows Mobile device has a backup client on it but due to my reliance on ActiveSync's more trusted and more or less automated imaging, the files created by the device's backup program were woefully out of date. Having no choice, I cold reset the device and restored the older backup as a temporary measure. I grumbled until I could flash my ActiveSync backup to restore a more recent configuration.

This experience made me ponder about how nice it would be for Microsoft to include in a future release of Windows Mobile a System Restore feature similar to that found in Windows XP and Vista. That way, whenever new program or driver is installed, Windows Mobile automatically examines the delta between pre and post install, compresses that delta in non-volatile RAM and protects me from a bricking my device due to a wonky driver or system file conflict. Windows Mobile could recommend a default number of restore points to save based on metrics such as available RAM and frequency of system state change, but allow users to change the recommendations based on their needs, just as they can modify system memory allocation to running programs or storing data. What are your thoughts? Should Microsoft include such a feature and if so, how soon do you think we'll see it manifested in a future Windows Mobile OS release?