For Image backups, you can choose to exclude some folders that may not include data needed for a full restore. However, if you do decide to exclude, you must test to ensure the exclusions do not interfere with a needed restore. Good candidates might be browser cache folders and temp locations.

But as I stated, if you exclude the wrong folder, you may not be able to properly restore. So please test.

Find the User Folder Location from Command Prompt
Google Chrome Browser Cache (per User) Microsoft Edge Browser Cache (per User) Firefox Browser Cache (per User).
Use about:cache in Firefox to find exact location
Windows User TEMP Folder (per User)
echo %TEMP% from Command Prompt

Also:
\Windows\Temp
\Windows\ServiceProfiles\LocalService\AppData\Local\Temp
\Windows\ServiceProfiles\NetworkService\AppData\Local\Temp
\Windows\System32\config\systemprofile\AppData\Local\Temp
\Windows\SysWOW64\config\systemprofile\AppData\Local\Temp

Copied from another posting...
Another possible excludable item:
The Recycle Bin is normally located on every disk, off the root, in the following location:
<DRIVE>:\$Recycle.Bin

Has anyone tried to exclude C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution ?

David,

Is there a way to simply exclude temporary and browser cache folders for each user account, possibly as a program option, in image backups? There's quite frequently a ton of junk in these, and their contents are constantly changing, and I'd love to have a way to just ignore them entirely, even for newly-created users.

I believe we have a requirement in the system to allow that in a future release, but I don't think it's supported now. I'll pass this on to the team or add your comments to the open item. I think it would be a good feature to have for any type of backup.

I think that this would be a very helpful option.

One additional feature could be the ability to see in a more granular fashion what is in the backup data. This might allow the administrator to find the files are significant in size, that may not be temp or cache files, that might be candidates to be excluded from the backups.

I'm not in front of the software right now, but I believe you can see that information from the backup history in the agent. I'll have to check on Monday, but if you're near the software and feel like checking, see if you can find that info, and sort as needed to find the large files.

Hi David,

Thanks. Concerning being able to see the files backed up, and possibly sorting by size via the agent History tab, if it is there I have not been able to find it. I looked at both a local and a cloud image backup plans to try to find this information. Please let me know when you have had a chance to check. We are running new format using MSP360 version 7.3.2.6 in case this matters.

This is for File Backups Only. We do not back up files for image backups, so if you're concern is figuring out file sizes on the source volumes, you should use something like Windows Explorer to search for large files on the volume.

Otherwise, please follow these steps:

• Click History tab
• View - Files
• Backup / Restore Plans - Select the plan in question
• Operation - Backup
• Period - All (or whatever you want based on need)

That should give you a list of files backed up. You can then sort the table and / or export to CSV using the toolbar option.

Thank you David!