DriveSnap by MollieSoft - Frequently Asked Questions
	- Updated March 9, 2022 for Version 1.1.7.0.

What is DriveSnap?
	- Use DriveSnap to create a searchable catalog of the files on any disk (fixed disk, USB drive, optical disk) or network share.  Once you snap a disk, you can view or search its file listing even though the disk is unavailable at the time (offline, unmounted, or removed from the computer).
	- Efficient and robust design for lightning-fast snaps and subsequent snap viewing and searching.  Snap, view and search terabyte-capacity disks with millions of files easily.
	- DriveSnap correctly identifies any mounted disk even if Windows has changed the drive letter.
	- Snap all backup CD/DVDs to have a complete record of your backup files.  Easily find different versions of your backup files using DriveSnap Search view.
	- Snap disk files manually at any time, or automatically on a daily/weekly/monthly schedule; optionally wake the computer from sleep to run a scheduled snap.  You can snap several disks simultaneously.
	- Keep as many snap versions as you wish, based on cleanup rules; each snap has a unique timestamp.
	- Use Snap Explorer to browse or search the files in a single snap.  Once a folder has been snapped, searching for files in Snap Explorer is much faster than searching in Windows Explorer.
	- Use Search View to find files in snaps for ALL disks, based on name, path, or file dates/sizes, using a full-featured query language.
	- Compare two snaps to see which files are different.
	- Find duplicate files quickly in one or more snaps.
	- Export snaps to Excel for offline viewing or analysis.
	- Backup any or all of your DriveSnap drives/folders/snaps to a SnapSilo file; restore these to any computer running DriveSnap.
	- Secure storage of logon credentials for folders on network shares.

How do I install DriveSnap?
	- Go to www.molliesoft.com/DriveSnap to download the install package.  You will need administrator privileges on your machine to perform the install.

What operating systems will run DriveSnap?
	- DriveSnap runs on Windows 8.1 or Windows 10.
	- DriveSnap requires the Microsoft .NET Framework version 4.6.1 to run.  This should normally already be present; if the DriveSnap installation process detects it is not installed, go to
	https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=49981
and install it.

How do I run DriveSnap?
	- The install process will place a shortcut to DriveSnap in your Startup folder, so it will start when you log on to your computer.  You can use Windows Task Manager to disable this startup item if this is not the desired behavior.
	- DriveSnap should always be running so that it can automatically run your scheduled snaps; just minimize it to the system tray instead of closing DriveSnap.
	- The install process also places a separate shortcut to DriveSnap on your desktop, so that you can start DriveSnap manually.
	- Only one instance of DriveSnap can be running at any given time.  If it is already running, invoking the DriveSnap desktop shortcut will simply activate the running instance.

I clicked the "Minimize" button (at the upper right of DriveSnap); where did it go?  
	- When minimized, the DriveSnap icon will appear in the System Tray (normally at the bottom right of the desktop).  If you do not see it there, click the small up-arrow in the tray marked "Show hidden icons".  Just double-click the DriveSnap tray icon to show DriveSnap in a normal window again.  Note that Windows lets you customize the System Tray to make the DriveSnap icon stay in the visible portion of the tray if desired.  You can also use the DriveSnap desktop shortcut to make DriveSnap appear on the screen again.

What will happen to DriveSnap when the free trial period expires?
	- After the 60-day trial period, DriveSnap will start but only allow you to purchase a license.  Without a license, DriveSnap will no longer run as before.  A license entitles you to run DriveSnap permanently on a single computer.

If I upgrade to the next version of DriveSnap, will my permanent license still be valid?
	- Yes.  A permanent license for DriveSnap is a license forever; you can safely upgrade to any new version and your license will still be valid.
	- Even if you only have a trial license, you can upgrade DriveSnap to a new version without affecting the expiration date of your license.

How can I learn more about how DriveSnap works?
	- This FAQ is the main source of information about DriveSnap.
	- While running DriveSnap, tooltips are available on most controls, including the column headings of most lists.  Hover the mouse on these areas to see the tooltips.
	- Search has a separate help window; click the Help button to see it.
	- Please email support@molliesoft.com with any questions that the documentation does not address.

Disks and Snaps

How do I snap a disk?  
	- Sorry, that's a trick question!  You don't snap a disk, you snap a folder on the disk.  You can restrict the snap to just the disk folder of interest.  The same applies to network shares.
	- To snap a folder, first add the disk containing the folder, as described below, then add the snap folder to the disk.
	-  Now select the folder from the storage list in the Main window (left-click on the folder), then press the Snap button to snap it manually; you can also set up a daily/weekly/monthly schedule to snap the folder automatically.  While the snap is in progress, the folder is shown in green in the storage list, and the in-progress file/folder counts are shown; once complete, the new snap will appear below the folder along with its final statistics.  Double-click the new snap to open a Snap Explorer and view the snap files/folders, or use the "Snap Explorer" button above the storage list.
	- You can snap more than one folder at the same time.  Just click on a folder and press the Snap button to start a snap of the folder.  While a folder has a snap in progress, you cannot start another snap for the same folder; however you can click on a different folder and start a snap.  The snaps will run concurrently.
	- Keep in mind the basic data model of DriveSnap:  drives contain snap folders which contain time-stamped snapshots; each snapshot shows the folders and files captured at that timestamp.
	- If you attempt to close DriveSnap (e.g. by clicking the X at the top right of the Main window), you will be warned about any snaps in progress; if there are any, closing DriveSnap will abort these snaps.

How do I add snap folders for a disk or network share?
	- First you have to add the disk/share containing the folder, then add the snap folder.
	- To add a fixed (always mounted) disk, just select it in the Add Disk dialog.  For convenience you can specify an initial snap folder, but you can add or remove folders for the disk later using the Add Folder or Remove buttons.
	- To add a removable USB drive, plug in the drive, then select it in the Add disk dialog.  The drive letter that Windows assigns to the drive does not matter, since DriveSnap will identify the disk by its (unchanging) volume serial number.  Specify an initial snap folder.
	- To add an optical disk (CD/DVD), first insert the disk into a drive on your computer, then bring up the Add Disk dialog.  Select the drive containing the disk from the list of available drives.  Specify an initial snap folder for the optical disk.
	- To add a network share, first make sure the network share is available (the remote computer containing the share must be awake and must share the desired folder).  Use the "Add Network Share" button above the storage list to bring up the "Add Network Share" dialog.  Specify an initial snap folder in the "Snap this folder" text area (you can browse for the folder using the Select button at the right of the text area).  Once you have picked a snap folder, DriveSnap will automatically figure out the name of the containing network share for you.
	-  Note: You can refer to a network share either by its computer name and folder, or by its ip address and folder (it is preferable to use the ip address assuming the remote computer has a static ip address, since Windows sometimes has trouble resolving remote computer names).   Examples:
 	\\192.168.1.12\shared			(local ip address within your router)
	\\BOBSCOMPUTER\Fileshare1	(remove computer name)

What data does DriveSnap capture when I snap a folder?  How do I view the data?
	- DriveSnap will capture the details of every file in the snap folder and all its subfolders.  This includes folder name, folder size, file name, file size, last write time of the file, the time the file was created, the last time the file was accessed, and the attributes of the file (e.g. read only, hidden, system, archived).  All of these details are shown in Snap Explorer.
	- Use the Snap Explorer button above the storage list in main to open a Snap Explorer window for that selected snap.  You can also just double-click the snap in the storage list to see this snap in Snap Explorer.
	- The Snap Explorer window lets you easily navigate the folders of the snap, view the files in each folder, or search for files within the snap.  See the section on Snap Explorer below for a detailed description of searching for files using wildcards or regular expressions.
	- In folder view, Snap Explorer displays the size of all folders of the snap (including all subfolders).  Windows Explorer does not do this.
	- Note: the file sizes shown in Snap Explorer may be smaller than the sizes shown in Windows Explorer for the same file, since Snap Explorer shows the actual byte count of a file, whereas Windows Explorer shows the size on disk rounded up to the next sector size (e.g. 2KB).

How can I find a file if I'm not sure what disk it is on?
	- Use the Search button at the top of the Main window to open a Search window.  You can just fill in some of the search fields and press the green "Search" button to find files (regardless of which disk they are on), or you can build a detailed search query to search for files with more precision.
	- Once you have found a file, use the "Explore" button above the files list in the Search window to open a Windows Explorer with the file selected; if the disk containing the file is not currently available (mounted), you will be prompted to mount the correct disk.
	- See the section on Search below for all the details of how to build a query and search for files using the Search window.

How do I export snap data to Excel?
	- To export all or part of a single snap, open a Snap Explorer for the snap;  the export button  will export files of the current folder (in folder view) or all files of the snap (in flat view).
	- You can search for files, then export the details of all files found using the Search window, using the "Export" button above the files list.
	- File data is exported to Excel as a ".csv" (comma-separated values) file, containing one line per file, with the fields separated by commas.  You can open the resulting .csv file in Excel.

Can I keep more than one snap of a particular folder?
	- Yes.  The number of snap versions to be retained is controlled by the "cleanup rule" associated with the snap folder.
	- The existing snaps for the folder are shown below the folder in the storage list of the Main window.
	- When you add a snap folder (to a drive or network share), the default cleanup rule will keep the two latest snaps; if you re-snap the folder, the new snap will just replace the oldest snap.
	- You can change the default cleanup rule in the Settings dialog.  The default rule will be used when you create a new snap folder.
	- However, once you have added a snap folder, you can edit the folder and change its cleanup rule.

What is a "cleanup rule"?
	- A cleanup rule is a way to remove old snaps automatically when a new snap is created.  Once removed, the old snaps are gone permanently.  You specify the cleanup rule using the Edit dialog for a folder.
	- By default, a folder has the rule "Keep 2 snaps with latest creation dates".
	- The rule "Keep all snaps" will never remove any snaps automatically; however you can always remove snaps manually using the Remove button in the Main window.
	- The rule "Keep N snaps with latest creation dates" will keep the latest N snaps for the folder, and remove any snap with an earlier timestamp than these.
	- The rule "Keep snaps created less than N days ago" will keep all snaps created after this time, and remove any snap created prior to this time.
	-The rule "Limit total space for snaps to N KB/MB/GB" will keep the latest snaps that fit within this total space limit, and remove the other snaps.
	- You can enable or disable the selected cleanup rule using the checkbox "Apply cleanup rule after each snap" on the Edit dialog.  Even if disabled, you can still apply the rule using the explicit "Cleanup" button in the Main window.

If I snap a folder twice, can I determine which files have changed?
	- Yes.  Use the "SnapDiff" button in the Main window to open a Snap Diff window.  You can select and compare any two snaps to see which files belong only to one snap, which files are the same, which are different, and which have been moved.
	- See the section on Snap Diff below for the details.

How can I see what happens when I snap a folder?
	- While the snap is in progress, the storage list shows the snap folder in green, with progressive file/folder counts as the snap proceeds.
	- Once complete, the new snapshot will appear below its snap folder in the storage list.
	- The history log will have several lines relating to the snap, including when the snap started, whether it succeeded or failed, and which snaps were removed if a cleanup rule is in effect for the folder.  The history log will also show any errors encountered during the snap.

How do I remove a disk or network share from DriveSnap?  How do I remove a folder or a snapshot?
	- Select the disk, network share, folder or snap in the storage list by clicking anywhere in its row, then press the "Remove" button above the list.  This will remove the entry and all its dependent entries.
	- You will be asked to confirm the Remove, unless you have unchecked "Ask to remove" in the Settings dialog.

What is in the Main window storage list?
	- The storage list shows all drives and network shares you have added, plus their folders, and all the existing snaps for these folders.  Folders are shown below their drive or network share; snaps are shown below their folders.
	- If a drive or network share is unavailable (offline), it will be shown in the storage list with a red background; if available (online), it will be shown with a normal grey background.  You can change the "unavailable" color using the Settings dialog.
	- The "Next snap" column in the list shows the date and time of the next scheduled snap for a folder; or the first scheduled snap for any of the contained folders for a drive or network share.
	- Statistics are shown for each completed snap, including the number of files and folders in the snap, the total size of the files in the snap, and the elapsed time for the snap.  While a snap is in progress, the folder line is shown in green, along with various statistics showing the current results of the snap.
	- If you have many drives/folders/snaps, you can simplify the appearance of the storage list using the "+" and "-" buttons above the list; these will expand the list, or collapse each drive entry to a single line, hiding any drives or snaps.  Similarly you can click an individual +/- button on any line of the grid to expand or collapse this line.

I have a lot of drives and network shares! How can I find the one I want?
	- Use fast keyboard search:   If you click on a line in the "Name" column of the main list, you can find drives, network shares, or folders by simply typing a sequence of characters to locate within the text of that column.  This will just move the current line in the list to the next matching entry.  You can also press Alt, along with one of the up/down arrow keys to find the next or previous matching entry in the column.  The status line at the bottom of the Main window shows you the current search string.  Keyboard search is cancelled if no key has been pressed within 10 seconds, or if you press the escape key, or if you move to a different column.

Scheduling Snaps

How do I schedule automatic snaps?
	- A folder can have any number of daily/weekly/monthly schedules.  Edit the folder to view or change its snap schedules.
	- In the Edit folder dialog, use the Add button above the Snap schedules list to add a new schedule for the folder.  Use the Remove button to remove the selected schedule.
	- A folder can have as many schedules as you wish.
	- Each schedule has a time of day when it will start the snap, and a frequency that can be Daily, Weekly or Monthly.  Daily runs at the specified time every day; Weekly runs at the specified time for the selected days of the week; Monthly runs at the specified time for the selected days of the month.
	- Each daily/weekly/monthly schedule can repeat within any scheduled day.  You can specify a "repeat interval" between 5 minutes and 24 hours.  You can enable or disable the repeat information using the "repeat enabled" check box (if repeat is disabled, the scheduled snap will still run at the specified start time).  You can specify a "repeat until" time of day.  To summarize: a schedule runs at its start time on any scheduled day, then if repeat is enabled, will repeat at every "repeat interval" thereafter (adding successive repeat intervals to the start time), until the "repeat until" time of day is past.
	- A schedule will not run unless it is enabled, so you can turn it on or off as desired.
	- If your computer happens to be asleep when the schedule should be run, you can make it wake up to run the schedule by checking "Wake computer at start time" for that schedule. Note: the ability to wake up Windows on a timer is usually dependent on a BIOS setting, which is typically enabled for desktops and disabled for laptops.  In the BIOS, look for Power Management. In here, ensure S3 is enabled. There should be an option called “Resume by alarm”, or “Wake-up on RTC”.
	- If there is at least one enabled schedule for some folder, the next scheduled snap time will be displayed at the top left of the Main window.
	- If a scheduled snap has not executed because DriveSnap was not running, it will still run when you start DriveSnap assuming you are within a "grace period" of 2 minutes after the scheduled time; otherwise, the snap will be skipped.
	- A scheduled snap will run automatically even if DriveSnap has been minimized and is only visible in the System Tray.  In this case, you will see a small pop-up notification next to the tray icon when the snap starts and ends.
	- To prevent a snap from running automatically, just disable its schedules or remove them.  You can still snap the folder manually if desired.

I have lots of folders with automatic snap schedules.  How can I tell when the next automatic snap will be run?
	- The next scheduled snap (considering all storages and folders) is always shown at the top left of the Main window, including the relevant storage name and folder, when the automatic snap will be run, and whether the computer will wake to run the snap.
	- Whenever the next scheduled snap time changes, an entry is added to the history log, containing the next scheduled snap time and the associated snap folder.

How much disk space does it take to store all the information that DriveSnap acquires?
	- The space required for a particular snap depends on the length of file names and folder names contained in the snap.  However, a rough approximation is about 100 bytes per file snapped.
	- The actual snap information is contained in the binary ".dat" files in the directory %localappdata%\DriveSnap\Snaps.  There is one .dat file per snap.  Do not delete or modify any of these files or the results will be "unpredictable".

How much memory does DriveSnap use?
	- It depends on how many drives, folders, and snapshots you have.  Of course, snapshots are the main consumers of memory since they contains lots of data regarding files and folders.
	- You can limit the amount of memory used by DriveSnap using the "Snap cache size" setting in the DriveSnap Settings dialog.  If a snap is available in the cache, you can view or search it quickly; if not, it must be loaded from disk when you request it.
	 - For example, if you set the Snap cache size to 100MB, DriveSnap will reserve (approximately) 100 MB of memory for active snaps.  Once a snap is no longer being used, it will be removed from the cache.
	- Of course, if you have lots of Snap Explorer windows open, each will use as much memory as required to hold the snap.  If you close the windows, the memory will be recovered.  In this way the DriveSnap process will try to restrict the amount of memory it uses at any one time.

Search View

I have hundreds of disks in DriveSnap, each with lots of folders and files.  How can I find all the files with a certain name, last modified date, size, or other property?
	- Open Search View using the Search button at the top of the Main window, which allows you to search for files in several different ways.
	- The simplest method is to type some search terms (separated by spaces), in the "File name" text field, then press the Enter key or the green Search button at the top of Search View.  This will find all files (in any snap of any folder on any drive) whose name contains all of the search terms, and display matches in the Files list at the bottom of Search View.  If you wish to search for a term that contains spaces, just surround the search term by double-quotation marks.
	- For example, type "birthday picture" in the File path text field (without the quotation marks) to search for files whose path contains both "birthday" and "picture".  Press the Enter key or use the green Search button to display all such files in the list below.
	- To search for files whose name contains the terms "birthday" OR "picture", click the "Match ANY word" checkbox, then press Search.  All files that contain EITHER "birthday" or "picture" will be displayed; of course there will be many more than before, when you were searching for "birthday" AND "picture".
	- Normally, case (capitalization) is not considered when determining if a term occurs in the file path.  To search in a case-sensitive manner instead, you can check the "Match case" checkbox at the top of Search.  Now files whose name contains "Birthday" will NOT match the term "birthday".
	- Use the "Latest snaps only" checkbox to restrict the search to files in only the latest snap of any folder.
	- The status area at the bottom of Search View tells you how many files were found in the last search, or if an error was encountered.

What properties can I search for in addition to terms in the file name?
	- Search for terms in the file folder using the "Folder" text box.
	- You can search for files with a specific range of last write times using the "File last write time" controls; click the checkbox in either date/time box to enable it, then select a date from the drop-down calendar, and enter a time.  If you select only a "from" date/time, you are searching for files with subsequent last write times; if you select only a "to" date/time, you are searching for files with previous last write times.  If you select both "to" and "from" date/times, you are searching for last write times between the "to" and "from" values.
	- You can search for files of a certain size using the "File size" controls.  Pick a unit to use for the size (B = bytes, KB = kilobytes, MB = megabytes, GB = gigabytes), then type a "from" size, a "to" size, or both in the number boxes.
	- You can limit the search to files in only a particular disk/folder/snap using the "Disk", "Snap folder", and "Snap timestamp" dropdown lists at the right.  When you pick a disk, its folders will be shown; when you pick a folder, its snaps will be shown.

Can I open more than one Search View at a time?
	- Yes. Use the "Search" button in the Main window to open a new Search view, select any open Search View, or close all the search views.
	- Search views are numbered so you can distinguish them, e.g. "Search - 1" is the first view opened, "Search - 2" is the second, etc.  If you exit DriveSnap with several search views open, each will be restored when you restart DriveSnap.
	- If you minimize DriveSnap, all the Search Views will be hidden; if you restore DriveSnap, they will again appear with their last position and size.

What can I do with the file search results in Search View?
	- Sort any column in the files list by clicking the column header.  Click again to sort the column in the opposite direction.
	- Select a file, then use the "Explore Snap" button above the list to find the file in a Snap Explorer window.
	- Use the "Locate Snap" button to find the snap containing the file in the Main window.
	- Use the "Explore" button to open a Windows explorer positioned at the selected file.  If the disk or network share containing the file is not available, you will be prompted to mount it.
	- Use the "Export" button to export the files list to a comma-separated-values file, which you can then view using e.g. Microsoft Excel.  You can also export the current search query at the top of this .csv file for later reference;  this is controlled by the checkbox "Export search query" in the DriveSnap Settings dialog.
	- Use the "Columns" button to show or hide some of the columns in the files list, such as File size, Last write time, Creation time, Last access time, and Attributes.
	- Use the Maximize button to see the file search results in a larger list occupying the entire view; click the Restore button to revert to the smaller list.

What does the "Simple search" checkbox mean?
	- It means you are building a search query using the field controls instead of building a query by typing directly in the "Search query" text box.
	- When you use the "Simple search" fields to search for files, you are actually building a "Search query" expression, which is shown in the text area above the files list in Search View.  If you change the Simple search controls, then press the green Search button, you will see the resulting search query expression in this text area.  Every file in every snap is then evaluated against this search query, and files that satisfy the query appear in the files list.
	- Building a query in this way (using the controls) is a Simple search.  However, you can enter any legal search query in the "Search query" text area, then press the green Search button (or use the shortcut key combination Control-Enter) to get the corresponding files results.  When you search in this more complex way, the check mark is removed from the "Simple search" checkbox to indicate you are using a "raw" search expression instead of building it from the controls.  If you manually click the "Simple search" checkbox, the green Search button will again use the Simple search controls to build a query.

What is the language used by search queries?
	- Search queries are written in MFQL (MollieSoft File Query Language).

	- A basic query (called a statement) compares a file variable with a constant.  (The value of a "constant" is independent of the file being considered.)
 Here are some examples:
•	[$FilePath has "birthday"] looks for files whose full path has the text "birthday" in it.
•	[$FileLastWriteTime > $Now - $Days.2] looks for files modified less than 2 days ago.
•	[$FileName has "picture"] looks for files whose name (not including the folder) contains the text "picture".
•	[$FileSize > $MB.100] looks for files whose size is greater than 100 megabytes.

	- Basic queries are always surrounded by square brackets.

	- Basic queries can be combined using any combination of the logical operators 			AND, OR, NOT, and parentheses ( )
to form a complex query.  For example, the complex query
		[$FileCreationTime < $DateTime.20150501]
			and not [$FilePath has "Document"]
looks for files created before May 1, 2015 but whose full path does not contain the text "Document".

	- Note that when you use "Simple search" (build a query using the field controls) the basic queries are always combined using the AND operator.  However, if "Match ANY word" is checked, multiple text fields within the File name and folder text boxes will be combined using the OR operator instead.

	- File variables are of two types: text variables and arithmetic variables.  Text variables can only be compared with text values, and arithmetic variables can only be compared with arithmetic values.

	- Text variables can be compared with text constants using the operators:
		= ,  != ,   "has", "startsWith", "endsWith", "regexMatch".
•	The equal and not-equal operators test for equality and inequality.
•	The "has" operator tests whether the second operand is present in the text value of the first operand.
•	 "startsWith" tests whether the first operand begins with the second operand.
•	"endsWith" tests whether the first operand ends with the second operand.
•	"regexMatch" matches the text variable with a regular expression.

	- For example, say a file has the name "MyTodoList.txt".  Then all these statements are true:
		[$FileName = "MyTodoList.txt"]
		[$FileName  != "MyTodoList"]
		[$FileName has "List"]
		[$FileName has "TodoList"]
		[$FileName startsWith "MyTodo"]
		[$FileName endsWith "List.txt"]
		[$FileName regexMatch "^[MN]yTodoList.txt$"]
But these are false (note spaces within text constants are important):
		[$FileName has "List  "]
		[$FileName startsWith "Todo"]
		[$FileName endsWith "List"]
Operator names are case-insensitive: "has" is the same as "Has", "startsWith" is the same as "startswith", "EndsWith" is the same as "endsWith".

	- Arithmetic variables can be compared with arithmetic expressions using the operators:	=,  !=,  <,   >.

	- Variable names are always case-insensitive.  Thus, the forms $FileSize and $Filesize are both valid.

	- The text variable names (text property of files) used in MFQL are:

•	$FileName - the name of the file, including the extension but without the directory (folder).
•	$FilePath - the full path of the file (including the file folder but omitting the snapshot folder).
•	$FileExtension - the extension of the file (e.g. ".mp3"), including the leading period.
•	$FileFolder - the relative folder of the file, omitting the snapshot folder.
•	$FileAttributes - the file attributes, consisting of letter codes:
R = Read only
H = Hidden
S = System
D = Directory
A = Archived
T = Temporary
P = Sparse file
C = Compressed
E = Encrypted
I = NotContentIndexed
For example, a particular file may have $FileAttributes = "HSA"; the letter codes for the attributes are just strung together.  Thus, you could search for [$FileAttributes has "RH"] to find all read-only hidden files.
•	$Disk - the disk (e.g. disk drives, network paths, CD/DVDs) in which to look for files.  See the Main window for disk names you have added.
•	$SnapFolder - the folder on the disk that was snapped (path is relative to the disk root).  Always starts with "\".

	- You can query the string length (number of characters) of any text variable by appending "#Length" to the variable name.  For example, the query
		[$FileName#Length > 25]
searches for files whose name has more than 25 characters.

	- The arithmetic variable names (arithmetic property of files) used in MFQL are:

•	$FileLastWriteTime - the date/time the file was last written to (modified).
•	$FileLastAccessTime - the date/time the file was last read or written.
•	$FileCreationTime - the date/time the file was created.
•	$FileSize - the size of the file in bytes; can be compared with a $KB or $MB or $GB value.
•	$SnapTimestamp - the timestamp of the snapshot containing the file.

	- Some arithmetic variables are used as convenient expressions for arithmetic constants (that is, file-independent).  These have the form:
•	$Now - the current date/time.
•	$DateTime.YYYYMMDD_hhmmss - where YYYY is the year, MM the month, DD the day, hh the hour, mm the minute, ss the second; leading zeros are required.  The reduced form $DateTime.YYYYMMDD is also valid and represents midnight (start of the day).
•	$Days.N - where N is the number of days (N >= 1); can be added to or subtracted from a date/time.
•	$Timespan - can be any of the forms:
		$Timespan.ss
		$Timespan.mmss
		$Timespan.hhmmss
		$Timespan.d.hhmmss
   where ss = seconds, mm = minutes, hh = hours, d = days; can be added to or subtracted from a date/time.  Appropriate leading zeros are required in each form.
•	$KB.N - where N is the number of kilobytes.
•	$MB.N - where N is the number of megabytes.
•	$GB.N - where N is the number of gigabytes.

	- For example:
•	$DateTime.20170823_193033 - represents the date/time August 23, 2017, 7:30:33 p.m.
•	$Days.23 - represents a time span of 23 days.  This can be added to or subtracted from a $DateTime value.
•	$KB.40000 - represents 40000 kilobytes.
•	$MB.50 - represents 50 megabytes.

	- Here are some examples of complex expressions:
•	Find files snapped less than a week ago, greater than 20 MB in size:
	[$SnapTimestamp  >$Now - $Days.7] 
		and [$FileSize > $MB.20]
•	Find files whose name contains "document", between 5 and 10 MB in size, last modified on August 23, 2017 (note the expression $DateTime.20170823 represents midnight on that day):
	([$FileName has "document"])
		 and [$FileSize > $MB.5] and [$FileSize < $MB.10]
		 and [$FileLastWriteTime > $DateTime.20170823] 
			and [$FileLastWriteTime < $DateTime.20170824]
	
It's hard to remember these variable and constant names!  Isn't there an easy way to add the correct form of a file variable or constant into the search query text area?
	- Yes.  Use the "Insert Search Term" button above the search query text area to show the query helper menu.  Select a variable, operator, or constant from the menu, and it will be added into the text box at the current position to form a statement, then connect your statements with the logical operators and/or/not to make complex queries.
	- You can also show the query helper menu by right-clicking in the search query text area.
	- You can also press the Help button at the top to show the Search Help window.  This provides a convenient summary of search query syntax that you can use while composing queries.  Note: press Ctrl-F in the Search Help window to show the Find Bar and find text within the document.

How can I use regular expressions in the search?
	- Warning!  Regular expressions are rather complicated and are intended for the "power user".  If you don't feel comfortable with them, just ignore this capability and use the plain text search operators "=", "!=", "has", "startsWith", "endsWith".
	- Example: to search for files whose name starts with 2 numeric digits, use the query [$FileName regexMatch "^\d\d"].
	- When building a search query, you can use the "regexMatch" operator with any text variable, such as $FileName or $FileFolder.  This will perform the match using the Microsoft version of regular expressions, explained at https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/standard/base-types/regular-expression-language-quick-reference.  You may also like the "cheat sheet" available at https://download.microsoft.com/download/D/2/4/D240EBF6-A9BA-4E4F-A63F-AEB6DA0B921C/Regular%20expressions%20quick%20reference.docx 
for quick reference.
	- Here are some examples of regular expression syntax.  These snippets are also available using the "regex builder" button  above the Search query text box.
. 			- Match any single character
.* 			- Match any character zero or more times
.+ 			- Match any character one or more times
[abc]			- Match any character in the set 'abc'
[^abc] 		- Match any character NOT in the set 'abc'
[a-f] 			- Match any character in the range a to f
\d 			- Match any numeric character
? 			- Match preceding character zero or one times
* 			- Match preceding character zero or more times
+ 			- Match preceding character one or more times
\d{3} 			- Match three consecutive decimal digits
0[xX][0-9a-fA-F]+	- Match a hexadecimal number
[0-9]*\.*[0-9]+ 	- Match integers and decimals
^ 			- Match beginning of text
$ 			- Match end of text
You can select any of these entries from the regex builder dropdown menu, which will insert the selected expression into the search query text box at the cursor.  You can then modify the inserted expression as desired.

How can I save a query once I have built one I want to keep?  How do I reload it?
	- The "File Menu" button above the "Search query" text box shows a drop-down menu with a "Save as..." menu item, which brings up a "Save Search Query File" dialog.  This lets you save a query to disk as a small text file in the queries directory
%localappdata%\DriveSnap\Queries, with the extension ".qry".  Enter a valid file name for the query, then press OK.  (Note: "%localappdata%" is a Windows shortcut that resolves to the local application data directory for the current logged-on user.)
	- To reload a saved query, use the "File Menu" button again, and select the menu item "Load...".  This shows a "Load Search Query File" dialog allowing you to select any previously created .qry file from the queries directory.  Select a query from this dialog to paste it into the "Search query" text box, then press the green Search button to actually run the query.
	- If you have saved a query to a file as above, you can rename it using the "Rename" menu item.  Enter a new name for the query in the "Rename Query" dialog that appears, then press OK.
	- When the cursor is in the "Search query" text area, you can use the keyboard shortcut Control-S to save a modified query.  This will either just save the query, or bring up the "Save as..." dialog as appropriate.
	- You can remove a query file using the "Remove" menu item.  Predefined queries (see below) cannot be removed.

Why are some query names surrounded by angle brackets, e.g. <Large files> in the "Query name" dropdown list?
	- There are several useful predefined queries provided in the "Query name" dropdown list; these also serve to demonstrate query syntax. Angle brackets around the query name are used to distinguish predefined search queries from queries that you write.  These include (among others):
•	<Large text files> - search for .txt files with size > 100 megabytes.
•	<Files modified in last 7 days> - search for files last written to in the last 7 days.
	- You can use these as given, or modify them to make your own queries.
	- Modified predefined queries cannot be saved as such; if you change a predefined query, select "Save as..." in the File Menu to save it to disk with a new name.
	- If you do not want to see the predefined queries in the list, open the DriveSnap Settings dialog and turn off "Show sample queries".

Once I have some search results, how can I navigate to a specific file?
	- Use fast keyboard search:   If you click on a line in the "Disk", "Snap folder", "File folder", or "File name" column of the results list, you can find items by simply typing a sequence of characters to locate within the text of that column.  This will just move the current line in the list to the next matching entry.  You can also use press Alt, along with one of the up/down arrow keys to find the next or previous matching entry in the column.  The status line at the bottom of the view shows you the current search string.  Keyboard search is cancelled if no key has been pressed within 10 seconds, or if you press the escape key, or if you move to a different column.

I don't really want to see 1,000,000 results when I search!  Can I change this limit somehow?
	- The DriveSnap Settings dialog has a "Max search results" field which you can set to anything from 1 to 1,000,000.  When Search view has found this many results, the search will be terminated.

Snap Explorer View

How do I see the folders and files contained in a snapshot?
	- Open a Snap Explorer View from the Main storage list by double-clicking on any snapshot.  This will show you all the folders and files in the snap folder as of the timestamp of this snapshot.

Can I open more than one Snap Explorer at a time?
	- Yes. Use the "Snap Explorer" button in the Main window to open a new Snap Explorer for the currently selected snapshot.  You can also use the button to select any open Snap Explorer, or close all the Snap Explorers.
	- Snap Explorer Views are identified in the button's dropdown list by drive name and snapshot timestamp.
	- If you minimize DriveSnap, all the Snap Explorer Views will be hidden; if you restore DriveSnap, they will again appear with their last position and size.
	- If you exit DriveSnap with several Snap Explorer views open, each will be restored when you restart DriveSnap.

How do I navigate within a Snap Explorer?
	- Snap Explorer is not limited to the folders and files in a single snapshot; you can use the dropdown lists at the top of Snap Explorer to navigate to a different disk, folder, or snapshot.  However, you can only view one snapshot at a time in a single Snap Explorer window.
	- You can view a snapshot as a folder tree, or as a flat list of files.  Use the icon buttons  or  to switch from folder view to flat view, or from flat view back to folder view.
	- Folder view is similar to a Windows Explorer window.  Select any folder in the tree at the left to view its contents in the details panel at the right.  The details panel will show all files in the selected folder, as well as all subfolders.  Double-click any folder in the details panel to navigate to that folder in Snap Explorer.
	- Flat view shows all files in the entire snap, identified by the relative path of the file within the snap folder.  For example, if you snap the folder "\Documents" in the drive "USB Drive 1",  the file named "MyList.txt" in file folder ".\MyStuff\Lists" represents the file  "USB Drive 1"\Documents\MyStuff\Lists\MyList.txt.  In other words, the common drive and snap folder are omitted from the relative path names in flat view for brevity.
	- In folder view, the relative path of the currently selected file or folder is shown above the folder tree.  You can type a relative path in this text area to navigate directly to a particular subfolder.  If you type ".\" in this text area, you will see a dropdown list of possible subfolders which will be restricted to the valid matches as you type.  Press the Enter key or use the Go button   to navigate the folder view to the subfolder you have entered.  (In flat view the Go button will just select the first file starting with the entered relative path.)
	- In folder view, use the Up button  to navigate one folder up in the tree (i.e. to the parent folder of the current folder).  You can also use the keyboard shortcut Alt-Up for this button.
	- As you navigate between folder view and flat view, Snap Explorer will always try to maintain the currently selected file or folder for you.  Thus, if you have a file selected in flat view, and switch back to folder view, the folder tree will navigate to the relevant folder and the file will be selected in the details panel.  Similarly if a file is selected in folder view, and you switch to flat view, the file will be selected in the flat view files list.
	- Snap Explorer will remember your recent locations as you navigate within a snap.  Use the  and  buttons to go forward or backward in this list, or select a recent location using the dropdown button .  You can also use the keyboard shortcuts Alt-Left and Alt-Right for these buttons.

How do I navigate to the actual file whose details I see in Snap Explorer?
	- Just double click any file in the details panel of folder view, or any file in flat view, to navigate to it using Windows Explorer.  If the drive containing the snapshot is not mounted, you will be prompted to mount it.  You can also use the "Explore" button at the top right of Snap Explorer to do the same thing.

Can I export what I see in Snap Explorer to Microsoft Excel?
	- Yes.  Use the Export button  to export the list of files you are currently viewing to Excel "comma-separated-values" format.  This creates a disk file (file extension .csv) with one line per file, where the fields are separated by commas.  You can import this text file into Excel or any other compatible program.
	- In folder view, only what is shown in the details panel will be exported; in flat view, the entire files list will be exported.

How can I find a particular file or files in Snap Explorer?
	- Snap Explorer lets you search for files in the current snapshot using 3 different search modes: text search, wildcard search, and regular expression search.  These modes are controlled with the "Wildcards" and "Regular expressions" checkboxes.  If neither is checked, text search is in effect; if Wildcards is checked, wildcard search is in effect; if Regular expressions is checked, you are using regular expressions.  Only one of these can be checked at a time.
	- Searching for files in Snap Explorer within very large snapshots is much faster than searching directly in Windows Explorer.
	- Regardless of which search mode is in effect, you search in the same way:  in either folder or flat view, just type in the "Search for files" text area, then press the "Search" button .  Snap Explorer will look for all files whose file name (not including the relative path) contains this text (of course the rules for "contains" change based on whether you are in text search, wildcard search or regex search).  Searches are extremely efficient and will usually complete within a second or two regardless of the size of the snapshot.   As the results are found, they are appended to a special search list that replaces the normal files list.  In folder view, the search results replace the normal contents of the details panel; in flat view, the search results replace the existing files list.
	- In folder view, the search is restricted to files in the current folder; in flat view, the search covers all files in the current snapshot.
	- If you want the search to be case-sensitive (e.g. ".Txt" does not match "MyFile.txt"), click the "Match case" button  to toggle between case-sensitive and case-insensitive search modes.  Case-sensitivity applies to text, wildcard, and regular searches equally.
	- When you are done examining your search results, just press the "Cancel search" button  to return to normal viewing mode in Snap Explorer.  If you navigate in the folder tree to a different folder, or switch between folder and flat view, this will also cancel search mode.
	- In text search mode, you are just searching for file names containing the text you have typed.  The search is case-insensitive.  No special characters are used or recognized, so e.g. searching for "*.txt" will never match anything since "*" will not actually occur in any file name.
	- In wildcard search mode, you are searching for file names using DOS wildcards, e.g. "*.txt" matches "MyFile.txt", "SomeOtherFile.txt", etc.  In general, the special character * matches any number of characters, the special character ? matches a single character, and any other character just matches itself.
	- Warning!  Regular expressions are rather complicated and are intended for the "power user".  If you don't feel comfortable with them, just ignore this capability and use text or wildcard searches.
	- In regular expression search mode, you are searching for file names using the Microsoft version of regular expressions, explained at https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/standard/base-types/regular-expression-language-quick-reference.  You may also like the "cheat sheet" available at https://download.microsoft.com/download/D/2/4/D240EBF6-A9BA-4E4F-A63F-AEB6DA0B921C/Regular%20expressions%20quick%20reference.docx 
for quick reference.
	- Here are some examples of regular expression syntax.  These are also available in Snap Explorer using the "regex builder" button  shown when "Regular expressions" has been checked.
. 			- Match any single character
.* 			- Match any character zero or more times
.+ 			- Match any character one or more times
[abc]			- Match any character in the set 'abc'
[^abc] 		- Match any character NOT in the set 'abc'
[a-f] 			- Match any character in the range a to f
\d 			- Match any numeric character
? 			- Match preceding character zero or one times
* 			- Match preceding character zero or more times
+ 			- Match preceding character one or more times
\d{3} 			- Match three consecutive decimal digits
0[xX][0-9a-fA-F]+	- Match a hexadecimal number
[0-9]*\.*[0-9]+ 	- Match integers and decimals
^ 			- Match beginning of file name
$ 			- Match end of file name
	You can select any of these entries from the regex builder dropdown menu, which will insert the selected expression into the search text box at the cursor.  You can then modify the inserted expression as desired.

Can I change which columns are displayed in the files list?
	- Use the "Columns" button at the top left of the list to show or hide the file size, last write time, creation time, last access time, or attributes column.
	- The selection of visible columns in a Snap Explorer view applies to that view only; other Snap Explorer views are not affected.

How can I navigate to a specific file within the files list?
	- Use fast keyboard search:   If you click on a line in the "File name" or "Folder" column of the files list, you can search for items by simply typing a sequence of characters to locate within the text of that column.  This will just move the current line in the list to the next matching entry.  You can also use press Alt, along with one of the up/down arrow keys to find the next or previous matching entry.  The status line at the bottom of the view shows you the current search string.  Keyboard search is cancelled if no key has been pressed within 10 seconds, or if you press the escape key, or if you move to a different column.

Snap Diff View

If I snap a folder, then snap it again later, how can I tell which files have changed?
	- Open a Snap Diff view from the Main window using the "SnapDiff" button.  The Snap Diff window can compare any two snaps and show you the file differences.   Select any two snaps of the same folder (that is, two snaps with different timestamps), and use the green "Compare" button to see which files occur only in the first snap, only in the second snap, which files are the same, and which files are different.
	- You select snaps by first selecting a disk, then selecting a folder within the disk, then selecting a snapshot timestamp for the folder.
	- Of course, it's not very interesting to compare a snap with itself!  If you select the same snapshot timestamp for both the first and second selections, the Compare button will be disabled.
	- Once you have selected the disk/folder/timestamp for the first snapshot, there is an easy way to select the second snapshot.  Use the down-arrow  button at the right of the window to copy the "first" setting to the "second" setting, then just change the snapshot timestamp for the second setting.  Similarly, use the up-arrow  button at the right to copy the second setting to the first setting.

I have two disks with similar snap folders.  Can Snap Diff compare snapshots on two different disks?
	- Yes, no problem.  Just select the first disk, folder, and snapshot timestamp, then select a second disk, folder, and snapshot timestamp.  The disks and folders do not have to be related at all, but to minimize the number of unmatched files shown, they should have a similar set of files and folders.

When I compare two snaps, I see some "Different" files that only appear to have a different "Last access time", although the name, size, and other times are identical.  What's going on?
	- If you have accessed a file between the first and second snap times, its last access time will have changed, and this will appear as a difference.
	- You can tell Snap Diff to ignore differences in the last access time, in the creation time, in the last write time, or in the file attributes using the "Identical files have" checkboxes.  Uncheck the "Same last access time" box and press Compare again to ignore differences in the file last access time.  Similarly you can ignore differences in any of the other file times, or ignore differences in the file attributes.

The list of differences is too big!  I just want to see which new files were added in the second snap.  How do I make the list smaller?
	- Use the "Show files" checkboxes to show the files that only occur in the first snap, or only occur in the second snap, or different files that are in both snaps, or identical files.  Then, press the green "Compare" button to restrict the list of differences to the selected options.

It's nice that Snap Diff shows me which files were really added or deleted between two snapshots, but how can I tell if a file has just been moved to a different folder?
	- If a file has been moved, it will still appear as "First only" or "Second only" since it does not exist in the corresponding location in the other folder.
	- However, if there is a matching file (same name, size, file times, attributes) in a different folder in the opposite snapshot, and if you have checked both "First only" and "Second only", it will be shown as "Moved to" or "Moved from" in a subordinate line below the current "First only" or "Second only" file.  The order of the first/second snapshot timestamps determine whether the matching file is shown as "Moved to" or "Moved from" the current file.
	- Note that if you have checked "First only" without "Second only", or "Second only" without "First only", Snap Diff will not look for matching files; this makes compare faster if you have only checked one of these.
	- You can check "Moved only" to see only those files that have been moved between the First and Second snaps.  Effectively, this will show just the "First only" and "Second only" files that match between the two snapshots.
	- Note that there can be more than one matching file, since a moved file could have been copied to several different locations in the opposite snapshot.  All such possible matches will be shown as subordinate "Moved to/from" lines below the current file.
	- The colors of the current file and the subordinate matching file will indicate which belong to the First and Second snapshot.
	- You can right-click on the left-most Expand/Collapse grid column to expand or collapse all the matching files at once.

I'm just interested in a particular subfolder of a snap.  Is there some way to just see differences for files in this subfolder?
	- Use the "Compare subfolders" checkbox to select subfolders of both snaps.  When this is checked, the two subfolder text areas will appear; enter the subfolders you want to compare.  When you press the Compare button, you will only see file differences within this subfolder.
	- The two subfolders do not have to be the same, but for a meaningful result you should pick subfolders that have similar files and folders.
	- In the Subfolder text boxes, you can type ".\" to see the list of all available subfolders within the snap (it may take a few seconds for this dropdown list to appear after you type).

I'm just interested in which text files have changed.  How can I restrict the list to only files that end with ".txt"?
	- Snap Diff has a search facility that is very similar to search in Snap Explorer.
	- You have to run Compare first,  then you can restrict which differences appear using search.
	- Click the "Search" checkbox to make the search bar appear.
	- Check the "Wildcards" box, enter "*.txt" in the search text area, then press the green search button .  The list will be restricted to only files ending with ".txt" within the current set of differences.  Similarly, you can search using regular expressions by checking the "Regular expressions" box, or can use the "Match case" button  to toggle between case-sensitive and case-insensitive search modes.
	- See the description of search for Snap Explorer above for all the details of how normal, wildcards, or regular expression search works.

Can I change the colors that Snap Diff shows for "First/Second only" differences?
	- MollieSoft is sorry you don't like our choice of colors!  However, you can easily change them by right-clicking on the "First" or "Second" fields at the top left of Snap Diff; this shows a menu allowing you to pick a different color, or reset the color to the default, or just remove the color entirely.
	- When you select a new First/Second color, this is immediately reflected in all open Snap Diff views, and in any Snap Diff view you open in the future.
	- The First/Second color selection is persistent, so if you close and reopen DriveSnap, you will still see the new colors.
	- You can also change colors using the DriveSnap Settings dialog.

How can I tell the numeric breakdown of first only, second only, different, or identical files in the list?
	- The status area at the bottom of Snap DIff shows these statistics for the resulting list at the end of every Compare or search operation.

How do I sort the list of differences?
	- Click on any column header to sort by the contents of that column.  Click once to sort in ascending order, and click again to sort in descending order.
	- You can sort by file name (instead of the full path), or by file extension by right-clicking on the "File path" column.

The file size column shows "10MB".  How can I tell exactly how many bytes are in the file, instead of these round numbers?
	- Hover the mouse over the file size cell.  You will see a small tooltip with the exact number of bytes in the file.

Can I open more than one Snap Diff view at a time?
	- Yes. Use the "SnapDiff" button in the Main window to open a new Snap Diff view, select any open Snap Diff view, or close all the Snap Diff views.
	- Snap Diff views are numbered so you can distinguish them, e.g. "SnapDiff - 1" is the first view opened, "SnapDiff - 2" is the second, etc.  If you exit DriveSnap with several Snap Diff views open, each will be restored when you restart DriveSnap.
	- If you minimize DriveSnap, all the Snap Diff views will be hidden; if you restore DriveSnap, they will again appear with their last position and size.

How do I navigate (in Windows Explorer) to the actual file whose details I see in Snap Diff?
	- Just double click any file in the differences list to navigate to it using Windows Explorer.  If the drive containing the snapshot is not mounted, you will be prompted to mount it.

Can I export what I see in Snap Diff into Microsoft Excel?
	- Yes.  Use the Export button above the list to export the list of file differences you are currently viewing to Excel "comma-separated-values" format.  This creates a disk file (file extension .csv) with the fields separated by commas.  You can import this text file into Excel or any other compatible program.

Can I change which columns are displayed in the file differences list?
	- Use the "Columns" button at the top right of the list to show or hide the file size, last write time, creation time, last access time, or attributes column.
	- The selection of visible columns in a Snap Diff view applies to that view only; other Snap Diff views are not affected.

Once I have some file differences, how can I navigate to a specific file?
	- Use fast keyboard search:   If you click on a line in the "File path" column of the file differences list, you can search for items by simply typing a sequence of characters to locate within the text of that column.  This will just move the current line in the list to the next matching entry.  You can also use press Alt, along with one of the up/down arrow keys to find the next or previous matching entry.  The status line at the bottom of the view shows you the current search string.  Keyboard search is cancelled if no key has been pressed within 10 seconds, or if you press the escape key, or if you move to a different column.

Snap Dup View

How can I find all copies (duplicates) of a particular file within my snaps?
	- Open a Snap Dup view from the Main window using the "SnapDup" button.  The Snap Dup window lets you select one or more snaps and find the files that are duplicated.   Select any snaps from the snap list on top, then use the green "Find Duplicates " button to see which files are duplicated in these snaps.
	- You can include one or more snaps by checking the boxes in the "Include" column at the left of the snap list.  Use the "Include all" checkbox above the list to select all or none of the snaps (clear the checkboxes).
	- By default, "Show latest snaps only" is checked, so that if a folder has more than one snap, only the latest snap for that folder will be shown in the list.
	- If you uncheck "Show latest snaps only", all existing snaps will be shown;  however you can only select one snap from any particular folder.  After all, why would you want to look for duplicate files in two snaps of the same folder?  Almost all the files would be duplicated, and the resulting list would not be very interesting.

Wait!  What does "duplicate" really mean...?
	- Good question!  DriveSnap does not capture the actual bits of a file, so it cannot compare the real contents of files.  Instead, it looks for files with the same name (e.g. "MyFile.txt") in any subfolder of the included snaps, the same size (number of bytes in the file), and by default, files with the same "Last write time" since when files are copied in Windows, the last write time is preserved.
	- You can change the meaning of "duplicate" using the checkboxes above the files list.  For example, if you check "Creation time" then press the "Find Duplicates" button, Snap Dup will look for files with the same name, size and creation time, then display these in the list of duplicates.  Similarly, you can make the definition of "duplicate" more stringent by checking more boxes; however if you check "Last access time" or "Creation time" you may not find any duplicates, since when files are copied in Windows, these times are not preserved; instead they are assigned to the current time.

I don't want to see the duplicate "groups", just the individual files.  How do I do that?
	- By default, all the duplicates for a single file are grouped together.  You can expand or collapse the duplicate groups using the left-most "expand" column in the files list; right click on the expand column to bring up a small context menu allowing you to expand/collapse all the groups, or just use the +/- symbols in this column to expand/collapse individual groups.
	- However, you can uncheck "Show duplicate groups" (above the duplicates list) to get a flat list of all the duplicates; now you can freely sort by any column to e.g. see all duplicate files within a certain folder, or of a certain size, etc.
	- You can navigate among the files of a particular group using the Next/Prev buttons above the list.  When not showing duplicate groups, this provides a convenient way of finding all files belonging to the same group; even though they are widely separated in the list.  Note that if you hover the mouse over an entry in the "File name" column", you will see a tooltip showing the number of duplicates for that particular file.

Hey, those tooltips are interesting!  What other information is displayed in the duplicate files list tooltips?
	- So glad you asked!
•	 As mentioned above, the "File name" tooltip shows the full file name with the number of duplicates in that group.
•	The "File size" tooltip shows the actual number of bytes for a file (not just MB/KB).
•	The "Last write time", "Creation time" and "Last access time" tooltip shows the full time plus fractional seconds (millionths).
•	The "Attributes" tooltip shows the long form of the file attributes. ("Archive", etc.)
•	The "File folder" tooltip shows the snapshot timestamp and the full file path, combining the snap folder and the relative folder of the file.

I'm just interested in duplicate text files.  How can I restrict the list to only files that end with ".txt"?
	- Snap Dup has a search facility that is very similar to search in Snap Explorer.
	- You have to run Find Duplicates first,  then you can restrict which duplicates appear using search.
	- Click the "Search" checkbox to make the search bar appear.
	- Check the "Wildcards" box, enter "*.txt" in the search text area, then press the green search button .  The list will be restricted to only files ending with ".txt" within the current set of duplicates.  Similarly, you can search using regular expressions by checking the "Regular expressions" box, or can use the "Match case" button  to toggle between case-sensitive and case-insensitive search modes.
	- See the description of search for Snap Explorer above for all the details of how normal, wildcards, or regular expression search works.

Can I change the color that Snap Dup uses for files in the list?
	- Yes.  Right-click on the "File color" field above the files list;  this shows a menu allowing you to pick a different color, or reset the color to the default, or just remove the color entirely.
	- When you select a new File color, this is immediately reflected in all open Snap Dup views, and in any Snap Dup view you open in the future.
	- The File color selection is persistent, so if you close and reopen DriveSnap, you will still see the new color.
	- You can also change colors using the DriveSnap Settings dialog.

How do I sort the list of duplicates?
	- Click on any column header to sort by the contents of that column.  Click once to sort in ascending order, and click again to sort in descending order.
	- Additionally, if you want to sort by file extension or by duplicate count, right-click on the "File name" column to show a small sort menu.

The file size column shows "10MB".  How can I tell exactly how many bytes are in the file, instead of these round numbers?
	- Hover the mouse over the file size cell.  You will see a small tooltip with the exact number of bytes in the file.

Can I open more than one Snap Dup view at a time?
	- Yes. Use the "SnapDup" button in the Main window to open a new Snap Dup view, select any open Snap Dup view, or close all the Snap Dup views.
	- Snap Dup views are numbered so you can distinguish them, e.g. "SnapDup - 1" is the first view opened, "SnapDup - 2" is the second, etc.  If you exit DriveSnap with several Snap Dup views open, each will be restored when you restart DriveSnap, with its own settings.
	- If you minimize DriveSnap, all the Snap Dup views will be hidden; if you restore DriveSnap, they will again appear with their last position and size.

Can I change which columns are displayed in the duplicate files list?
	- Use the "Columns" button at the top right of the list to show or hide the file size, last write time, creation time, last access time, or attributes column.
	- The selection of visible columns in a Snap Dup view applies to that view only; other Snap Dup views are not affected.

Can I make the duplicate files list bigger to see more rows?
	- Use the Maximize button to see the duplicate files in a larger list occupying the entire view; click the Restore button to revert to the smaller list.

How do I navigate (in Windows Explorer) to the actual file whose details I see in Snap Dup?
	- Just double click any file in the duplicate files list to navigate to it using Windows Explorer.  If the drive containing the snapshot is not mounted, you will be prompted to mount it.
	- Use the "Explore" button at the top right of the files list to do the same thing.

Can I export what I see in Snap Dup into Microsoft Excel?
	- Yes.  Use the Export button at the top right of the list to export the list of duplicate files you are currently viewing to Excel "comma-separated-values" format.  This creates a disk file (file extension .csv) with the fields separated by commas.  You can import this text file into Excel or any other compatible program.

I have some HUGE snaps!  Can I just look for duplicates within a particular subfolder of a snap?
	- Once you have checked the "Include" box for a snap, you can double-click in the "Subfolder" column to restrict the duplicate scan to a subfolder of the snap.
	- This brings up the small "Enter Subfolder Path" dialog.  Type ".\" in the text box to bring up a list of all subfolders in the snap; as you type, the list will be restricted to subfolders that start with the text you enter.
	- Pick any subfolder and click "OK".  The subfolder is shown in the snaps list, and when you click "Find Duplicates", only this subfolder of the snap will be examined for duplicates.

Once I have found some duplicate files, how can I navigate in the list to a specific file?
	- Use fast keyboard search:   If you click on a line in the "File name" column of the duplicate files list, you can navigate to items by simply typing a sequence of characters to locate within the text of that column.  This will just move the current line in the list to the next matching entry.  You can also use press Alt, along with one of the up/down arrow keys to find the next or previous matching entry.  The status line at the bottom of the view shows you the current search string.  Keyboard search is cancelled if no key has been pressed within 10 seconds, or if you press the escape key, or if you move to a different column.
	- You can also search in the same way in the "Disk" and "File folder" columns.

Backup and Restore

What is DriveSnap backup/restore?
	- The Backup/Restore buttons on the Main window allows you to export your drives/folders/snaps to a ".SnapSilo" file, then import this data back into DriveSnap running on this or any another computer.

If I install DriveSnap on a new computer, how hard is it to transfer DriveSnap data from the old computer?
	- Not hard at all.  Just use Backup to create a SnapSilo file on your old computer, then use Restore on your new computer to add all your old drives/folders/snaps.

I have so many CD/DVDs and USB drives in DriveSnap that my display is getting quite cluttered!  How can I simplify what I see in DriveSnap?
	- If there are drives/folders/snaps whose listings need not be constantly available for explore/search in DriveSnap, you can create a SnapSilo file containing these using Backup.  Once these have been backed up, just remove them from the Main DriveSnap window.  You can recover them at any time using Restore to open this SnapSilo and merge its drives/folders/snaps back into DriveSnap.
	- You do not need to backup everything in DriveSnap at once.  You can include only the drives/folders/snaps you want to save.
	- You do not need to restore everything in a SnapSilo file.  For example, if you have a large SnapSilo file with all your data, you can select and restore a single snap from it.

If my current computer crashes, and I install DriveSnap on a new computer, can I recover all the information I had in my old DriveSnap?
	- Yes, if you have made a recent complete backup.  Run Backup periodically on your current computer and save all your drives/folders/snaps to a SnapSilo file in a safe location.  If your computer crashes, you can easily Restore this SnapSilo file to DriveSnap running on a new computer, and all your old DriveSnap information will again be available.

What happens if there are conflicts during Restore?
	- If you try to restore a drive/folder/snap from a SnapSilo, and this drive/folder/snap already exists in DriveSnap, the restore for this drive/folder/snap will be skipped.  DriveSnap will NOT try to merge the data from the SnapSilo into the current configuration.
	- However, if you restore a folder that does not exist, but whose parent drive exists, the folder will be restored to the existing drive although the properties of the parent drives will not be merged.
	- Similarly, if you restore a snap that does not exist, but its folder exists already, the snap will be restored to the existing folder.

Splash Screen

What does the splash screen show?
	- The current DriveSnap version number.
	- Validity checks for all folder credentials you have added by attempting to connect to the associated network resources.
	- Validity check for the DriveSnap license.
	- The total elapsed time for initialization of the program.

The splash screen is annoying!  Can I turn it off?
	- MollieSoft is deeply sorry that you do not appreciate our beautiful splash screen.  However, to mollify the occasional customer with a distaste for splash screens, we have provided a check box in the "Settings" dialog that you can use to turn off the splash screen.

Network Credentials

What are network credentials?
	- DriveSnap is able to access folders on a network share if the share is available.  Normally, Windows manages the credentials (user name and password) required to access a network share, and you will not need to enter these into DriveSnap.
	- However, for some network shares, Windows will not permanently retain the required credentials.  In this case, you can save the credentials for the share in DriveSnap (encrypted of course), and these will be used as required to gain access to folders on that share.  This will minimize any user interaction required during a snap.

What happens if a network share is not available, or my credentials are just incorrect?
	- Windows may take a while to figure this out.  For each credential you enter in the "Network Credentials" dialog, you can specify a timeout between 1 and 60 seconds, controlling when DriveSnap will give up on this network share.  The default is 5 seconds; the longer the timeout for a share, the longer DriveSnap will "hang" waiting for the share credentials to validate, so be careful when modifying this timeout value.

How do I enter credentials?  How are they used?
	- Use the "Network Credentials" dialog to enter and test credentials for any network share.  You can add, remove, edit, or test any credentials you enter.
	- Enter a network path using two leading backslashes ("\\") just as you would do in Windows Explorer.  Examples:
		\\192.168.1.10
		\\111.22.333.44\shared
		\\BOBSCOMPUTER\Fileshare1
	- Enter the user name in the form <DOMAIN/MACHINE>\<user>.  Examples:
		BOBSCOMPUTER\RobertUser
		DESKTOP1\JohnDoe
		MARYSCOMPUTER\Mary
	- Enter the password using the "Edit" dialog available from the "Network Credentials" dialog in DriveSnap.  When you enter the password, the characters are replaced by masking characters for security.  The password is never visible in plain text on any screen of DriveSnap.
	- User passwords are stored using strong encryption in the DriveSnap config file, for security.
	- You can enter credentials for "overlapping" network paths.  For example, say you enter credentials for the network path "\\192.168.1.17" on your local network.  Say you also enter credentials for the network path "\\192.168.1.17\shared".  Then when credentials are required for a copy operation, the credentials with the longest match will always be used in preference to any with a shorter match.  That is, if you snap the folder "\\192.168.1.17\shared\MyFiles", the saved credentials for "\\192.168.1.17\shared" will be used instead of those for "\\192.168.1.17".
	- Credentials are only used if they are required (after program start).  That is, if a snap folder is already available, no credentials will be used.  If not available, matching credentials will be used to try to make it available.
	- Credentials will only be used for a drive or network share if you explicitly request  this by checking the "Use credentials" setting in the Add/Edit dialog for the network share.
	- You can see exactly which credentials match a given network share when you check "Use credentials" in the "Edit" dialog for a network share.  If there is a credentials match, it will be shown in blue to the right of the check box.

Miscellaneous

How do I navigate between DriveSnap windows?
	- Each of the DriveSnap view types (Snap Explorer, Snap Diff, Snap Dup, Search and History Log) has buttons at the top allowing you to navigate from the current view to the Main window.
	- From the Main window, you can open multiple views of each type (except for History Log); the corresponding buttons at the top of the Main window show you which views of each type are open and allow you to navigate to these, open a new view, or close all such views.
	- The Search Help window has an additional entry in its system menu (icon at top left of the window frame) to go back to the Main window.
	- Double-click a snapshot in the Main storage list to open a Snap Explorer window for this snapshot.
	- Use the "Locate Snap" button in Search view to find the snapshot containing a particular file in the Main window.
	- Note: DriveSnap will remember which views are open and when restarted, will recreate the same views for you, with the same sizes and positions as of when DriveSnap was last closed.

Can I disable the little yellow tooltip pop-up windows that appear over controls?
	- Yes; just uncheck "Enable Tooltips" in the Settings dialog.

Can I disable the sounds played when a snap starts and stops?
	- Yes; just uncheck "Enable Sounds" in the Settings dialog.

The text in DriveSnap is too small for me to read comfortably; is there a way to make it bigger?
	- Yes; press the key combination Control+Numpad-PLUS to step the font size up, and Control+Numpad-MINUS to step it back down.  That is, hold down the Control key while pressing "+" or "-" on the numeric keypad.  (Note this does not work while a dialog is open.)
	- There are four step sizes: small, medium, large, and extra large.  (These correspond to the Windows font point sizes 8.25, 9, 9.75, and 10.25 respectively.)
	- Of course, increasing the font size will make all the views and dialogs correspondingly larger, and decreasing it will make them smaller.
	- The new font size will be remembered whenever you re-open a view or dialog, or restart DriveSnap.
	- You can also set the font size using the Settings dialog.  Select the appropriate font-size radio button (small, medium, large, extra large); the new font size will be applied once you press OK.

What is the History Log?
	- Every time DriveSnap is started, a new History Log file is created in the directory 
		%localappdata%\DriveSnap\Logs.
(Just paste this into a Windows Explorer navigation bar to display the contents of this directory, or press the button "Explore Logs" on the History Log window.)  The files are named using the format
		 DriveSnapLog.YYYYMMDD_hhmmss.log,
e.g. DriveSnapLog.20200102_143932.log is the file created when DriveSnap was started on 2020/01/02 at 14:39:32.  These files contain diagnostic information relevant to the operation of DriveSnap, and can be opened using Notepad.
	- To see what is being written to the History Log in real time, click the History Log button at the top of the Main DriveSnap window to open the History Log window.
	- At startup, the History Log will display the current DriveSnap version and license information, the current number of drives/folders/snaps, when the next snap is scheduled, and any error encountered when attempting to use the folder credentials.
	- The History Log contains a record of what DriveSnap is doing, including snaps, cleanups, automatic scheduling, and any errors encountered.
	- The "Explore Logs" button at the top right of History Log will open a Windows Explorer, and show you the logs directory containing the history log files for all past executions of DriveSnap.

What else is in %localappdata%\DriveSnap?
	- Warning!  Never modify any file in this directory or any subdirectory, or the results will be "unpredictable".
	- This directory contains your license information.
	- The "Config" subdirectory contains timestamped DriveSnap.cfg files, which hold various DriveSnap program settings, and information about your drives and snaps.
	- The "Logs" subdirectory contains DriveSnap log files (the current log file is shown in the History Log window).
	- The "Queries" subdirectory contains any custom search queries you have saved from a Search window.
	- The "Snaps" subdirectory contains the actual data collected during a snap.  Snap data is stored in ".dat" files; these are only readable by DriveSnap.

What happens if I minimize DriveSnap?
	- When minimized, DriveSnap is only visible as an icon in the System Tray area.  All existing views will be hidden, and will be restored along with the Main window if you double-click the tray icon.
	-  Right-click the system tray icon to restore DriveSnap, exit DriveSnap, show the next scheduled snap time, or show the about box.
	- While minimized, any automatically scheduled snaps will of course be run at the time specified; you will see a pop-up notification in the system tray when the snap starts and ends.
	- If you close DriveSnap while minimized (using "Exit" on the right-click menu available on the tray icon), DriveSnap will remember that you prefer to start it minimized.

Where do I send comments or suggestions about DriveSnap?
	- Email comments or suggestions to:
		support@molliesoft.com
	 or to
		molliesoft@comcast.net