During the last couple of weeks I've been using Windows 7 at my work laptop (a Dell E6500). The OS itself ain't that bad (but still no OSX). Among the many improvements there's a new Backup ad Restore Center in the OS (compared to Windows XP, since I skipped Vista). But the application/service has a flaw. A very annoying one.
The interface is pretty intuitive and definitely more user-friendly. There's the option of backing up to a local (CD/DVD) drive, and you can choose to backup to a network share. In the corporate environment I choose the network drive. To do this, you do need ownership (some special permissions) on the drive share. This way the Backup and Restore application can do its thing.
Since Windows 7 is a member of the corporate domain I don't need to enter any credentials when accessing network shares, except with the backup application. Why? Don't ask me. But this is where the flaw kicks in.
The corporate policy is that everyone needs to change his/hers password every X days. But every time you change your domain password the Backup and Restore application can't backup to the network drive. You need to change your credentials in the application before the backup can start.
The real problem is that there's no easy way to change the password (e.g. a pop-up where you can enter your new password). You need to go through the entire wizard every time.
This behavior left me with the following question(s); Why do I need to re-enter my credentials when I'm already logged on to the domain? The driveshare is part of the same domain, and the backup 'service' runs on a system (under the user credentials) which is member of that same domain. Why store a static password in a dynamic environment?
The only reason I can think of is that the 'new' Backup and Restore application is something Microsoft has bought from a third party (or they bought the entire third-party), and that the application is basically still in Beta (of some sort).
Another (smaller) flaw is the lack of multiple backup scripts/scenarios. It would be nice to have the possibility to schedule a full backup to the network, and an other backup (different types of information) to a local (USB) drive.