Windows Installation

System Requirements

• x86_32+SSE2 or x86_64 CPU architecture
• Minimum 1024x600 screen resolution
• Windows Vista, 7, 8, 8.1, 10, or newer
• Windows Server 2008, 2008 R2, 2012, 2012 R2, 2016, or newer

Microsoft ended Extended support for Windows 7, Server 2008, and Server 2008 R2 on January 14th 2020. Future versions of Magnus Box may drop support for older versions of Windows no longer under active security support from Microsoft.

Microsoft ended extended support for Windows 7, Server 2008, and Server 2008 R2 on January 14th, 2020. Future versions of Magnus Box may drop support for older versions of Windows no longer under active security support from Microsoft.

At the time of writing, there is no version of Magnus Box available for Windows XP / Server 2003. All versions of Magnus Box rely heavily on features that were only introduced in Windows Vista / Server 2008.

Windows XP / Server 2003 no longer receives security patches from Microsoft. It is unsafe to connect such a machine to the internet. If you are attempting to supply backup services to a customer in this situation, you should arrange to first upgrade their operating system with urgency.

Despite the above warning, Magnus Box would like to support as many platforms as possible. It might become supported in the future.

Workarounds

You can work around this issue by

• installing Magnus Box on another machine, and then backup the XP machine over the network; or
• virtualizing the XP machine, and backing up the VM guest from the VM host. This also allows you to remove internet access from the XP machine.

Download the installation package from your dedicated Magnus Box web portal. Once installed, the client software prompts for account details to log in.

Magnus Box allows you to install and configure the software silently, by running install.exe /CONFIGURE=user:password via your remote management software. Silent installations must be started by running from the installer directory.

Magnus Box automatically creates a Virtual Account (NT SERVICE\backup.delegate) with all necessary permissions to back up files on the PC.

Isolating Magnus Box under a Virtual Account is supported on Windows 7 or later, and Windows Server 2008 R2 or later when that server is not a Domain Controller. On other machines (e.g. Windows Server 2008 RTM, and domain controllers) the backup service will run as LOCAL SYSTEM by default.

On a Domain Controller running Windows Server 2008 R2 or later, we recommend configuring a Managed Service Account inside Active Directory for the backup service. This allows you to isolate the backup service permissions in a password-less service account. You should apply this to the backup.delegate service (but not the backup.elevator service, used for software updates).

The installer will safely remove and upgrade any prior version of Magnus Box, including those with a different software branding.

If the product name is changed as a result of the installation process, the newly-branded software may be installed into the old-branded directory name. You can avoid this issue by completely uninstalling and reinstalling the software.

You can silently upgrade the software remotely via the Magnus Box interface, or by running install.exe /S via your remote management software.

In Magnus Box 19.12.1 and later, if you customize the backup.delegate service to use any other user account, your changes will be preserved in any future software upgrade.

The software can be uninstalled via the "Apps and Features" section in the Windows Control Panel.

During this process, you may be prompted whether you wish to preserve any username/password credentials saved on this computer.

You can also remove the saved credentials manually by deleting the AppData\Roaming\backup-tool\config.dat file. If the backup.delegate service was running as the NT SERVICE\backup.delegate user, this is stored in the C:\Users\backup.delegate\AppData\Roaming\backup-tool\ directory; the path may differ if the service was running as another user account.

You can silently uninstall Magnus Box for Windows by passing the /S command-line argument (e.g. "C:\Program Files\Magnus Box\Uninstall.exe" /S).

If you also want to remove the saved username/password credentials, add this command-line "C:\Program Files\Magnus Box\Uninstall.exe" /S /ISDELETECREDENTIAL=yes