Backups, sharing and safety
Bindings and game settings take hours to make and minutes to lose: a game update, a reinstall, a wrong click, a new PC. RigReady keeps copies at three levels, and every change it makes to your files can be undone.
This section covers all of it: the copies RigReady makes by itself, the backups you make, snapshots of one item, the comparison with the last time a game worked, sharing a setup with other people, and moving to a new PC.
The three layers
Automatic copies before every change. RigReady never writes a file outside its own data folder without first copying the file as it is into its data folder and recording the change in a journal. You do nothing for this; it happens for every restore, every binding edit, every file RigReady writes for a game. The Safety page lists every such change with an Undo button. See the Safety page.
Backups you make. Back up now on the Backups page puts every tracked file and every setup into one zip file that you can keep anywhere, including on another PC. A restore wizard puts any part of it back. See backups, tracked files and restore.
Snapshots. A snapshot is a named copy of one tracked item, for example a game's bindings before you rebind the throttle. You can compare it with the files as they are now, line by line, and put it back. See snapshots.
A fourth tool watches rather than copies: each time a setup's game starts, RigReady records its tracked files, so when something stops working you can see exactly what changed since it last worked.
What is never copied
Files that hold credentials are never read into a backup, a snapshot, a shared setup or an import, whatever folder you track: SimAppPro's config file with your WinWing account, DCS's saved login (network.vault, steam_authdata.bin), Steam sign-in files, browser password stores, private keys and certificates. They are listed as left out, with the reason, wherever they would have been included.
- BackupsBack up now puts every tracked file and every setup into one zip file; this page explains what it holds, where it goes and how many are kept.
- Tracked filesWhat a backup holds is the list of tracked files; games and tools suggest theirs, and you can add any file or folder with include and exclude patterns.
- Restore a backupThe restore wizard shows where every item would go on this PC and whether it is new, the same or different, and lets you replace, skip or keep both.
- SnapshotsA snapshot is a named copy of one tracked item, taken before you change something, that you can compare with the files now and put back.
- What changedEach time a setup's game starts, RigReady records its tracked files, so when something stops working you can see what changed since it last worked.
- Share a setupExport a setup as a .rigready file after a privacy review, and import one you were given after seeing how it fits this PC and what it wanted to run.
- A picture of your rigSave a picture of this setup draws the monitors to scale, every controller with your name for it and the helper apps as one PNG, with nothing personal in it.
- The Safety pageEvery file RigReady changed outside its own folder is listed here with the copy it kept first, grouped by action, and each action can be undone.
- Moving to a new PCInstall the games, restore a backup, then fix the device IDs: the steps to bring bindings, settings and setups to a new PC or a fresh Windows, in order.