So you got a new PC for the holidays or you are formatting your old one for a new lease on life?

You can use a number of programs to backup your machine. But if you want to start clean and do a fresh install of your Operating System then you might just need a hand bringing over your Internet Explorer settings.

Don't look at me like that.

Lot's of people use Internet Explorer! I swear!

Yes we have covered multiple backup programs for Mozilla browsers but here is one for you hardcore IE users out there!

The creatively named Internet Explorer Backup can be found here. It is a simple download and installation of a 966KB file. I love it when authors keep their distributable files under 1MB!  It shows there is no unnecessary bloat.

After you download and install your new backup application, run it and you will see this screen:

The program is self explanatory but I will walk you through it briefly.

You click on Backup and start the process. Now it does not matter if you are backing up IE4 settings to be restored on IE7 or IE5 settings to be restored on IE6 or IE4. You can go any which way. As long as the settings you are importing work on the current revision of your browser then you are golden. If not the settings do not cause errors - they just disappear.

On the screen above you need to choose your folder to backup to as well as set compression and security options. You can also have IE Backup remember this as your preferred backup directory for less clicking in the future.

Hit the Browse button and show it where you want to store your backup.

I chose my D: drive and it defaults to its own directory as you can see below:

I then clicked "next". You can choose what you want to backup. I went willy nilly and let it back up everything.

After I clicked Next it just did its thing without any more intervention.

The whole backup process took about 4 minutes on my Windows XP SP3 with IE7. Not bad, Not bad at all.

That's that! Simple easy as 1, 2, 3 or well 1,2,3,4,5 and clicking Finish!

As you saw above, there is also the ability to schedule backups and password protect your archives.

Do you have a favorite program that backs up your browser? Share it in the comments! We want to hear from you!