Fling is a file transfer software that can be used to transfer and backup files over a computer network and ftp. It’s two main uses are to backup files that are stored on a local computer system to computers in the network or to an ftp server located on the Internet.

The developers have added some other options that include backing up files between local hard drives, update a remote website over ftp or to automate transfers of files to an USB drive.

The program displays a wizard upon first start which will aid the user in setting up the first backup or transfer job. The user needs to enter some data after making the selection. The type of data depends largely on the selected job. Backing up data to a remote ftp server requires the ftp login credentials and IP while backing up files between two local hard drives requires only the selection of the folders involved.

The last step is included in every setup. It asks the user to select an update and scan option. Possibilities are manual updates, automatic updates when changes are detected (that means almost instantly), interval scans to check for changes occasionally and on demand folder scans.

It is possible to skip the wizard and configure the service manually. This adds a few additional option to the file transfer which could be interesting for experienced users.

It is for example possible to exclude files from being copied (using wildcards, e.g. *.exe), prevent the deletion of remotely hosted files or to delete local files after a successful file transfer.

Fling’s main advantage is that it is not complicated to setup. It takes roughly a minute to configure a backup or file transfer job in the software program. Fling is available for the Microsoft Windows operating system, more precisely for all major releases of the last years including Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003, 2008 and Windows 7.

You might want to check out our article on Windows backup software to read about additional free programs that can be used to backup and transfer data.

Rich Copy is a file transfer software that has been in internal use by Microsoft for quite some time. The developers have now made it available for public use. The file transfer software program adds many new features to Windows Explorer file transfers including parallel transfers (also called multithreaded transfers), pausing and resuming the file copying process and a plethora of additional options.

The main difference between Rich Copy and third party tools like TeraCopy is the missing Windows Explorer integration of Rich Copy. It is an external file transfer program with an unbelievable set of options. To name a few of the advanced options that are available:

• Set thread count and cache size for transfers as well as process priorities
• Set or remove file attributes automatically
• Selecting specific errors to immediately stop the copying process
• Include or exclude specific files from being copied specifying file names, file attributes and / or dates.
• Running commands before and after the file transfer
• Extensive file operating logging
• Different file transfer modes and additional copying restrictions based on security, size or time stamps

Rich Copy has been primarily been designed to speed up but also give more control to file transfers in the Windows operating system. Users who simply want to speed up the original Windows Explorer copying process are better of using file transfer software like Teracopy or Fast Copy which integrates itself nicely into Windows Explorer and replaces the original file transfer dialog.