WinMachine

Windows Time Machine — open-source backup utility with NTFS hard-link snapshots, 3D time browser UI, SMB support, and system tray integration.

Built with Go + Wails + React

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⚠️ This project is under active development but already usable. If you find any bugs or have suggestions, feel free to open an issue or submit a pull request — contributions are welcome!

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Features

• Incremental snapshots — Only changed files are copied; unchanged files are NTFS hard-linked from the previous snapshot (zero extra disk space)
• Time Browser — 3D card-stack UI to browse and restore files from any point in time, with mouse wheel navigation and draggable timeline
• Windows Explorer integration — Mount any snapshot as a virtual drive letter via subst
• SMB network share support — Back up to NAS/network drives with saved credentials
• Scheduled backups — Configurable interval via cron (every 5 min to daily)
• Per-machine snapshots — Identified by hostname + Windows MachineGuid, safe for multi-PC backups to the same target
• NTFS protection — Snapshot directories are marked Hidden+System with NTFS ACLs (SYSTEM + Administrators only)
• Retention policy — Automatic pruning: keep hourly/daily/weekly/monthly snapshots
• System tray — Runs in background with tray icon, quick access to backup/pause/open
• Auto-start — Optional Windows startup registration via registry
• Single .exe — No installer needed, portable

Tech Stack

Component	Technology
Backend	Go 1.25+, Wails v2
Frontend	React 18 + TypeScript + Vite
Tray	energye/systray
Scheduler	robfig/cron
Platform	Windows 10/11 (NTFS required)

Installation

Download the latest WinMachine.exe from the Releases page and run it — no installer or dependencies required. It's a single portable executable.

Note: Requires Windows 10/11 with an NTFS-formatted backup target drive.

Building from Source

Prerequisites

• Go 1.25+ — download
• Node.js 18+ — download
• Wails CLI v2 — installed automatically by buildme.bat, or manually: go install github.com/wailsapp/wails/v2/cmd/wails@latest

Quick Start

git clone https://github.com/KallosLaszlo/winmachine.git
cd WinMachine
buildme.bat

The script checks for Go, Node.js and Wails CLI, installs missing dependencies, and builds build\bin\WinMachine.exe.

Development

wails dev

Runs a live-reload dev server with hot module replacement for the frontend.

Project Structure

WinMachine/
├── main.go                    # Entry point, embeds frontend + icon
├── app.go                     # Wails bindings (all frontend-exposed methods)
├── internal/
│   ├── backup/
│   │   ├── engine.go          # Core backup logic with hard link dedup
│   │   ├── snapshot.go        # Snapshot listing, metadata, paths
│   │   ├── restore.go         # File/folder restore + snapshot browsing
│   │   └── retention.go       # Time-bucket pruning
│   ├── config/
│   │   └── config.go          # JSON config (source dirs, target, schedule, SMB)
│   ├── fsutil/
│   │   ├── hardlink.go        # NTFS hard link with copy fallback
│   │   ├── walker.go          # Directory walker with excludes
│   │   ├── volume.go          # NTFS detection, disk space
│   │   ├── machineid.go       # Hostname + MachineGuid identifier
│   │   └── protect.go         # Hidden+System attrs + NTFS ACL
│   ├── scheduler/
│   │   └── scheduler.go       # Cron-based scheduled backups
│   ├── smb/
│   │   └── smb.go             # Persistent SMB mount manager
│   └── tray/
│       └── tray.go            # System tray icon + menu
├── frontend/
│   └── src/
│       ├── App.tsx             # Main layout with sidebar navigation
│       ├── App.css             # All styles including Time Machine 3D UI
│       └── pages/
│           ├── Dashboard.tsx   # Status, stats, quick actions
│           ├── TimeBrowser.tsx # 3D snapshot browser
│           └── Settings.tsx    # Config: sources, target, SMB, schedule
├── build/
│   └── windows/
│       └── icon.ico           # Application icon
├── buildme.bat                # One-click build script
└── wails.json                 # Wails project config

Configuration

Config is stored at %APPDATA%\WinMachine\config.json:

Setting	Description
sourceDirs	Folders to back up
targetDir	Local or SMB backup destination
targetType	"local" or "smb"
smbTarget	SMB share path, drive letter, credentials
scheduleInterval	Cron expression (e.g. @every 15m)
retention	Keep N hourly/daily/weekly/monthly snapshots
autoStart	Register in Windows startup
excludePatterns	Glob patterns to skip

Known Issues

• Auto-start depends on exe location — The auto-start feature saves the current exe path to the Windows Registry. If you move the exe to a different folder, auto-start will fail. To fix, toggle the auto-start option off and on again in Settings.

License

MIT

Author

Kallos László — laszlo@kallos.dev

Tooling

AI-assisted development was used (Claude Opus 4.6) for debugging, refactoring, and optimization.