Abstract: A database of known commercial software programs ("Products") is maintained and employed as a template for selection of files for a backup operation. In particular, files which are part of known Products may be excluded during backup operations. Records indicating rules about which files within Product directories are included and excluded from the backup operation are also maintained in the database. Product directories may be determined from a registry or the hard disk may be scanned and directories checked against a list of known Product default directories. If the newly found directory does not match an entry in the list of default directories, then file list codes in the database are checked against the files in the directory to determine whether known Product files are present in the directory. Two types of exclusion commands are employed to identify files for exclusion from the backup operation by exploiting file creation and modification dates.