Why is Acronis listed in my Device Manager?

I was going through my Device Manager yesterday and saw a reference to Acronis True Image Backup Archive Explorer. Can somebody clue me in as to why that is there? There is no Acronis related hardware on my machine that I know. Is this like a virtual hardware device or something?

 

Yes it is a virtual device and it does what it says on the tin.

 

Hello photogman,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

As Xpilot said, it's a virtual device. It's used by Acronis True Image to mount images and explore archives. Please see chapter 12 "Exploring archives and mounting images" of Acronis True Image 10.0 Home User's Guide for detailed explanations on those functions of Acronis True Image.

If you have any further questions concerning Acronis software, please feel free to submit a request for technical support or post any of them on this forum. We will certainly try to help you in resolving any issues.

Thank you.
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Marat Setdikov