@Ashraf, thanks a lot. Of course, there is no malware anywhere.
The program itself is self-explanatory. Once one has an account with Ashampoo keys are provided within a second or two. What’s more, Ashampoo keep a record of all keys acquired.
Just to get an idea how the software performs I started off my first Ashampoo backup (Windows image) which as I understand includes the complete c:\drive plus any hidden drives required for Windows.
Compared to other software of this kind, Ashampoo, at least this version, lacks the usual whistles and bells such as splitting an image into smaller chunks, supporting various grades of compression, upload to a clouddrive or even estimating the time for completion of the job.
As with all such software, you never know how restoration will turn out, full success, part success or complete failure.
As I had some excrutiating time with Acronis, not even able to successfully complete a single backup, despite lengthy contact with their so-called support staff, I will take any bet that Ashampoo will at least try and put right what might be causing problems.
Right now I feel quite confident with Ashampoo Backup 2018 as the progress bar keeps advancing. If I find anything unusual in the result, creating the rescue media, I will report back again.
Meanwhile, once again, my sincere thanks to Ashraf.