The new functionality can be configured on the "Archives" page in the Desktop's settings notebook, which is replaced by &xwp;.
Basically, instead of just letting you decide whether the WPS should always be archived at Desktop startup, &xwp; now offers you much more flexible criteria for whether the WPS should be backed up.
The archives format itself is not changed. You can therefore still press Alt+F1 when &os2; is starting to restore your backups. The new features only deal with whether the WPS should be backed up.
When the WPS is starting up and &xwp; is thus loaded too, it now checks the system configuration according to the settings which you have specified. If it turns out that the WPS needs to be archived according to your settings, archiving is turned on, the WPS continues booting, and the WPS will then back up your Desktop.
You can, for example, specify that the WPS should be backed up every so-and-so days or based on a certain percentage that the INI files have changed.
The archiving criteria are described in detail when you press "Help" on the new "Archives" page in the Desktop's settings notebook.