Want to use another backup program

Because smartware seems to back up Recorded TV in windows 7, and it doesn’t look like there’s an easy way to stop it from doing that, I wanted to instead just use the native windows backup utility included with Win 7. My question is: I understand one can disable the VCD and uninstall the Smarware software, but you lose the gauge on the drive. Is there a downside to just keeping the software installed, leaving it in a non-backup state (pause backup), and then just use Windows 7 backup (or any other backup e.g… acronis)? Would there be a potential conflict? just wanted to run this by some people here and see if anybody has a recommendation.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

As long as you are running the latest version of SmartWare, you should be able to keep the backup in pause without causing any issues with using Windows 7’s backup utility.