How To Use File History Windows 10

File History is Windows 10's master backup tool, originally introduced in Windows 8. Despite the proper name, File History isn't just a way to restore previous versions of files–it's a fully-featured backup tool.

After yous set up File History, you can only connect an external drive to your calculator and Windows will automatically back up your files to it. Leave it connected and Windows will support automatically on a schedule.

How to Enable File History

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File History is designed to be quick and like shooting fish in a barrel to enable, unlike other complex backup tools. To enable it, first connect an external difficult bulldoze to your computer. Side by side, open up the Settings app from your Start menu. Navigate to Update & Security > Backup.

Click or tap the "Add together a drive" selection under Support using File History to add together an external drive that File History volition back up to. Information technology'll listing external drives and requite y'all the option to back up to them.

You could likewise use the Control Panel for this, just we'll be covering the new Settings interface hither. If you'd similar to employ the Control Panel instead (for example, if yous're still on Windows 8), open the Control Panel and navigate to System and Security > File History.

Select a drive, and Windows will use information technology for File History. The "Automatically back upward my files" pick volition appear and be automatically turned on. Windows will automatically back up your files to the drive whenever yous connect information technology to your computer.

How to Configure File History

Select "More than options" to configure how oftentimes File History backs up, how long it keeps those backup copies, and–most importantly–which files it backs upwardly.

File History automatically backs up your files every 60 minutes by default, simply you can select a different time hither. Yous tin can choose one time every 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 20 minutes, xxx minutes, 1 hour, 3 hours, half dozen hours, 12 hours, or once per day.

It volition commonly go along your backups forever, but y'all tin have information technology delete them when they go one month, 3 months, 6 months, nine months, 1 year, or two years old. You lot can too accept File History automatically delete backups as necessary to make space on your File History bulldoze.

By default, File History will exist set up to support back up important folders in your user account's home folder. This includes the Desktop, Documents, Downloads, Music, Pictures, Videos folders. It besides includes the Roaming folder where many programs store application data, your OneDrive folder, and other folders.

You can check the full list of folders in this window, and add more folders. Select "Add a folder" and you'll be able to choose any folder on your computer to back up. You tin also select a folder here and employ the "Remove" button to foreclose Windows from bankroll information technology up.

Note: In Windows 8, you practise not take the option to add folders from File History–instead, you must add folders to a Library in order for them to be included.

You'll besides discover an "Exclude these folders" department that allows you to exclude specific subfolders from being backed up. For example, you lot could have Windows automatically dorsum upwardly every folder in your Documents folder, just ignore one particular folder. In Windows 8, you'll detect this on the left-hand side of the File History window.

To kickoff backing upward to a dissimilar drive, utilize the "Cease using drive" button. This allows you to end backing up to your current bulldoze and first bankroll up to a new one. The backups won't be deleted, but Windows can only be configured to dorsum up to i drive at once.

The "See advanced settings" link hither takes you to the Control Panel, which offers another interface y'all can utilise to configure File History. Click "Advanced Settings" here and y'all'll detect a few more options, including the ability to view recent errors in the Outcome Viewer, clean upward sometime versions of files, and allow other computers that are role of your homegroup to support to your bulldoze.

How to Restore Files from Your Backup

To restore files from your external bulldoze, open up the Settings app, select "Update & security," select "Fill-in," select "More than options," scroll down to the bottom of the window, and select "Restore files from a current backup."

Yous tin can besides open up the Control Console, select "Organisation and Security," select "File History," and click "Restore personal files."

(If y'all accept File History backups you created on some other computer, simply set upwards File History on the new computer and select the drive containing your old File History backups. They'll then appear in the Restore Files interface so you can restore files, just every bit you could if the backup was created on the electric current computer.)

This interface volition allow you to view your backups and restore files. Scan the available files and select one or more files or folders. You can preview them past right-clicking them or select them and click the green button to restore them to your computer.

To choose a time catamenia, click the arrow buttons or the panes at the side of the window. You'll as well be informed how many different backup time periods are available. For example, in the screenshot below, the "2 of 3" at the top of the window indicates there are 3 available backups, and we're viewing the second one. There'south ane older fill-in available, as well equally ane newer i.

How to Restore Files From Within File Explorer

Y'all can also speedily restore a previous version of a file from File Explorer. Open up File Explorer, correct-click the file you want to revert, and click "Restore previous versions." You can also click "Properties" and and then select the "Previous Versions" tab.

Any available previous versions of the file from File History will exist available here. Yous can preview them, restore 1 to its original location, or restore a previous version to a different location on your computer.

You can likewise view previous versions and deleted files that were in a specific folder. To do this, navigate to the folder in File Explorer, click the "Home" tab on the ribbon bar at the pinnacle of the window, and click "History."

Y'all'll be presented with a list of files you lot tin can restore that were once in the folder. This is the aforementioned interface you'd use when restoring files unremarkably, but File Explorer allows you to get-go from within a specific folder to speed things up.

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File History is a very simple and useful backup pick, and for information technology's completely free. Windows ten also allows you to create a organization epitome fill-in if you want a full backup copy of your operating organisation country. This isn't the ideal solution for backing up your files–even if you brand organisation epitome backups, you should be creating more than frequent backups of your important files with File History–but some geeks may observe information technology useful if they're playing with the Registry or other system files.

Source: https://www.howtogeek.com/74623/how-to-use-the-new-file-history-feature-in-windows-8/

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