In a new Building Windows 8 blog post, Microsoft details the new File History feature in Windows 8. This new feature is more powerful that Windows Backup and Restore (found in Windows 7) and offers a cool new way to continuously protect personal files.
Microsoft understands that using a backup tool is not really all that popular. In fact, less than 5% of consumer PCs use Windows Backup. Even if statistics tally up third party backup tool use, less than 50% of computers are backed up. Microsoft hopes to change this with the new File History feature in Windows 8.
“File History only saves copies of files that are in your libraries, contacts, favorites, and on your desktop. If you have folders elsewhere that you want backed up, you can add them to one of your existing libraries or create a new library,” Microsoft explains.
Simply open File History from the Control Panel, and then click On. Microsoft recommends the use of an external drive for File History backup.
Restoring a file is very easy as well. “With File History, the search starts right in Windows Explorer. You can browse to a specific location and click or tap on the History button in the explorer ribbon in order to see all versions of the selected library, folder or an individual file,” Microsoft explains.
File History will run once an hour and runs silently in the background. It also requires minimal setup. As far as cloud storage goes, File History is designed specifically for consumers and does not support cloud storage in this release. “File History silently protects all of your important files stored in Libraries, Desktop, Favorites and Contacts. Once turned on, it requires no effort at all to protect your data. When you lose a file or just need to find an original version of a picture or a specific version of a resume, all versions of your files are available. With the File History restore application you can find it quickly and effortlessly,” Microsoft adds. Take a look at the demo video below:
