How to Restore Files in Windows 10

There are many scenarios in which you would unfortunately lose data. Computer crashes, virus infection, hardware failure or even sudden power outage could bring unexpected data loss. It is recommended to have duplicates of your important files stored away in case anything goes bad. Windows 10 includes a series of tools designed to minimize the impact of data loss.

File History

File History is one of the backup programs Windows 10 offers. It saves different versions of files onto your selected hard drive. However, this feature somewhat limited, as it only backs up files located in user account's libraries like Documents, Music, Pictures, Videos, and Desktop folders. If you have files or folders elsewhere that you want to be backed up, you can add them to one of these folders. Rather than applications and programs, it backs up the files you personally created.

File History automatically makes a copy of every file in these folders. It makes your backups easy to view and restore, giving you the chance to go through different versions of your files and folders, comparing them with your current versions. You can use it to restore your files if you ever lose them, or roll back a file to a preferred older version.

How to Enable File History

To enable File History, connect an external hard drive to your computer. Next, open the Settings from your Start menu. Navigate to Update & Security > Backup.

Click the Add a drive option under Back up using File History to add an external drive that File History will back up to. Once done, the Automatically back up my files option will be enabled, and Windows will automatically back up your files to the chosen external hard drive whenever you connect it to your computer.

By default, Windows File History automatically backs up your files every hour. You can customize the settings by clicking on More options. You can configure the interval between each backup (10 minutes, 15 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, 3 hours, 6 hours, 12 hours, or once per day) and for how long the system is going to keep these files (1 month, 3 months, 6 months, 9 months, 1 year, 2 years, forever). The default file folders set to have backups includes the Desktop, Documents, Downloads, Music, Pictures, Videos, one drive offline and the Roaming folder where many programs store application data. You can choose to include or exclude these files in option settings per your need.

How to Restore Files from File History

Once File History is enabled, you can access older versions of a file by right-clicking on it in File Explorer, and then select Properties. In the new window that opens, select the Previous Versions for quick access to archival versions of your file.

You can also access these archived personal files by selecting Update & security > Backup > More options >  Restore files from a current backup.

This interface shows different versions of files that are available. Click the arrow to navigate through time periods. Browse and select any of these files and click to preview the contents. Hit the green button to restore the file of your chosen version back to your computer.