What is Previous Version Feature?
In the Vista architecture, Microsoft has introduced a new service called “Volume Shadow Service”. But in Vista, this service was not available in each editions. But Windows 7 has enriched with the Volume Shadow Service in each edition. The Previous Version Feature is a part of the Volume shadow service.
By this service Windows creates a restore point which helps you effectively to roll back the changes. Generally Shadow copy service keeps a copy of the files once a day especially when some new programs or updates are installed.
How to use Previous Version Feature?
This feature is easy to use. You can get it from the context menu of Windows explorer. Just right click on any file or folder in the Windows explorer and chose the “Restore previous version” option.
Suppose you’ve deleted a file from the folder “College Doc”. To get back the copy before deleting, just browse the folder from the explorer and right click on it, then chose “Restore previous version”. This feature is only available for files and folder. You can’t apply this for any driver or library.
You can see the available version of the folder “College doc” in the above dialogue box. You can chose any of the versions. Now you can chose any of the options Open , Copy or Restore.
If you chose the option “Open” then you can see the content of the folder at the time, specified in the list. You can also copy the whole content of the folder in your desired location. If you chose the “Restore” option then the current content will be replaced by the previous one.
How to activate the Previous Version Settings?
You can enable or change the settings of this option for the different drives. To do so, go to Control Panel > System and Security > System. Click on “System protection” from the left pane.
Under “System protection” tab in the systemproperties dialogue box, select the drive for which you want to enable or change the settings and click on the “Configure” button.
Now chose the option “Restore system settings and previous version of files”. You can also chose the option “Only restore the previous version of files”.
No doubt this feature makes your operating system more reliable.
