You can back up and restore files with Windows’ built-in File History tool — but there are key limitations you should know.
When Windows 8 made its public debut in October 2012, one of the new features it introduced to users was called File History. Still available in both Windows 10 and 11, it can help you make sure you never lose an important file. Simply put, File History is a snapshot mechanism for all files that users store in the primary folders or directories associated with their user accounts. Formerly known as Libraries, these folders include Documents, Music, Pictures, Videos, and Desktop. Also included are offline files associated with the user’s OneDrive account. You’ll see some references refer to File History as a backup and restore tool. To some extent, this description is justified. But it’s important to understand that File History backs up only certain files. It cannot, for example, back up entire drives. Nor can File History restore an entire Windows installation. Such coverage comes from whole-system backup and restore tools; see “How to make a Windows 10 or 11 image backup” for details. What File History does is take a snapshot of all files in the aforementioned folders and local OneDrive contents at regular intervals. It provides an interface to review and retrieve previous versions of files from such snapshots. In the sections that follow I explain how to:
To conclude, I’ll also explain differences in coverage and capability between Windows 10 and Windows 11 versions of File History. The good news here is that File History looks and behaves mostly the same across both versions. (For consistency, all screen captures here come from Windows 11, but their Windows 10 counterparts are nearly identical, saving rounded corners on display windows.) The bad news is that Windows 10 offers more snapshot coverage than Windows 11, as I’ll explain at the end of this piece. Read on for the important details involved in turning File History on, so you can put it to work. By default, File History is turned off in both Windows 10 and 11. It can be accessed via either Control Panel or the Settings app. To set up and configure File History, use Control Panel; the Settings entry point is best reserved for snapshot file retrieval and is covered later on. Microsoft recommends, and I concur, that File History works best when it targets an external storage device (such as a USB drive, preferably an SSD or hard disk of 100GB or greater capacity). It’s best to attach the target drive before turning on File History for the first time. Note that if BitLocker is enabled for the primary Windows drive (usually C:), you must also enable BitLocker To Go on external drives upon which you wish to capture encrypted library folders using File History. It’s best to do this before enabling File History as well. In Windows 10, right-click the target drive in File Explorer and click Turn on BitLocker; in Windows 11, right-click the target drive in File Explorer and choose More options > Turn on BitLocker. If BitLocker is not turned on for the C: drive, you can skip this step. Figure 1: To turn File History on, click the Turn on button at the lower right.
