How to retrieve old copies of files- Ultimate style
From time to time Vista creates ‘snapshot’ copies of your files with a service called “Shadow Copy”. This allows you to retrieve older versions from files you accidentally delete or alter.
To go back to a prior version of your file/document, you simply right-click on the file and select “Restore previous versions”.
Using the Shadow Copy service is a far easier way to recover your files than opening a backup you’ve made, and can get you out of some nasty jams. (For more on recovering deleted files, click here.)
Shadow Copy is enabled on all versions of Vista, but Microsoft grants user access to these copies only in Ultimate, Business, and Enterprise editions. (Clearly as a method to try to sell more copies of the pricier Ultimate Edition. Shame on you Microsoft; backup and recovery should be free.)
Tip of the day: Users of the “Home” editions of Vista can use Shadow Copy too.
The odds are pretty durned good that if you bought a new computer, and it came with Vista, it came with Vista Home Premium. I say that because if you walk into a store selling computers, I dare you to find the one that has Ultimate Edition on it. It seems to me that they all come with Home Premium!
Remember how I said Shadow Copy was “enabled” on all versions? Yes? Well, for owners of Vista Home Premium and Vista Home Basic, the service is running, but you need a way to “interface” with it (sometimes called a “front end”). To do that, download and install ShadowExplorer, and gain some of Ultimate Edition’s functionality. This cool piece of software is free, but donations are accepted.
Today’s free link: People who are using Windows 2000 or XP can get an almost identical file functionality with FileHamster from Mogware. This program is designed for people whose talents lie in the Creative Arts, so you don’t ave to be a geek to use it. There’s helpful user forums, too.
Please note: This ability is by no means a substitute for regular system backups. This is for small “oopsies”, not recovery/restoration.
Copyright 2007-8 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved.
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• About Tech Paul
I am a Retired computer & network technician. I used to think the machines were pretty cool. Now I don’t.
They’re anything but.
I regularly posted how-to’s and tricks & tips and general computing advice here starting in 2007. (Use the Search tool to find answers. But be aware, many are rather dated.) Sometimes I answered (your) specific questions in an article if I believed the answer was generally helpful to “everyone”. All the writing you see was my own, typos and all. There always is/was an implied “IMHO” in what you see here.
Note: You are responsible for using this blog and its content. I am in no way liable for any losses caused by user error, viruses and/or other malware, hardware or software failure, or any other conceivable reason.
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Tech - for Everyone 
Hey Paul,
Great post. Thanks for the download link for FileHamster – I’ve been looking for something like this for a long time.
BM
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thanks for the info. worked great the only problem was the last update was in the morning and the whole fiasco went down in the afternoon.
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hi, thanks for sharing.
is there any way to do this in ubuntu os
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ilham,
The place (repeat: the place) to learn and ask questions about the (most popular) Linux distro – Ubuntu – is the Ubuntu community forums.
A search there pointed me to something called TimeVault… which appears to be what you want. But I don’t know for sure if it is an exact clone of VSS, as I don’t use any Linux. It isn’t user friendly enough for me, and I’m a tech who has been computing since the early days…
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