Windows 10

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Configure File History

The File History feature protects your data by backing it up periodically to a local or network drive. You can easily recover files that have been accidently deleted or modified, in a simple and user-friendly method. When it's enabled, File History automatically creates a backup on an hourly schedule, but this can be modified. As long as the backup destination location does not become full, File History continues to store changes made to your data indefinitely.

Configuring File History

File History was introduced in Windows 8; the current version has an enhanced user interface and new improvements and is the recommended backup solution that Windows 10 offers.

To turn on File History for the first time, follow these steps.

1. Open Settings, click Update & Security, and select Backup.
2. Click the Plus (+) icon labeled Add A Drive.
   File History searches for available drives.
3. In the Select A Drive dialog box, select the external or local hard drive that you want to use for File History.
4. On the Back Up Using File History page, verify that the Automatically Back Up My Files toggle is On.
   When it's enabled, File History saves copies of your files for the first time. This is a background operation, and you can continue to work normally while it completes.

File History saves the files from your user profile and all the folders located in your libraries, including data synced to your device from your OneDrive. You can modify what is saved by including or excluding folders. To manage the folders File History monitors, perform the following steps.

1. Open Settings, click Update & Security, and select Backup.
2. Click More Options.
3. In the Backup Options page, click Add A Folder.
4. Select the folder that you want to be backed up and click Choose This Folder.
5. Ensure that the folder appears in the list of folders under Back Up These Folders.
6. If you scroll down to the bottom of the screen, you can also use Exclude These Folders to remove folders explicitly from File History.
7. Close the Backup Options page.

Some advanced settings are available in File History. Some of these can be configured through the Settings app or from the Advanced Settings link in File History in Control Panel. For example, you can configure the following.

• Modify the frequency of how often File History saves copies of files from every 10 minutes to daily.
• Share the backup drive to other HomeGroup members.
• Open File History event logs to view recent events or errors.
• Define the length of time to keep saved versions of your files.
• Manually clean up older versions of files and folders contained in the backup to recover space on the backup drive.

Tip
For the exam, it might be useful to know that the FhManagew.exe command-line tool enables you to delete file versions based on their age stored on the File History target device from the command line, such as: FhManagew.exe -cleanup 180.

Recovering Files by using File History

After it's enabled, File History monitors the files and folders you choose and backs them up to your backup storage. If you need to restore a folder or files that have been deleted, you can begin a restore operation by launching File History file recovery in several ways, including the following.

• History icon: Open File Explorer and navigate to the folder that contains a modified or deleted file and then click History on the Home ribbon. The File History page opens, and you can view the recoverable files at this location.
• Restore Personal Files: Open File History in Control Panel and select the Restore Personal Files link on the left side. This screen displays all recoverable items.
• Restore Files From A Current Backup: The Restore Files From A Current Backup link is at the bottom of the Backup Options page in the Settings app.

When the File History page is in view, you can navigate through each restore point by using the arrow buttons at the bottom of the screen.

Note: File History Backup Location
You can easily navigate to the backup files that File History creates. They are stored on the backup drive in a logical folder hierarchy. The files backed up are found at E:\FileHistory\Andrew\DESKTOP\Data\C\Users\Andrew\Documents\ HomeWorking\Training Materials.

In the upper-right corner of the File History screen is a cog icon that displays links relating to the restore operation, view options, File History setup, and Help. The Restore To option enables you to select another location on your hard disk to restore the file.

If you experience a hard-drive failure, you can use the File History backup contained on your external hard disk to recover the most recent versions of all your files to your new system by following these steps.

1. On your new system, connect your external hard disk.
2. Launch File History in Control Panel.
3. On the Keep History Of Your Files page, allow Windows to complete the search and display the existing backup drive.
4. Ensure that I Want To Use A Previous Backup On This File History Drive is selected.
5. Select the previous File History backup from the list retrieved from the drive that contains your previous File History backups.
6. Click Turn On.
   File History is now active.
7. Restore your files and folders by using the Restore Personal Files link.

Enterprise considerations for using File History

In an enterprise environment, you might configure File History to use removable USB drives for staff members who work away from the office. Removable drives containing data backups should to be secured.

File History supports backing up files that are encrypted using Encrypting File System (EFS) if you use Windows 10 Pro, Education, or Enterprise. The removable USB drive must be formatted with NTFS to allow either File History or EFS.

If you have Windows 10 Pro, Education, or Enterprise, you can use BitLocker Drive Encryption to protect your data on your PC, but this will not protect the backed-up files stored externally. If you want to use BitLocker technology to protect data stored on a portable drive, consider enabling BitLocker To Go on the removable drive, which will protect the contents.

If you want to disable File History from use on a device, you can configure the Group Policy Object (GPO) relating to File History located at Computer Configuration \Administrative Templates\Windows Components\File History\ Turn Off File History. When enabled, users can't turn on File History.