Windows 8 History Vault – Evolution of Backup Options

A new feature introduced with the advent of Windows 8 will seamlessly backup important files to an external location.

Recently leaked screenshots from the next major iteration of the Windows client reveal History Vault, a new item on the Control Panel list of tools.

There is little information on History Vault at this point in time, and certainly no official confirmation from Microsoft of this, or any new feature, for that matter.

However, one screenshot (via CNBeta) does offer some detail related to the evolution of backup options in the successor of Windows 8.

It appears that History Vault is a new way for users to backup important files. Windows 7 already sports a feature dubbed Shadow Copy, designed to provide copies of files so that users can easily revert certain items to a previous version.

However, after reading the History Vault’s description, I can really say whether it’s connected to Shadow Copy or not.

“Protect your data by creating copies of your important files,” reads an excerpt of the official description.

“History Vault helps protect your files against accidents that could cause data loss. If an external disk or network attacked storage is used, it can even protect your files against disk or entire PC failure.”

I sincerely don’t get the limitations implied in this description. Why not let users seamlessly backup their important files in Windows SkyDrive / Windows Azure?

Microsoft keeps touting the integration between Windows Live and Windows, and if you ask me, this would be an excellent opportunity to start blurring the line between the client and the Cloud.

Users can be restricted to the storage limit of SkyDrive, so only essential files will be backed up, but it’s still more than what’s available today from Windows.