An app designed to protect files in Libraries, Desktop, Favorites, and Contacts folders

Jul 12, 2012 12:16 GMT  ·  By

One of the features that Windows 8 will arrive with when it comes to ensuring integrity of files for users is File History, a backup application designed to continuously protect files in Libraries, Desktop, Favorites, and Contacts folders.

The app can be set to scan these files and save them to another location. It will save any change brought to them to that location as well.

Thus, File History is capable of building a complete history of any changes brought to those files in time, and should enhance the protection of personal files for all users.

According to Bohdan Raciborski, program manager on the Storage team, Microsoft, the new app supersedes the existing Windows Backup and Restore features of Windows 7.

Raciborski explains that the Windows Backup feature is being used by less than five percent of all PC users, and that a better backup feature was needed.

“This leaves user’s personal data and digital memories quite vulnerable as any accident can lead to data loss,” Raciborski notes.

In a recent post on Building Windows 8, he explains that Windows 8 was designed to accomplish more, including:

- Make data protection so easy that any Windows user can turn it on and feel confident that their personal files are protected.

- Eliminate the complexity of setting up and using backup.

- Turn backup into an automatic, silent service that does the hard work of protecting user files in the background without any user interaction.

- Offer a very simple, engaging restore experience that makes finding, previewing and restoring versions of personal files much easier. File History was built by taking into consideration both the past experience and the recent changes in PC users’ needs.

One of the important aspects of today’s computing is that users are increasingly mobile. Thus, File History has been optimized “to better support laptops that constantly transition through power states or are being connected and disconnected from networks and devices.”

Moreover, since users are creating more data than before and are more dependent on it, the new app was designed both to protect what’s present on the drive at the moment, but also what was there in the past.

“When a specific point in time (PiT) version of a file or even an entire folder is needed, you can quickly find it and restore it. The restore application was designed to offer engaging experience optimized for browsing, searching, previewing and restoring files,” Raciborski explains.

To make a better idea of what the new File History application in Windows 8 is all about, have a look at the aforementioned blog post on Building Windows 8.

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