RELATED: How to Back Up Your Mac and Restore Files With Time Machine You’ll see a list of previous versions of the file, and you can click “Browse All Versions” to flip through them. Open the file you want to view a previous version of in that applicaiton, click the File menu, and point to Revert To. For example, it works in the included TextEdit and Preview applications. This includes text editors, office applications, image editors, and so on. The first is “Versions,” which works in applications specifically designed for it.

Former Windows 7 users might have a rude awakening if they expect Windows to automatically back up previous versions of files - it won’t, by default. As File History isn’t enabled by default, this means you can’t restore previous versions of files unless you’ve gone out of your way to set it up. You’ll be able to restore previous versions of them by right-clicking a file, pointing to Properties, and using the options on the File History tab.Ĭrucially, System Restore no longer keeps backup copies of previous versions of your files. Windows will then back up your files automatically.

Connect an external drive or point Windows at a network drive and set up File History on that location. Check out our overview of various backup features built into Windows to understand how all these different tools compare. The old “Previous Versions” feature was removed, as was Windows Backup. Microsoft changed the way this works in Windows 8 and 8.1. RELATED: 8 Backup Tools Explained for Windows 7 and 8 This means that you should be able to restore previous versions of some files without configuring anything - System Restore will be there for you - but it’ll certainly work better if you also enable Windows Backup. These older versions of files come both from backups created with Windows Backup (if you use that backup system) and the automatic System Restore feature. You’ll see any available previous versions. Just locate a file in Windows Explorer, right-click it, select Properties, and click the Previous Versions tab. On Windows 7, the Previous Versions feature allows you to restore older versions of your existing files. RELATED: Use Windows 7's Previous Versions to Go Back in Time and Save Your Files

Another word for previous version