How to use File History in Windows 10

Windows 10's File History is an easy way to get started with backing up your personal files. The feature takes snapshots of versions of your files and stores them on an external hard drive. Over time, you build up a library of past versions that you can recover if need be.

For example: You really liked a sentence from the first version of a document, but you deleted it long ago and are now battling with regret. You can dip into File History, retrieve the right version of your document, and copy the sentence.

In Windows 10, you can still get at File History from the Control Panel, but there's also an easier way via the Settings app. To access this version, open the Settings app and go to Update & Security > Backup.

Nobody likes to think about it too much, but backing up your data is an essential part of owning any Windows computer. Since Windows 7, Microsoft has offered a relatively easy backup solution called File History that grabs a copy of any recently modified files every hour (or more frequently if you’d like) and stores them in an external drive connected to your PC. It’s an easy way to make sure your essential documents are backed up.

Then if you ever need to recover a file or set of files File History gives you quick access to them. You can even use File History to gain access to a file as it looked at a specific point in time such as two weeks or a month earlier.

 

Important! File History doesn’t do a complete backup of your PC including system files. Instead, it watches the data in your user account such as your documents, photos, and video folders. Nevertheless, if you have a Windows 10 PC and aren’t backing up yet, I’d highly recommend setting up File History.

Here’s How to use File History in Windows 10

 

Before you do anything make sure you have an external hard drive connected to your PC. How big that external hard drive needs to be depends on how many files you have on your PC. With hard drive prices so cheap these days it’s easiest to use a drive with at least 500GB. That way you can keep several backups of your files and access multiple past versions of items that change frequently.

Activating File History

File History in Windows 10 begins in the Settings app.

Click the Start menu, open the Settings app, and then click Update & Security. On the next screen in the left-hand navigation panel click Backup. Next, in the main viewing area of the Settings app click Add a drive under the heading “Back up using File History” as pictured here.

Click that and a panel will pop-up showing all the drives connected to your PC.  Choose the one you want to use for File History and you’re done. Now under the File History heading you should see an activated slider button labeled “Automatically back up my files."

It's that easy

You can customize File History.

If all you want to do is create a backup solution and never think about it again, then you’re done. Just keep your external drive connected to your PC, or plug it in every so often, and you’ll get a backup of all your personal files.
For those who want a little more control, however, click More options under the File History heading as pictured here.

Customizing File History

You can customize which folders you backup with File History.

On the next screen you’ll see your various backup options. At the top are options for how frequently (or not) you want File History to save a new copy of your files. The default is every hour, but you can set it to happen every 10 minutes or as infrequently as once a day.

There’s also an option for determining how long you want to keep your File History backups. The default setting is to keep them “Forever,” but if you want to save space in your external hard drive you can have your backups deleted every month, every two years, or when space is needed to make room for new backups.

Scroll down further, and you’ll see a list of all the folders File History backs up. If you want to remove any of these folders click once on them and then click Remove.

To add a folder click the Add a folder button just below the "Back up these folders" heading.

Lastly, there’s an option to exclude specific folders in case you want to be sure that File History never saves data from a specific folder on your PC.

Those are the basics for using File History. If you every want to stop using File History scroll down to the very bottom of the backup options screen and under the heading “Back up to a different drive” click Stop using drive.