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Windows 10's smart backups may be going away
When Microsoft introduced File History with Windows 8, cautious PC users were happy: it gave you a Time Machine-style backup that let you recover older files if you made a mistake. You might not get to take that feature for granted, though. Users trying a leaked Windows 10 Insider Preview build have discovered that creating new File History backups is "no longer supported." Provided this change sticks, you might lose the feature by the time the Fall Creators Update hits your PC. We've reached out to Microsoft to see if it can comment, but the find is already raising a question: if File History is going, what (if anything) is replacing it?
Microsoft details Windows 8 File History, takes us through a Time Machine
Microsoft is still determined to explore every nook and cranny of Windows 8 on its way to the newly official October launch, and now it's swinging its attention towards File History, its revamped approach to preserving our data. The new component supplements Windows Backup, which Microsoft admits is "not a very popular" app, and is more than a little transparent in bringing OS X's set-it-and-forget-it Time Machine strategy to the Windows crowd. Not that we're complaining: the same basic philosophy of getting an automatic, version-aware backup of all our personal files is convenient on any platform, especially when we can get a temporary internal safeguard while we're on vacation. The differences in platforms have equal rewards and drawbacks, however. File History provides more control over backups than its Apple counterpart, including frequency (finally!) and backup age, but it can't be used to backup whole apps like with a Time Machine drive. As always with these in-depth Windows 8 explorations, there's much more to see at the source, so click on through if you've ever been worried about deleting a file by accident.
