Windows Vista: Shadow Copy and How to Enable It

Most of us have had one of those moments when we accidentally saved a file on top of a different one which we didn’t mean to replace. In less than a second, and before you can do anything to stop it, hours of work disappear at your unintended bidding. Accidental file deletions once was a big problem too, until the Recycle Bin rescued us from ourselves.

Windows Vista rescues us from ourselves, by offering Shadow Copy. Available in most versions of Vista, this feature saves files as you save and edit them. This allows you to quickly and painlessly retrieve files that were accidentally deleted, or revert to the preceding version in cases where you just want to go back a step. Some people may remember *.bak files from yesteryear; this is pretty much the same function with enhancements.

By default, this feature is enabled. While it is possible to disable the feature, be warned that this disables ALL system restore functions, not just the Shadow Copy function for files and folders. Essentially, this is due to the fact that System Restore is accomplished using Volume Shadow Copy, and can’t be enabled without Shadow Copy also being enabled.

While it is not recommended to disable this service, here is how it may be done:

1. Click START
2. Click Control Panel >> System and Maintenance
3. Click on the System menu option.
4. Click on System Protection in the left-hand task list.
5. Check (or Uncheck) the box next to each hard drive listed under “Create restore points automatically on the selected disks”.
6. Click Apply
7. Click OK

System Restore is now enabled/disabled on your computer.

Article written by MyComputerAid.com