Windows 8 to Get Time Machine-like History Vault

By Marcus Yam
published

Windows 8 could make backups easy.

Keeping a backup of your data is a hugely important rule to almost all sorts of computing. While cloud computing through something like Chrome OS helps take care of that for casual applications, until everything is cloud-based users will need to take care of things for themselves.

According to winrumors, a new feature that might make it into Windows 8 is something that will potentially be called History Vault. The new feature will supposedly make use of the Shadow Copies that Windows makes when files are modified.

History Vault could end up working much like Apple's Time Machine feature for Mac OS X, which keeps a record of all files added, deleted and modified. Users of Time Machine can browse back to see a file's history and restore it to the present system state. Time Machine also keeps a complete copy of the system for full backup and migration purposes.

It's a handy feature for Mac users, and something like it would be a great addition to Windows.

Discuss more about this and other Windows 8 features here!

Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam served as Tom's Hardware News Director during 2008-2014. He entered tech media in the late 90s and fondly remembers the days when an overclocked Celeron 300A and Voodoo2 SLI comprised a gaming rig with the ultimate street cred.
71 Comments Comment from the forums
  • pelov
    are we talking phone booth or something along the lines of a wormhole?
    Reply
  • bison88
    Sounds good and a long time in the making. I know MS would rather be the "innovator" rather than the replicator, but it doesn't help anybody when they ignore great ideas and features in competing OSes just because they didn't think of it and get it implemented first.
    Reply
  • ProDigit10
    Great, again a space waster on windows!
    If they could keep the modifications safe, that would be a huge difference, eg: of a certain text file, only keep the data that was modified, and where it goes. Then compress that data.

    I'm not too fond of having a WIndows 8, taking up 6GB of disk space, and an additional 14GB of data that can only expand, take CPU and HD cycles!

    Man,are the good guys at MS gone, and now there are only gadget geeks doing the programming?

    "Less is more" does not seem to count with MS.
    They're only satisfied by bringing an OS that no system can run due to it's complexity, and stuff people really don't need!

    I don't call this innovation, I call this degeneration!
    Reply
  • To be fair to Microsoft, it will have to be very good and reliable before it replaces Acronis as my First Choice!
    Reply
  • someguynamedmatt
    ...Sorry, MS, but Windows 7 is the most resource-intensive OS that I ever plan on using. Don't get me wrong - It's been rock solid and everything that came with it I've used at one time or another - but now, you're just getting into the realm of bloatware and packing in extra junk just because you can. Don't do it.
    Reply
  • joytech22
    Keeping a backup of your date
    Haha I think he means data

    To be honest anything that sucks up hard drive space like that feature would is just not worth the space.
    Reply
  • cheepstuff
    ProDigit10Great, again a space waster on windows!If they could keep the modifications safe, that would be a huge difference, eg: of a certain text file, only keep the data that was modified, and where it goes. Then compress that data.I'm not too fond of having a WIndows 8, taking up 6GB of disk space, and an additional 14GB of data that can only expand, take CPU and HD cycles!Man,are the good guys at MS gone, and now there are only gadget geeks doing the programming?"Less is more" does not seem to count with MS.They're only satisfied by bringing an OS that no system can run due to it's complexity, and stuff people really don't need!I don't call this innovation, I call this degeneration!
    You are very worked up about a rumor about a piece of software that does not officially exist that is part of an operating system that is not on the market yet.

    If you look at the source article you can see from the screenshot that:

    Firstly, this is a security feature that you do not have to enable.
    Secondly, if you do choose to enable it, it can save to separate disks and even to remote machines over a network. This means (if the screenshot is accurate) that you don't have to waste space on your own local hard drives.
    Thirdly, stop being so concerned over hard drive space. These days, a high capacity hard drive can break below 10 cents per gigabyte. If it is too expensive for you to pay for a cheap backup drive at rates these days, you shouldn't be able to pay for a new operating system... or internet for that matter.

    This is appears to be innovative, and could an intelligent way to utilize modern memory storage capacities in a way that is helpful to the user. And if it turns out to be crappy, use a magical ONOFF toggle that is available to all of Windows auxiliary services.
    Reply
  • christop
    I don't see people jumping on windows 8. A good bit of people just got 7.
    Reply
  • danwat1234
    With an 8-core computer with each core being the equivalent of a 12GHZ Pentium 4, 8GB+RAM and a fast SSD, you don't have to worry about a bloated O/S slowing you down.. Wait a few years until 16nm Intel chips come out and then get a new PC with uber specs 4 cheap.

    Don't obsess over bloatware. Just crunch through it if you can't remove it.
    Reply
  • memadmax
    After the Vista disaster, Windows 7 makes up for it pretty good. But you still can't pry XP from my cold dead hands. If 8 can finally outperform XP then we'll see.....
    Reply