Windows Vista "Time Warp": Understanding Vista's Backup and Restore Technologies | Charles

troposphere

All I want to know is how to turn VSS off.

The absolute last thing I want is old copies of sensitive files hanging around on my hard disk without my knowledge.

I back up my own files just fine, and only want Vista to keep it's hands to itself.

Charles
Welcome Change

troposphere wrote:

All I want to know is how to turn VSS off.

The absolute last thing I want is old copies of sensitive files hanging around on my hard disk without my knowledge.

I back up my own files just fine, and only want Vista to keep it's hands to itself.

You have full control to turn off Previous Versions. Did you watch the video? The answer lies therein...
C

pilotbob

Ok, I admit I am a little confused. Does this take snapshots are predefined intervals or does it version a file everytime it is saved? So, if I save my document at 10:00 AM... then make a change and save it at 10:10 AM do I get both versions? Or, is that considered one change because it was saved between snapshot intervals?

Also, any chance NTFS will support the recycle bin? It seems at this time (XP) it is a shell feature cause I only get files in the recycle bin if I delete using explorer? But, if I use command line or some other app those files aren't put in the recycle. I would love to see the recycle bin be a file system feature.

THanks,
BOb

Adi Oltean

>>> All I want to know is how to turn VSS off. The absolute last thing I want is old copies of sensitive files hanging around on my hard disk without my knowledge. I back up my own files just fine, and only want Vista to keep it's hands to itself.

Thanks for your feedback. We got similar requests from various users to have a way to mark certain files as "sensitive" and therefore remove them from Recycle Bin or Previous Versions (especially from shadow copies).

Vista (and Windows in general) doesn't have today a way to mark certain files as "sensitive".

What you can do to prevent sensitive files on a shadow copy/previous versions - one of the following solutions:
1) Encrypt sensitive files using a special key that yo then obliterate. This is one of the safest methods as it makes sure that these files will be "un-decryptable" moving forward.
2) Turn off System Restore, as Charles mentioned

Adi Oltean

>>> Ok, I admit I am a little confused. Does this take snapshots are predefined intervals or does it version a file everytime it is saved? So, if I save my document at 10:00 AM... then make a change and save it at 10:10 AM do I get both versions? Or, is that considered one change because it was saved between snapshot intervals?

The shadow copies are taken at a predefined interval (daily, at 4:00 AM in the morning). Or if the system is sleeping at that time, then they are taken a few dozen minutes after idle time (but before the system goes to sleep again).

>>> Also, any chance NTFS will support the recycle bin? It seems at this time (XP) it is a shell feature cause I only get files in the recycle bin if I delete using explorer? But, if I use command line or some other app those files aren't put in the recycle. I would love to see the recycle bin be a file system feature.

Correct - Recycle Bin is primarily a Shell feature. However, you can use the Previous Versions feature to retrieve older copies of deleted files, no matter what application deleted them.

Thanks, Adi

Massif
aim stupidly high, expect to fail often.

If I can open a previous version directly, what happens if I try to make changes and save them to that previous version (not the current version.)

Apologies if you answer this in the video, I haven't finished it yet.

ZippyV
Fired Up

From all the negative articles I've read on the internet not one mentioned VSS, so... Congratulations! Wink

About System Restore: In previous versions it would only restore the system and application files but wouldn't touch any documents. Is this still the case? I found it pretty handy that documents weren't touched.

Adi Oltean

>>> If I can open a previous version directly, what happens if I try to make changes and save them to that previous version (not the current version.)

You will not be able to do that - the Previous Versions will appear in explorer as read-only shares, with a special name, like this:

\\localhost\C$\Users\ (‎Today, ‎February ‎27, ‎2007, ‏‎7 hours ago)

Adi Oltean

>>> About System Restore: In previous versions it would only restore the system and application files but wouldn't touch any documents. Is this still the case? I found it pretty handy that documents weren't touched.

That's correct - the user data will not be replaced, only system-related binaries and stuff.