How to Restore Previous Version of a File in Windows 10

Updated on Nov 11, 2023 | by Jeremy

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Solution 1: How to Restore Previous Version of a File in Windows 10 with File History
Solution 2: How to Restore Previous Version of a File via Restore Point
Solution 3: How to Restore Previous versions of files on Windows 10 in File Explorer
Solution 4: How to Recover Files If no Previous Versions are Found
Step by Step Guide for How to Recover Lost or Deleted Files in Windows 10

Do you want to know how to restore previous version of files? Here are 3 ways for how to restore previous version of a file in Windows 10. You can check out and try them. If you still can't find the old version, try Deep Data Recovery to recover the files.

If you are trying to recover a previous version of a file in Windows 10, there are few possible ways for you. One of them is using the "Restore Previous Versions" on Windows and another one is to use some third-party software. The chances to recover old versions of some files are different. Sometimes we can just do it pressing "Ctrl+Z" together to undo changes which have been made. So you can go back to the earlier modified version of the documents.

However, this method will not work for many users. Because the files and folders that need to be restored are not the versions being changed, that may be the ones which have been saved a few days ago or even a few weeks ago. So, the question is how to restore previous versions of a file and folder effectively? Read on to follow the guidelines and learn.

Solution 1: How to Restore Previous Version of a File in Windows 10 with File History

File History was first introduced in Windows 8 and has been improved in Windows 10. You can use File History (if turned on) to automatically back up versions of your files on a schedule to a location you select to save to. You can select to save backups to an internal hard drive, externally connected drive (ex: USB drive), or you can save to a drive on a network. You can add, remove, and exclude folders to be backed up by File History.

Step 1: Open File History and Restore Previous File Version from File Explorer.
Step 2: In File Explorer (Win+E), browse and select a file or folder, for which you want to restore previous version.
Step 3: Click on the Home tab, click on the History button in the ribbon, you may use the right and left blue arrows now at the bottom to browse through different versions of your files and folders, and then choose what you wanted to restore. Click/tap on the green Restore button at the bottom.
Step 4: Click on the green Restore button to restore previous versions of files in Windows 10 or another OS.

If prompted, there will be an option to replace the file in the destination. Click on this and the files will be replaced. File Explorer will be opened directly to the location you had selected to restore your files.

Solution 2: How to Restore Previous Version of a File via Restore Point

Restore points work exactly as the backup of local disk's files of windows. If you have to reverse the changes you have made to some of the folders or files, you may restore previous version of files. In this way, you can easily recover deleted files without using any file recovery software. But there is a drawback which is you need to create Restore Points regularly such that the recovery would always be possible. You do not have to restore all the files on the drive to the Restore point even though it is available as an option. You can recover only the files and folders which you want or which you need. Steps to restore files from a previous version.

Step 1: Open the location from where you have deleted your files or subfolder. Right-click on that particular folder and go to its Properties.
Step 2: When the new window opens, check available options for the previous versions. Click on Open to preview, and click Restore to recover.
Step 3: Click at the Restore on the new window to confirm and proceed further.
Step 4: And at the end, check those files which have been recovered and subfolders in the original folder.

Solution 3: How to Restore Previous versions of files on Windows 10 in File Explorer

In Windows 10, this feature is going to utilize the Shadow copy service for getting a previous version when it will be requested by the user. When System Restore would be enabled, you can use it as the source for a previous version of a file too. In addition, the OS will be able to utilize Windows Backup or file history, the built-in backup solution first developed in Windows 7 and improved in Windows 10. To restore previous versions of files in Windows 10, you need to follow these steps.

Step 1: Open File Explorer. Go through the file or folder whose previous version you want to restore. Just for the demonstration, I will run these programs on my Desktop folder located at C:\Users\Winaero\Desktop, in this article.
Step 2: Right-click the folder and select Previous Versions from the context menu.

restore previous versions of files windows 10

Step 3: In the "File versions" list below, you need to choose an option which version you want to restore. Click the "Open" button and you will able to see the contents.
Step 4: To restore the previous version of files quickly, go to the page shown below. You will be prompted to overwrite the previous version of files that existed before if it exists in the same location.

Just click on the restore button and you are done with this. You will get your file or folders back to the original location from where it has been deleted.

Solution 4: How to Recover Files If no Previous Versions are Found

If previous versions are indicating that there are no previous versions available, then you cannot use the mentioned above. Now you need to do something that will definitely work with ease. You need to use third-party tools such as Deep Data Recovery. This is the most trustable and recommended tool that is used by many users around the world. It can help you to quickly scan and restore the previous version of a file It also restores deleted and lost files. In this part of the article, we'll tell you details of this software and give you the reason why it is considered as the best software to do the recovery. Just look at its features and easy steps below.

Your Safe & Effective Windows File Recovery Tool

It helps you to completely recover the previous version of files from hard disk/partition RAW drive, USB drive, SD card, external hard drive, etc.
We can also do Formatted Drive Recovery, RAW Drive Recovery, and much more.
You can use it to recover shift deleted photos, music files, videos, documents in Windows 10/8/7/XP.

You can click this download link to get Windows File Recovery Tool now!!!

Step by Step Guide for How to Recover Lost or Deleted Files in Windows 10

Step 1: After launching Deep Data recovery, select the category of the file which you want to recover. Click the Start button to start the restoring process after selecting the file types. You could also check "All File Types".

Step 2: Choose a location where you want to find data, and then click on Scan. The program will scan only that particular space. if the lost previous versions of files in the desktop, documents, libraries, favorites. please select the system drive.

Step 3: After scanning is complete, you will find the lost files displayed on the screen. If some lost files are found, choose, and preview the files. Then click on Restore to restore previous versions of the files.

If you have read this full article, you must have got the idea about how to restore previous version of a file. But still, you might have wondered which one is the best method of all, so the answer is very simple. Using the first three methods or tool, you can restore only those files which are still present in your hard disk but they are hidden in such a way that you cannot restore them directly. But using Deep Data Recovery we can restore even those files for which no previous versions are available. And apart from this, there are many other advantages of using Deep Data Recovery. So, without any doubt, we will highly recommend using it to restore previous versions of files in windows 10.

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